Pasadena High School Boys Basketball Varsity Team after the loss By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor It wasn’t a great weekend at Azusa Pacific University if you were a Pasadena-area basketball fan. Pasadena fell behind early by 22 points, and fell, 68-58, Friday night to Harvard-Westlake in a late tip off. Blair started so slow offensively, […]
Pasadena High School Boys Basketball Varsity Team after the loss
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
It wasn’t a great weekend at Azusa Pacific University if you were a Pasadena-area basketball fan.
Pasadena fell behind early by 22 points, and fell, 68-58, Friday night to Harvard-Westlake in a late tip off.
Blair started so slow offensively, that at the half, the Vikings prolific offense had just two players who had scored in the first 16 minutes.
They came up short, 65-54, to West Torrance on Saturday night at APU.
Right after the Vikings left the court, Maranatha came out slow and fell behind, 11-2, to Rancho Verde, a team that had won 15 consecutive games heading into the finals at APU.
The Minutemen, as they had done all season, didn’t stop fighting until the final buzzer, but fell, 43-41.
As disappointed as all three teams, their coaches and fans left APU, each program finished with the fight and fury that had earned them a slot in their sport’s biggest game.
Despite a 22-point deficit, Pasadena got as close as 8 points in the fourth quarter to give Harvard-Westlake some pause.
Bryce Hamilton finished with 30 points and 11 rebounds, Darius Brown II had 13, and Darius Mason finished with 10.
Both the Bulldogs and Wolverines had to deal with the same specifics of the game, but a look to change the time (one week) between the semifinals and title match might be in order.
Pasadena’s tip off in Friday night’s championship game was set for 9 p.m.
That is two hours later than their latest game this season, and a significant part of PHS’ success is the byproduct of a regimented and disciplined schedule.
A start that late (9 p.m.) after a week off from competition would be a challenge on its own.
But it got worse.
The game didn’t actually tip off until approximately 9:45, partly because of the overtime game before it (Brentwood vs Burbank) and CIF pushed it back another 15 minutes or so, because there was a long line of Pasadena fans outside the gym waiting to get in.
The idea was good, since hundreds of PHS students and fans came out to support the Bulldogs.
But the set up at APU left a little to be desired, with limited doors to enter and few ticket takers, which drastically slowed the process.
The argument for Pasadena’s slow start, which no one at the school is using as the deciding factor in the game is pretty sound.
The Bulldogs’ players were at school all day, got to APU, waited around, warmed up twice, had to sit around and wait (for fans to be let in) and then finally tipped off at a time that would normally be about 25 minutes after they finished most games.
By the time the players and coaches had met with the media and family, they left the gym at or after midnight.
Blair High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team
** Blair was arguably the most drastic response to the 8 days between their semifinal win at Woodcrest Christian and Saturday’s match up with West Torrance.
The Vikings aren’t real big, they aren’t real flashy, but they are that ultimate ‘team ball’ kind of unit, who thrive off one another.
They were the only of the three Pasadena schools that had 6 players that averaged at or above double figures in points.
Blair’s players not only fought off the flu for most of the week, they also were forced to try and recover from a rust that comes from 8 days off.
At half time, they had just two players with points, which was something that hadn’t happened all year.
Their most ‘pure’ shooter, Jack Dakan, missed clearly on his first few shots before making a pair of 3-point baskets in the second half.
Aside from the scoring difficulties, Blair was on the wrong end of a foul discrepancy.
Throughout the first three quarters, the Vikings held a 2-to-1 disadvantage on fouls against them.
But Blair coach Alon Margalit made it clear that while they weren’t always thrilled with calls, the thing that beat the Vikings was their own poor shooting.
“We would have needed our A-game to beat West Torrance and we weren’t close to that tonight.”
Maranatha High School Boys Basketball Varsity Team. Photo courtesy Maranatha High School
** Maranatha not only had the same 8-day wait that Blair had, but they also were ‘victims’ of playing physical basketball.
Their two biggest players combined for 9 fouls in limited minutes.
Two-sport star Terrance Lang, who is a beast at 6-foot-7 and 260 pounds, fouled out in just 14 minutes.
Lang led the Minutemen in rebounds, despite spending most of the game on the bench in foul trouble.
As his coach put it: “they saw players bounce off him, and I’m not sure they were even looking for a foul,” coach Tim Tucker said late Saturday night in the APU locker room.
In no way did Tucker blame the referees for the outcome, but he did feel his team was not allowed to play a physical kind of basketball that had led the Minutemen to three consecutive upset victories, and a finals appearance against a team on a 15-game win streak.
Jesse Elrod, a 6-foot-8 senior forward was also in the scrum for loose balls and physical play in the paint, but he too saw his aggression end too many times with a whistle. and was limited in his minutes.
Elrod finished with 4 points.
Chris Austin led Maranatha with 16 points, including several shots late to get the Minutemen in striking distance of Rancho Verde.
Trailing 42-38, Austin took an inbounds pass the length of the court and down to the 3-point line, pulled up and sunk a 3-point basket to get Maranatha to within 42-41.
Maranatha was forced to foul immediately, and with 2.8 seconds left in the game and on the opposite end of the floor, Austin’s final heave really never had a chance, and the Minutemen fell in a similar fashion that they had won their past three postseason games.
Senior point guard Sean Espinosa was one of the smallest players on the court, but his command in running a near-championship offense was impressive to many.
All three teams left devastated, and while none of these programs wanted to lay blame on anyone but themselves, there were factors that played roles in their downfall.
Te great news, though, for the Vikings, Bulldogs and Minutemen is that all three received CIF State berths’ and each will see their season’s extended on Wednesday night.
Pasadena got a really tough bracket, considering they won the Pacific League without a loss (14-0), and made it to the CIF-SS Division 1-A title game on a southern-section best 19 game win streak.
The Bulldogs (24-6) somehow fell to a 13 seed and will travel to Northridge to take on Heritage Christian (20-9) at 7:30.
Maranatha (18-10) got a 7 seed, but the Minutemen do get a home game Wednesday.
They will host Bakersfield (21-11) at 7:30.
Blair (24-7) received an 8 seed, and will host Palisades on Wednesday at 7:30.
The Vikings are in the CIF State Division 4 bracket and with a win on Wednesday, they would likely need to travel to No. 1 seed Burbank.
If you’re a Pasadena basketball fan, there is reason to come out on Wednesday.
It’s potentially your last chance to see senior stars Sean Espinosa, Jesse Elrod and Terrance Lang of Maranatha.
As well as Blair seniors Jack Dakan, Jordan Hall, Gabe Snow and Caleb Smith.
But the most reassuring thought for all three programs is that each school returns its leading scorer from this season.
Austin will be back for Maranatha, Washington for Blair and Hamilton, Brown II, and Mason all return for the Bulldogs.
To view the CIF State brackets, please go to this link:
http://www.cifstate.org/sports/basketball/B_brkts_2017/index
