westchester v. la

SoCal High School & Prep Report

City Section Games: Friday's
Westchester v. LA Game--(February 1, 1998)

This one was billed as the LA Times' "Game of the Week". So was it? Well, maybe, maybe not. But Westchester proved that it's probably not going to be challenged for the City Championship by their cross-town league rival LA, as the Comets defeated the Romans 87-70 before a packed crowd at LA High. This game would have been even better attended had the schools not decided at the last minute to reschedule it from 7:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Oh well, can't have everything.

According to Gary Klein of the LA Times, who covered this game, it was important for several reasons, including demonstrating that "Westchester can play defense", even as Leroy Watson went nuts with his three pointers, and Deon "Popey" Green (6'-4" Sr. F) also scored from just about everywhere and anywhere he wanted to.

And even after LA cam with in 72-65 with 4:30 left, Westchester proved it could still play great defense by grabbing several loose balls, forcing turnovers, and applying tremendous pressure and help-defense, including getting great play from Chris Osborne (6'-8" Jr. F) who had 13 points, showed great post moves and rebounded and defended aggressively without fouling.

But the real show, even though Westchester won was Deon "Popeye" Green, who hit for an incredible 41 points with an effort that literally kept his team in the game.

Westchester is now 19-3 overall, and each of those losses has come to very highly regarded teams, including a loss to Rice of New York at the Vegas Reebok tourney, and a loss to Dominguez in the MLK at Pauley. But against Dominguez, however according to Klein's LA Times report, Westchester forward Tony Bland was still nursing a leg injury; but against LA, the Syracuse-bound senior was back to full strength and he scored the Comets' first 11 points on three consecutive three-point shots and a layup off an assist from Brandon Granville. Teammate Albert Miller added two baskets before Bland made a short jump shot from the left side to give Westchester a 17-11 lead. Bland finished with 21 points.

The Comets led, 51-37, at halftime and, 68-57, at the end of the third quarter, while L.A. High guard Leroy Dawson struggled to find his shot. Dawson, a junior, made seven three-pointers and scored 31 points last Friday in a victory over then 17-2 Manual Arts. He had 20 points against Westchester, but misfired on open shots in the first half and was pressured into hurried shots by Westchester guards throughout the second.

Dawson did score the Romans' first five points of the fourth quarter, and Green added two free throws to pull L.A. High to within 72-65 with 4:30 left. But after a timeout, Westchester's Miller scored two of his 21 points off a steal, and Osborne converted another Comet steal into a basket to push the lead back to 11 points.

Great game, great crowd, great teams. Looks like perhaps only Crenshaw can challenge Westchester this year. But with a little more than a month left to play, it's getting close to playoff time. In fact, Westchester will play Venice twice more, Fairfax once more, and LA again in the remaining five games in league play. We'll be watching and giving you the scores and results as we move toward the playoffs.