Palisades Hoops Fall to Fairfax

The Palisades High gym was filled to capacity and playoff intensity was in the air Friday night when the Dolphins’ boys basketball team took on defending state champion Fairfax in a Western League showdown. Seeming to sense the magnitude of the matchup, players on both teams gave it their all and in the end Fairfax prevailed, 57-53, dealing the Dolphins their first league defeat of the season. The Lions (12-2 overall, 2-0 in league) jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead in the first quarter and seemed poised to decide the issue quickly. Palisades, however, began to cut into its deficit and outscored Fairfax, 18-8, in the second quarter to take a 27-26 lead at halftime. “We knew they have a lot of size and we knew we had to play good defense all game,” Palisades senior guard Aaron Hawk Harris said. ‘At halftime, Coach said ‘You guys know what to do, you’ve been here before.”’ Led by 6′ 10″ junior center Renardo Sidney Fairfax started to work the ball inside. The Lions outscored Palisades 17-10 in the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter with a six-point lead. The margin grew to 10 points with five minutes left but once again the Dolphins refused to fold. Palisades whittled away most of Fairfax’s lead but couldn’t tie the game up, mainly because the Dolphins went five crucial possessions without a bucket down the stretch. “Our defensive effort was pretty good,” PaliHi Coach James Paleno said. “Holding a high-powered team like that to 57 points, I was happy with that.” What ultimately led to the Dolphins’ demise was their field goal shooting: 16 of 50. Had it made a few more, Palisades likely would’ve pulled off the upset. “We just didn’t execute enough on offense,” Paleno said. “We felt like we had a great chance. That was a winnable game.” Josh Gilmore scored 18 points, Hawk-Harris had 13 and Irvin Kintaudi added nine for the Dolphins. Sidney led Fairfax with 21 points and Chris Solomon added 14. “I could care less how much I score as long as the scoreboard says we won at the end of the game,” Hawk-Harris said. “They are a good team but we played them tough.” Palisades bounced back from Friday’s loss with a 59-49 win at Venice on Monday. Once again, the Dolphins started slow before recovering to take a 30-26 lead into halftime. Palisades maintained its four-point advantage in the third quarter but could not put the pesky Gondoliers away until the final three minutes. Senior forward Irvin Kintaudi led the Dolphins with 20 points, Hawk-Harris had 11 and Aaron Fitts and Shipley each finished with eight. Paleno called it an “ugly win” but added “an ugly win is better than a pretty loss.” Ugly or not, the victory improved Palisades to 18-3 overall and 2-1 in league. “Hey, Venice is a scrappy team,” Paleno said. “They always play us tough so I’m not surprised at the score.” Both teams had trouble keeping their footing on the slippery floor in the Gondos’ gym, leading to a sloppily played game by each squad. Venice (11-9, 2-2) pulled within three points with three and a half minutes to go but Palisades responded with a 6-1 run. Andre Winn and Jordan Borucki each had 10 points to lead Venice, which suffered its fourth straight loss to the Dolphins dating back to the second round of the City Invitational playoffs in 2005-06. Shipley, averaging 7.3 points, 5.8 assists and 4.7 steals per game, let out a sigh of relief afterwards, happy that Palisades won but perhaps feeling it was “too close for comfort.” Lessons can be learned from each and every game and Hawk-Harris, who leads the Dolphins with 15.7 points and 9.2 rebounds, admitted the Venice game was no exception. “I think what we learned here is that we have to stay disciplined at all times,” he said. “When you have a team down you have to put them away. We’re still a little tired from Friday but that’s no excuse. We let them hang around way too long but we came through at the end and that’s what matters.” Palisades hosted University on Wednesday (result undetermined at press time) and travels to Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies on Friday (tip-off at 7 p.m.).