2009 WAR ON THE FLOOR BOYS HOOPS
ONE DAY EXTRAVAGANZA

SATURDAY JANUARY 24, 2009.
SITE: SANTA MONICA CITY COLLEGE.

THE MATCH-UPS:
ALL GAMES, ONE SITE

SYLMAR VS. CLEVELAND 6:15 P.M.
CAMPBELL HALL VS. MOD. CHRISTIAN 8 P.M.
GRANITE HILLS VS. RENAISSANCE ACAD. 1 P.M.
BRENTWOOD VS. VAN NUYS 11:30 A.M.
PACIFIC HILLS VS. PRICE 4:00 P.M.
MONTCLAIR PREP VS. 29 PALMS 2:30 P.M.

Saturday January 17
Westside Challenge

Santa Monica High

12:30 p.m. Culver City vs. Gahr
2 p.m. Pacific Hills vs. St. Paul
3:30 p.m. Harvard-Westlake vs. Inglewood

5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Shootout Competition

6 p.m. Beverly Hills vs. Redondo Union
7:30 p.m. Bell-Jeff vs. Santa Monica

Taft of Woodland Hills is hosting the 2nd annual "To the Rack Showcase" Saturday January 17th at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

There will be four boys basketball games highlighted by Daily News No. 1 Taft squaring off against Compton at 8 p.m.

The other three games are La Verne Lutheran vs. Renaissance Academy at 3 p.m., Cleveland vs. Compton Centennial at 4:30 p.m. and Valencia vs. Colony at 6 p.m.

Tickets will be sold at the door on a first come-first sreved basis.

It was the first big night of the new year on the local girls' soccer schedule and it didn't disappoint, with Mission and Tri-Valley league play starting and competition resuming in the Marmonte and Pacific leagues following the holiday break.

Here's a recap of what went down for the matches of Jan. 7:

Match of the night: Flintridge Sacred Heart 1, Harvard-Westlake 0: Although the Mission League opener was marred by fouls and laden with cards, the Tologs managed to pull off the first significant upset of the calendar year and one of the biggest wins by an underdog so far this season with the victory at St. Francis High. Freshman Tera Trujillo scored in the 47th minute for the Tologs (9-3-2), who defeated Harvard-Westlake (7-2-1) for only the third time in 27 meetings. Flintridge Sacred Heart's Lauren Torres missed a penalty shot midway through the first half and Nicole Sneider had a goal in the 30th minute disallowed as a result of an offsides call for Harvard-Westlake, setting the stage for an intense and physical final 40 minutes. The Tologs were forced to play a girl down in the final 14 minutes after Bianca Garoian was issued a straight red card for going cleats up while challenging a loose ball, but their defense prevented a high-scoring Wolverines attack from tying the score, thanks to nine saves from Dominique Oro.

Goal of the night: With apologies to Tera Trujillo, this one goes to Moorpark's Ariana Martinez, who broke a tie in the 77th minute off an assist from Stacey Fujikuni to lift the Musketeers to a 2-1 Marmonte League victory over a much-improved Calabasas team.
The Coyotes (2-5-1, 0-3) tied the score on a penalty shot in the 65th minute, but Moorpark (5-2, 1-1) avoided going winless in its first two league matches with the clutch score from Martinez. Fujikuni also assisted on Patty Meza's goal for the Musketeers, who play Royal of Simi Valley (6-4-2, 1-1) on Friday.

Unsung heroes of the night: Agoura's Taryn Kurcz, Emily Kenney and Kelsey Reichow, for not only anchoring a strong defensive effort in a 2-0 Marmonte League victory over Royal of Simi Valley, but for leading the Chargers (8-1-1, 2-1) to their fifth consecutive win following a 1-0 loss Dec. 15 to Thousand Oaks (4-5-2, 2-0-1). Agoura plays host Friday to another surging squad, Westlake (4-2-1, 1-0-1), which defeated Newbury Park 5-1.

Top performance by a freshman: Westlake's Taylor Perry couldn't have picked a better time to record the first hat trick of her career, upstaging former Warriors freshman standout, Lyndsey Preston, who transferred in the offseason to Newbury Park. Preston and the rest of the Panthers found themselves part of a humbling 5-1 loss to Perry and her teammates, including Andrea Todak, who added two goals, and Bridget Berman, who contributed two assists.

