Wolverines get a big victory in Open Division
Landon Lewis is healthy, which helps explain how Studio City Harvard-Westlake is soaring in high school basketball.
He’s grown from 6 feet 2 to 6-7 over four seasons. As a freshman, he was sidelined with bursitis. As a sophomore he had a fractured hip. As a junior he had another fracture. As a senior he’s a star headed to Brown University.
“I’m finally healthy. Got to make the most of it,” he said Friday night after contributing 13 points to help the Wolverines defeat Santa Ana Mater Dei 67-45 in an opening game of the Southern Section Open Division playoffs at Harvard-Westlake.
The first quarter, in which he scored 10 points and had two thunderous dunks, set the tone for a Harvard-Westlake team that had lost to Mater Dei in the Open Division playoffs the last two seasons.
“Any time you beat a storied program like Mater Dei with its coaching and tradition, it’s good,” coach David Rebibo said. “It’s a great moment for our guys because we won an Open Division game, which are hard to come by.”
Said Lewis: “Coach had us locked in with a lot of pent-up energy.”
Harvard-Westlake (22-2) is seeded No. 3 and in the same four-team pool bracket as Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, which opened with an 89-70 win over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
Amari Bailey scored 21 points as his future coach, UCLA’s Mick Cronin, watched from a courtside seat.
On Tuesday, Harvard Westlake will face Notre Dame and Sierra Canyon will play Mater Dei. Then the showdown game that many have waited for, Harvard-Westlake at Sierra Canyon, will take place on Friday night.
Harvard-Westlake will need its guards to play as well as they did against Mater Dei (25-3). Cameron Thrower scored 17 points, Brady Dunlap had 14 points and Trent Perry, Robert Hinton and Dahnte Russell made big shots. Jack McCloskey had 16 points for Mater Dei, the Trinity League champion.
In the other four-team pool, La Verne Damien rallied from a 19-point deficit to secure a 64-59 victory over Irvine Crean Lutheran. Jimmy Oladokun scored 18 points. Top-seeded Corona Centennial (27-1) rolled to a 78-53 win over Torrance Bishop Montgomery and will face Damien on Tuesday.
Jared McCain scored 25 points.
In the City Section, playoff pairings will be announced Saturday and it’s anybody’s guess which team will get the No. 1 seed in the Open Division.
Fairfax made its case by defeating Venice 65-60 in overtime to win the Western League championship. The Lions finish the regular season at 13-6 and 9-0 in league. David Mack scored 19 points and Tyler Bey 18 for the Lions. Venice took second in the Western League.
King/Drew finished 10-0 in the Coliseum League with an 84-43 win over Dorsey in which Kalib LaCount scored 59 points.