city game highlights 205

SoCal High School & Prep Report

LA City Section Game
Details & Highlights--(February 5, 1998)

We've already put up the LA City Section scores this morning, and during the intervening hours, we've managed to collect most of the details from the games played yesterday in CIF City Section, including some details on a couple of teams that we haven't heard from much during the year in the Southern Pacific Conference. Most of these are just brief notes. Where more details are merited, we've broken it out into a separate article. Enjoy.

CITY SECTION

East Valley

Grant 74, North Hollywood 66

North Hollywood threw everything it possibly could into stopping Gilbert Arenas. But Grant's Adir Levy, a senior swingman finally came through, and had the kind of game he was giving intimations he could be having at the beginning of the season. Yesterday, even though Arenas scored about 6 less than his average of 30 points per game, Levy managed to slam NoHo for 23 big points--including five three-point baskets--and helped shut down the Huskies' star, Keron Wilkerson, leading Grant past North Hollywood, 74-66, Wednesday afternoon. The win gave Grant sole possession of first place in the East Valley League.

Arenas did his share, scoring 24 points despite being double-teamed nearly every time he touched the ball. But it was Levy who made most of the big baskets for Grant, which improved to 15-7 overall and 6-1 in East Valley League play. His first three late in the first quarter started a 9-0 run that tied the score at 21-21. He hit another one midway through the second quarter which gave Grant the lead for good at 28-27. And he scored another eight points in a three-minute stretch in the third quarter that pushed the lead to double digits.

This was a great game for Adir, who played last summer on the Team LA Macabbi Boys 15-16 team which won a bronze medal in Seattle at the Maccabi Youth Games held at Bellevue College. Adir had played well at the beginning of the season, but since then had been a streaky shooter and since December following the Thousand Oaks Tournament he had struggled to find consistency. But according to Grant Coach Howie Levine, this was "probably the most complete game he's ever had." Levey missed only two long-range shots yesterday, and shot about 90% from the field. He also played great defense, and held Wilkerson, NoHo's most well publicized player to 19 points.

In a single two-minute stretch in the third quarter, Levy and Arenas played with three reserves--Daniel Tarr, Justin Buttikofer and Hans Hoehn--and still managed to outscore North Hollywood, 9-5. On the other hand, Wilkerson--who averages 25.1 points a game--was able to practice only about 10 minutes this week before the game, fighting off the effects of a bad cold. Even though he did manage to hit for 19, as the game progressed and as the Lancers tried different defenses on him, he became visibly tired, missing his last five shots before Rob Bloom sat him down with three minutes left, and more importantly he didn't score at all in the fourth quarter.

Wilkerson had support from point guard DeJon Lee and forward Chinua Wright. It just wasn't enough. Lee scored 19 points, 12 off three-pointers, and Wright added 11. North Hollywood fell to 15-8, 5-2. Krishna Evans was the third Lancer player to score in double figures with 12. In addition to Keron Wilderson's 19, DeJon Lee added another 19 for the Huskies. Chinnua Wright also scored another 11 for NoHo.

This Friday the Lancers have a chance to avenge their only league loss against Monroe. the game will be played at Grant.

Arenas, who averages 30.5 points, made five of his first six shots. But he had difficulty finding openings in a half-court offense, making three of 12 the rest of the game.

Monroe 75, Conoga Park 64

Monroe, which upset Grant earlier in league play last week, improved again by beating Canoga Park, which dropped to 6-15 and 3-4 in conference play. Monroe's high scorer was Sanchez with 17 points. Ritter had 10 for Monroe while Hall added another 13. Jammie Harris had 22 points and 11 borads for Canoga in the loss, while Aguirre added another 16 for the Hunters. Charles Harper had 11 points.

Mid Valley League

Sylmar 49, Van Nuys 41

George Wrighster scored 15 points for Sylmar (12-9, 5-2) in a Valley Pac-8 Conference game at Van Nuys (1-19, 0-7).

Reseda 68, Poly 65

Engelberth Alvarez scored 30 points, including eight three-pointers, for the Regents (8-13, 3-4) in a Valley Pac-8 Conference victory at Reseda. Ellis Richardson scored 19 points for Poly (9-12, 3-4).

North Valley League

San Fernando 80, Granada Hills 59

Tyrone Purnell had 24 points for the Tigers (20-2, 7-0) in a Northwest Valley Conference game at Granada Hills (8-13, 2-5).

El Camino Real 60, Birmingham 58

Ryan Moss' layup with 10 seconds left gave the Conquistadores (8-11, 3-4) a Northwest Valley Conference victory at El Camino Real. Stanley Fetcher scored 24 points for Birmingham (13-8, 3-4).

West Valley League

Cleveland 59, Kennedy 52

Kent Dennis had 15 points, six steals and six assists for the Cavaliers (15-7, 5-2) in a Northwest Valley Conference victory at Cleveland.

Taft 81, Chatsworth 55

Taft was led by Brandyn Fisher who had 24 points, while Amir Bar-Netzer scored 15 points and had 7 assists and 6 steals, and Boykins also had 15. Harold Shevlin was another Toreadore who had 15 points, and he also had 9 assists, as Taft improved to 12-5 overall and 5-2 in conference. chatsworth was led by McFarland with 16 points, but dropped to 12-9 overall and 3-4 in league.

Southern Pacific Conference

Carson 89, Narbonne 86 (OT)

Robert Jones hit two free throws with 15 seconds left in overtime to seal the win as the Colts (15-8, 5-2) defeated the host Gauchos (3-4).

San Pedro 60, Banning 53

Allen Kordich hit four three-pointers on his way to scoring a gem-high 29 points as the Pirates improved to 10-12 overall and 2-5 in conference play. Banning's Pilots dropped to 3-14 overall and 1-6 in conference play.

Southeastern Conference

South Gate 58, Roosevelt 40

Ronald Johnson pured in 21 points and Earvin Johnson and Danny Corona each scored 11 as the Rams improved to 13-11 overall and 7-5 in conference play.