Facing their first big challenge in Western League play, the Palisades High boys basketball team entered its game against Westchester confident of victory. The last time the Dolphins faced their nemesis on their home court they fell behind 20-0 en route to a 27-point defeat.
However, that was then, this is now and the latest chapter in the rivalry proved far more competitive. Westchester was clinging to a three-point lead entering the fourth quarter last Wednesday but the Dolphins were poised to pull out the victory in front of their fans. Instead, the Comets closed on a 19-9 run to win 58-45 and deal Palisades its first league loss.
“They drained our momentum on the boards,” said Palisades guard Joseph Robinson, who electrified the crowd with his steal and dunk early in the fourth quarter. “We’re definitely closer to them. We played good for 16 minutes but we have to be able to close it out.”
Robinson scored 18 points and Will Johnson added 13 for Palisades, which hasn’t beaten the Comets in over a decade.
“Will [Johnson] needs to be more aggressive,” Palisades head coach Vejas Anaya said. “When he doesn’t shoot we lose.”
Ellis Sallahudin had 18, Evan Council had 12 and Keith Fisher added 11 for the Comets, who led 14-13 after one quarter but trailed 29-28 at halftime. Westchester got in the bonus early in the second half as three Dolphins fouled out.
“I feel like we should’ve won this game but it’s a pride thing — they wanted it more than us,” Palisades point guard Shane Williams said. “We got zero percent of the 50-50 balls, we were missing layups and we got outworked. I’m 100 percent confident we can beat them if we play like we did in the first half.”
The Dolphins were back in their own gym two days later against University, a young team not expected to challenge for the league title. The Wildcats, though, controlled the game early and took a 26-20 lead to halftime.
Palisades made several runs in the second half to close the gap but each time University answered with a run of its own to build the lead back up. Shomari Dunham made a layup off an inbounds pass, then got an offensive rebound and a bucket to pull the Dolphins within 70-65 with 52 seconds left but the Wildcats made their free throws down the stretch to win 77-68.
Nick Brooks scored 19 points, Cushan Allen had 16 and Jude Agbasi added 14 for University.
“There’s great basketball in the LA City Section,” Anaya said. “You can’t give up 75 points in 30 minutes and expect to win.”
Tucker Steil scored 15 points, Robinson had 14 and Johnson added 11 for Palisades, which suffered its second straight home loss to University and dropped to 10-8 overall, 1-2 in league.
His team’s win didn’t change University Coach Steve Ackerman’s opinion of the Dolphins.
“Palisades is one of the top four teams in the City and they have the resume to prove it,” he said. “We’re a very erratic team, but strange things happen in rivalry games like this. We needed this win more than them. They’re going to get a high seed. We’re fighting to get in [the City playoffs]. They’re really dangerous in transition so the idea was to turn it into a grind-it-out type of game.”
— Steve Galluzzo
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