Pali High Boys Fall in Quarters

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Basketball is a team sport but the individual effort of King/Drew Magnet’s Kalib LaCount carried his squad to a 53-49 upset of Palisades last Friday night in the quarterfinals of the City Open Division playoffs.      

The 5-9 senior may be small, but  he hit one big shot after another in the fourth quarter, none bigger than   a pull-up three-pointer—his sixth of the game—to give the Golden Eagles a 46-44 lead with 1:15 left. He finished with 35 points and showed why he leads the City in scoring. He was nine of 10 from the foul line, including a pair of three throws with 5.2 seconds left to clinch it.

Palisades, playing in its first Open Division contest, allowed 24 points through three quarters, but gave up 29 in the final eight minutes and fell 53-49 to a team it had defeated 41-36 on Dec.1 without starters Charlie Moore and Bo Niklas Johansson.

Moore scored 23 points, Avery Lee and Bowdoin Brazell had eight apiece and Zach Haas added six for the fourth-seeded Dolphins (10-9), who still advanced to next week’s state tournament. Donald Thompson scored 10 points for the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles, who met No. 1 Taft in the semifinals Tuesday.

While the boys were warming up in the auxiliary gym, the girls were  engaged in a tougher than expected struggle with Eagle Rock. Demonnie Lagway and Taylor Arnold each scored 14 points and Janelly Portillo had 13 as the third-seeded Dolphins prevailed, 59-47. Jasmine Jones led the sixth-seeded Eagles with 11.     

On Tuesday, Palisades traveled to No. 2 Birmingham with the winner moving on to Saturday night’s final.