Pali High Hoops Teams Fall to King/Drew

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Last Friday night’s basketball doubleheader at King/Drew Magnet High School in Los Angeles generated loads of excitement and an enthusiastic crowd for the boys and girls City Open Division quarterfinals.

By the end of the night, February 9, Palisades Charter High School’s City title hopes were over, but not their season.

The girls game was first, and early on, the host Golden Eagles jumped out to an 8-3 lead. The fifth-seeded Dolphins (17-12) trailed 17-12 at the end of the first quarter but cut their deficit to 21-19 with 2:05 left in the first half.

Fourth-seeded King/Drew (18-7) closed the second quarter on a 7-0 spurt, capped by Kaitlin Johnson’s three-pointer at the buzzer, to carry a 28-19 lead into intermission.

The Coliseum League champions led by 10 after three quarters, and though the Dolphins got to within four points twice in the final eight minutes, they could not creep any closer and lost 56-45.

Elly Tierney led the Dolphins with 18 points, Ayla Teegardin had seven, Alyssa Ramirez had six. Aniah Bradley and Olivia Lewis each had five points, and Riley Oku had four.

Christiauna Taylor and Alexis Wallace had 14 apiece for the Golden Eagles, who advanced to the semifinals against top-seeded Birmingham at 5 p.m. Saturday, February 17, at El Camino College. Earlier that afternoon, No. 3 Hamilton and No. 2 Westchester meet in the other semifinal after splitting two Western League matchups.

Palisades coach Adam Levine expected a competitive game versus King/Drew, and though he was disappointed with the result, he was not disappointed with his team’s effort.

“We battled and made it close in the second half,” Levine said. “Two good teams playing hard.”

The second game saw Palisades’ boys grab a 5-0 lead in the first two minutes only to see King/Drew rattle off the next nine. The seventh-seeded Dolphins (11-15) reclaimed the lead, 11-10, but then the second-seeded Golden Eagles (17-11) got hot from long range and began to pull away.

King/Drew closed the first quarter on a 9-0 run and widened the margin to 32-16 by the midway mark of the second quarter. The home team took a 43-24 lead into halftime thanks to back-to-back three-pointers by Josahn Webster (the coach’s son) and Donald Thompson’s twisting layup.

Palisades missed numerous layups in third quarter, and King/Drew continued its three-point barrage, building the lead upon to as many as 30 points. The Dolphins never gave up, narrowing the gap to 16 with two minutes left, but ultimately being eliminated, 77-60. Jayshawn Kibble drained six three-pointers, Webster added five and King/Drew hit 13 in all to total 39 points from beyond the arc.

“The game plan was to make them shoot tough shots, limit them to one shot a possession and attack the basket on offense,” interim coach LeBre Merritt said. “We had some good looks that didn’t fall, we missed some opportunities and when we’re not scoring, sometimes our defensive energy drops. That kind of environment either exposes you or inspires you to rise up. The final score doesn’t reflect how hard we played.”

Jordan Farhadian had 16 to lead the Dolphins. Muhammed Butler and Aten Hassan each added nine, Eli Levi had eight, and Donovan Knighten and Wyatt Junger each had five for Palisades.

Just making the Open Division as one of the top eight teams in the section was remarkable for the Dolphins, who won 10 of their last 13 regular season games to finish second in the Western League after a 1-11 start. Two other teams from the Western League made the Open Division: First-place Westchester, seeded fourth, was upset by No. 5 Chatsworth and third-place LACES (the No. 8 seed) beat No. 1 Cleveland on Friday, February 9. King/Drew, the Coliseum League winner, takes on No. 3 Birmingham in the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, February 17, at El Camino College.

Palisades’ boys and girls squads can now look ahead to the regional playoffs, which start in two weeks at the conclusion of the CIF sectional playoffs. Levine and Merritt do not even know what bracket their teams will be placed in, let alone who they will be playing.

“We’ve gone through this before—having a long break in between City and regionals—so nothing new,” said Merritt, who also assists Levine with the girls team. “The key for the guys is whether this group still believes. There’s still a lot to play for, and practice will show me who has checked out and who wants to keep playing.”