Grant v. Sylmar

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Gilbert Arenas Does it Again: Scores 39
in Win Against Sylmar--(January 17, 1998)

Gilbert Arenas (6'-3" Jr. PG/SG/SF/PF/C) is proving that he's one of the most exciting players in all of SoCal, and that at times, he's also a one man show. Last night, in a Valley Pac-8 Conference victory over Sylmar, 81-75, at Grant, Arenas managed to score 39 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and six steals. Like Ruben Douglas at Bell-Jeff, he is becoming the teams undisputed leader, and at times the only leader, as during the first half of the game, Arenas scored 27 of the Lancers first 35 points. In fact, well into the second quarter, only he and back up center Hans Hoehn were the only Grant players to score.

Sylmar actually managed to jump out to an early first quarter lead, 18-14, but then Arenas just exploded, and Grant (aka Arenas) outscored Sylmar 26-19 in the second quarter, to lead 40-37 at the half. But midway through the second quarter, Arenas just took control of the game, scoring four straight fastbreak baskets, including two dunks, and two assists in a 14-0 run that gave Grant a 37-30 lead. Sylmar tried to close the gap, outscoring Grant in the next minutes 10-3, but it was not enough.

During the second half, Adir Levy managed to heat up, breaking a long dry spell the usually good shooter has been experiencing. Largely because Arenas was being triple and double teamed, that left Adir open, and Levy managed to hit for 16 points, all in the second half. The Spartans tried to guard Arenas straight-up with four different players in the first half, then began double-teaming in the third quarter, which left others, including Levy and Yildiz open.

Sylmar trailed, 58-44, after three quarters but Jacobs kept Sylmar from being blown out by taking over. He scored 21 points in the final quarter and finished with 31. Jacobs took 17 shots in the quarter, including eight three-pointer, making three. "I tried to get us back in it," Jacobs said. "We should have played harder earlier."

Unfortunately for Arenas, one of the other stats he led in was fouls, and he was called for his fifth foul with 3:20 remaining to play in the game, with Grant leading 74-66. At that point in the game, Brandon Jacobs of Sylmar was pretty hot. Grant stumbled a bit, and Sylmar actually came within a single point when Jacobs hit a three-pointer with 1:55 left. But then Sylmar just went cold, and Adir Levy and some pretty good defense from players like Mike Yildiz, Daniel Darr, Krishna Evans and Justin Buttikofer, helped Grant hold on for the win. Also the fact that Sylmar missed all five of its last shots had something to do with the win. Even though Sylmar outscored Grant 31-23 in the fourth quarter, it just wasn't enough to overcome the insurmountable lead which Arenas and Levy had built through the third quarter.

It wasn't just Gil Arenas who collected fouls. This was a very closely called game, and Sylmar was called for 25 fouls and Grant 22. Grant just managed to make more of its free-throws, including a couple of T's which were called on Sylmar.

And in what is becoming somewhat of a tradition at Sylmar, the bench had two technical fouls called on it in the in the third quarter alone, helping the Lancers to a double-digit lead. Recall that this is the same team which walked off the floor during a non-city section tournament this year after their coach, Bort Escoto was called for two technicals and ejected from the game.

For Grant the scoring was Levy 16, Yildiz 8, Arneas 39, Harris 2, Evans 5, Winston 3, Tarr 2, Hoehn 6.

Sylmar's scoring was led by Brandon Jacobs with 31, Dallas Townsend with 12 points and 11 rebounds, George Wrighster 11 points and 10 rebounds, Reed 7, Youman 4, and Washington 6. .

Grant is now 11-6 overall and 2-0 in conference/league play. Sylmar drops to 8-8 and 1-1 in conference play.