Playoff Push

Dolphins Beat LACES to Open Final Round of League

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Six games up, six games down. That was the mantra of Palisades High basketball coach Donzell Hayes heading into last Friday night’s Western League game at Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies.

“Let’s just take them one at a time and see where we are at the end,” he said before tip-off. “If we play the way we’re capable of playing, I like our chances.”

The Dolphins went 3-3 in the first round of league play and got the second round off on the right note, heeding their coach’s words to top the Unicorns 68-57. 

“We knew we couldn’t overlook them,” senior Dylan Griffin said. “No matter what the record says, they’re playing at home so we had to be ready to go. We had good energy to start and kept the intensity up all game.”

Graham Alphson scored 15 of his game-high 25 points in the first half, Sheldon Zanders had 13 points and Anthony Spencer  had 11 to offset LACES’ Caden Crowley (20 points) and Myles  Perkins (15). Palisades raced to a 19-9 lead in the opening eight minutes and widened the margin to 15 points by halftime, 34-19. 

Behind by 21 points going into the fourth quarter, the home team mounted a comeback like Hayes warned about, but in the end it was too little, too late. The  Dolphins won the schools’ first meeting by 18 points on Dec. 9.

Palisades was back in its own gym Monday night to take on reigning City Open Division champion and league frontrunner Fairfax, and before player introductions a moment of silence was observed for retired L.A. Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash Sunday morning. After that, the crowd joined Dolphins players in singing “Happy Birthday” to Hayes’ 10-year-old son Zachary.   

When the game got underway, Palisades matched Fairfax  basket for basket in the first quarter, which ended tied 10-10. Alphson had eight of his team’s 10 points in the first quarter and 14 of the Dolphins’ 22 first-half points, but they trailed by 12 at intermission.

In the third quarter, guard Keith Dinwiddie began to heat up beyond the arc for the Lions. He finished with 27 points, hitting seven 3-pointers, and Justin Gladney added 12 for Fairfax.

Alphson had 23 points and Zanders had nine for Palisades. On Friday the Dolphins will try to avenge their 73-47 defeat at Westchester on Jan. 13.

    Palisades has not beaten Westchester since winning both league meetings in the 1995-96 season. Hayes remembers them vividly for he was a senior at Palisades under then coach James Paleno.

    “We only lost three games that year,” he said. “The last one was in double overtime at Crenshaw in the City semifinals.”