Top goalkeeping performance: This will be a shared award, since some goalkeepers split time in net anyway. Thousand Oaks' Hanna Shirley, who was brought up from the junior-varsity team in December during the Lancers' appearances at the Mater Dei Premier Invitational and Excalibur tournament, made her first Marmonte League start and recorded seven saves to help preserve a 1-0 victory at Simi Valley. Shirley made two point-blank stops on breakaways to keep Thousand Oaks (4-5-2, 2-0-1), which received a goal from Pam Aikman, in sole possession of first place. Not too far down the road, La Reina of Thousand Oaks' Ali Parisi recorded her fourth consecutive shutout and fifth overall in a 5-0 Tri-Valley League victory over Fillmore. Parisi has surrendered four goals in 13 matches for La Reina (9-3-1).

Top defensive performance: Again shared recognition to a pair of Mission League squads, Flintridge Sacred Heart of La Canada Flintridge and Chaminade of West Hills. Flintridge Sacred Heart received strong efforts from New Mexico-bound standout Sinead Fleming and sophomore transfer Natalie Zeenni, along with support from Pip Harragin, Izzy Johnson and Sam Norton, to shut out a Harvard-Westlake team that entered the match with 27 goals. Chaminade (16-0), led by junior sweeper Ana Alvarado and four saves from goalkeeper Kacey McCormack, defeated rival Louisville of Woodland Hills 1-0, recording its second shutout victory this season over the Royals (7-5-2).

Corner kicks: Crescenta Valley of La Crescenta surrendered its first goal in Pacific League play, but still delivered a dominant effort in a 5-1 victory at defending-champion Pasadena ...... Oaks Christian (8-1) received goal from Megan Connor off an assist from Kelly Johnson and seven saves from Noe Salter in a 1-0 Tri-Valley League victory over nemesis St. Bonaventure of Ventura (10-4) ...... Flintridge Prep of La Canada Flintridge (6-4) scored three second-half goals to record a 4-3 nonleague victory over San Marino. Brooke Elby scored twice and assisted on goals by Alina Okamoto and Ellie Redding for the Rebels.

The new year is here and there is some good basketball going on the region this week.

Monday January 5, Brentwood at Viewpoint, 3 p.m. and Loyola at Chaminade, 7 p.m.

Tuesday January 6, Kilpatrick at Montclair Prep, 5 p.m. and Golden Valley at Oaks Christian, 7 p.m.

Wednesday January 7, Simi Valley at Thousand Oaks, 7 p.m.

Girls games include Bell-Jeff at Saugus, Alemany at Valencia, Sierra Canyon at L.A. Baptist, Windward at Harvard-Westlake and village christian at Campbell Hall. All games on Tuesday.

Wednesday features Montclair Prep at Faith Baptist at 4 p.m. and Muir at Crescenta Valley at 4:45 p.m.

Thursday January 8 showcases Chaminade at Harvard-Westlake and Saturday January 10 has Canyon at Notre Dame

Malibu took ninth-place in a 77-61 victory against L.A. Baptist of North Hills.

Chandler Abbott scored 33 points and Ben Apstein scored 23.

Malibu led 47-22 at halftime.

In the championship game, Walnut beat St. Monica 59-49.

Marshall of Pasadena beat Pasadena Poly 64-41 for third place.

Monrovia beat Western Christian of Covina 70-63 in overtime for fifth place.

St. Genevieve of Panorama City beat Sherman Oaks C.E.S. of Reseda 59-50 for seventh place.

Viewpoint of Calabasas beat Hillcrest Christian of Granada Hills 60-39 for 11th place.

It wasn't pretty and it wasn't quite the same team that won the Modesto Christian Holiday Hoop Classic on Tuesday night in a victory against Etiwanda but Taft of Woodland Hills did just enough right things to beat Colony of Ontario, 69-55, in a non-league game in the Johnnie L. Cochran basketball classic at Cal St. Dominguez Hills in Carson.

"If some teams scouted us today they probably left feeling very confident," Taft coach Derrick Taylor said.

The Toreadors (11-2), the region's top-ranked team, got off to a slow start, leading only 34-28 at halftime.

They weren't fluid on offense and had some mental lapses on defense.

"I think everybody was relaxing a little too much," Taft guard Justin Hawkins said.

But when Taft needed to come through, that is exactly what it did.

Leading 50-47 with seven minutes remaining, the Toreadors went on a 17-3 run to finally pull away.

"I wanted to win," CSUN-bound forward Terran Carter said. "I was going to do whatever it took for that to happen. I had to be a leader."

Carter finished with nine points, 17 rebounds and seven assists.

Hawkins, headed for UNLV next year, did his part as well, finishing with 23 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals.

