Earning Respect One Win at a Time

Pali High Boys Basketball Rallies to Beat El Camino Real for Third Place in El Segundo

Despite finishing third in the perennially tough Western League and reaching the state playoffs last year the Palisades High boys basketball team started the season under the radar.

However, the Dolphins turned some heads last Saturday night after scoring 27 points in the fourth quarter to stun defending City Section Division I champion El Camino Real 59-53 in the third- place game of the El Segundo Tournament.

“We were tenacious on defense and potent on offense,” Pali High head coach Vejas Anaya said. “We scored in many different ways and our conditioning really showed at the end.”

Anaya changed the starting lineup after the previous night’s 62-41 defeat to Southern Section powerhouse Loyola — inserting Shomari Dunham, Ron Artest and Monroe Gordon to play with guards Joe Robinson and Will Johnson and his players responded. Johnson  made four three-point baskets on his way to 20 points and earned All-Tournament honors. George Brown came off the bench to score eight points and pull down eight rebounds.

The Dolphins opened pool play with a 64-46 victory over Crossroads, then routed Lakewood 82-56 behind 20 points and six steals from point guard Shane Williams, 18 points from Robinson and eight points and nine assists from Johnson.

“We’re looking forward to the challenge of playing Loyola — it’s a revenge game for us,” Robinson said before taking on the Cubs, one of the top ranked teams in the Southern Section. “It’s a chance to go up against one of the best guards around [Max Hazzard].”

Loyola ended the Dolphins’ season last winter with an 86-55 victory in the opening round of the state tournament. The rematch was far more competitive, as Palisades pulled to within 11-8 late in the first quarter and opened the second half on a 6-0 run to cut its deficit to 13. Robinson scored 14 points, Johnson had 10 and Brown had 12 rebounds.

“Weren’t intimidate, we were just turning the ball over and weren’t boxing out so they were getting rebounds,” Johnson said. “I like playing teams as good or better than teams in our league.”

“We have a defense-first mentality,” Williams said. “We turn our defense into offense and all of us guards can distribute the ball.”

In Monday’s 49-44 loss to Cantwell-Sacred Heart in the first round of the Beverly Hills Tournament, Artest recorded his first double-double with the Dolphins (12 points, 10 rebounds) and committed only one foul.

Williams scored 16 points, including four three-pointers, and Christian Hodge grabbed eight rebounds for the Dolphins, who fell behind 13-4 in the first quarter and trailed  28-17 at halftime before scoring 19 points to close within four in the final quarter.

“We’ve given some young guys playing time and they’ve responded,” said Anaya, a former Dolphins player who remembers scoring a career-high 30 pts in a double-overtime victory over Hart in the 1996 championship game. “Shane [Williams] was outstanding running the offense and taking charges. We negated their inside game, they just made a few contested threes.”