"I think all the traveling we have done took its toll," Hawkins said. "We have not practiced a lot lately either. We just knew we had to step up in the second half."

Michael Williams and DeSean Johnson complemented fellow seniors Carter and Hawkins with 19 and 14 points respectively. Williams made five 3-pointers, once again demonstrating he is one of the best shooters in the region.

"We were just flat and every team always has a game like this at some point," Taylor said. "I am glad we were still able to win the game."

Colony (8-6), which lost top player Tyler Lamb when he transferred to Mater Dei of Santa Ana last summer, was led by Dennis Craig's 15 points and Gene Saulsberry's 13.

Christmas might be over a week old but Sylmar was still in the giving mood blowing an 11-point lead and dropping a non-league game to Perris, 58-56.

The Spartans (8-5) went on a 10-0 run in the third quarter behind two 3-pointers from Gary Ricks and a lay-up each from Roberto Dominguez and Tyler Honeycutt but couldn't hang on after a disastrous fourth quarter.

Sylmar was outscored 19-6 in the final eight minutes, shot just three of 15 from the field in the quarter and never got the ball to Honeycutt, instead settling for long range 3-point shots that weren't falling.

"We shot ourselves out of the game," Honeycutt said. "We shouldn't have been down at halftime even. We would just chuck up shots and then not get back on defense. Games like this are why we don't get the respect we think we should have. We should smash teams like we played today."

The 6'9 Honeycutt, who will attend UCLA next season, finished with 21 points, 20 rebounds and four blocks.

Gary Ricks had a solid game for Sylmar with 20 points and seven rebounds including six 3-pointers but the Spartans got little production anywhere else.

Santa Clara-bound guard Robert Smith had 28 points and 12 rebounds to lead Perris.

Myron Samuel had 15 points, seven steals, four assist and four rebounds.

The game played like a roller coaster ride throughout.

Sylmar went on an 11-2 run to lead by nine at 26-17 but Perris used a 13-2 run to close the first half and lead by two.

In the third quarter, Sylmar went on a 10-0 run but Perris answered with a 15-2 fourth quarter run and hung on.

A key stat for Sylmar was shooting just one free throw the entire game.

Prince Obasi and David Selma each had 17 points for Cleveland of Reseda in a 64-62 victory against Price of Los Angeles (11-4).

The Cavaliers (9-4) led 61-53 with 2:21 remaining but had to withstand a late rally and two missed shots by Price in the final seconds.

Obasi had nine rebounds, five assists and made all eight of his free throws.

Selma made seven of eight shots from the field and Jason Johnson had 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

"It was good teamwork today," Selma said. "We showed poise and made free throws down the stretch."

Thouansand Oaks Behdod Katebian won the 125-pound division at the Shark Tank Invitational wrestling tournament at Santiago HIgh School in Corona.

The junior placed second at the Brea Linda tournament on Dec. 20.

Andrew Farhadi started the new year with a bang....

Farhadi scored a game-high 30 points, grabbed 19 rebounds and dished out five assists to lead Buckley of Sherman Oaks to the 64-59 victory over Pacifica Christian of Santa Monica in a semifinal game in the Palm Springs tournament at Desert Christian High School in Indio.

The Griffins (13-1) will play host Desert Christian in the Championship game Saturday.

Jake Brodsky and Ryan Norris scored 11 points each for Buckley. Norris had seven assists while Brodsky had five assists.

In other Boys' Basketball games:
Malibu 64, Viewpoint 61: Chya Mousavipor had 20 points to lead four Malibu players in double figures in the Viewpoint tournament in Calabasas.

Chandler Abbott had 18 points, Max Flores had 11 and Ben Rotman added 10 for the Sharks (10-4).

Malibu trailed 30-27 at halftime but outscored Viewpoint 25-11 in the third quarter to take control of the game.

Tucker Trainer scored a game-high 27 points to lead Viewpoint (4-5). Jack Borenstein added 12 points for the Patriots.

Viewpoint Boys Tournament. Schedule for Friday Jan. 2

: : : 10:30 a.m. Malibu vs. Viewpoint
: : : 12 p.m. Hillcrest Chr./G. Hills vs. L.A. Baptist

: : : 1:30 p.m. Western Chr. vs. Sherman Oaks C.E.S.
: : : 3 p.m. St. Genevive vs. Monrovia

: : : Champinship Semifinals
: : : 4:30 p.m. Pasadena Poly vs. Walnut
: : : 6 p.m. Marshall of Pasadena vs. St. Monica