Harvard-Westlake, Valley Torah Boys Hoops Teams Advance

The two area schools still alive in the boys’ basketball playoffs are Harvard-Westlake and Valley Torah.

Harvard-Westlake defeated Damien 59-56 on Friday in the Southern Section Div. III-A semifinals at Calabasas High to qualify for the championship game against Inglewood at Anaheim Convention Center; the championship schedule is slated to be released Monday.

In the win over Damien, Zena Edosomwan blocked a potential tying 3-pointer by Calvin White as time expired, and Jordan Butler and Damiene Cain scored 17 points.

Top-seeded Harvard-Westlake improved to 26-4, while Inglewood is 24-6.

Rhon Mitchell, a 6-5 senior for Inglewood, averages 15.5 points and 7.2 rebounds.

Harvard-Westlake has won eight section titles in coach Greg Hilliard’s 26-year career, but it’s been six years since the last one, a Div. III-A championship in 2005. The Wolverines reached another Div. III-A final the next season in 2006 but lost to Compton Centennial, and they have not been back since.

Valley Torah plays in the 6AA semifinal on Monday against Rio Hondo Prep at Arroyo High School after defeating Avalon 61-51 on Wednesday in the 6AA semifinals. The Wolfpack's 6-foot-9 center,, led the way with 23 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks.

East Valley Looks Back on Greatest Sports Season in School's History

Every Cinderella story has its midnight ending, and that’s what happened to East Valley High’s boys’ basketball team.

Riding the most successful season in school history – in any sport – East Valley fell one game shy of an appearance in the City Section Small Schools championship by losing Thursday to top-seeded View Park 59-29 in the semifinals at Price High in Los Angeles.

After losing by 36 points in the season finale at Sherman Oaks CES to blow a chance to win the Valley League title, not much was expected in the playoffs. But the plucky Falcons opened the tournament with a 71-38 win over Central City Value, then knocked off Sherman Oaks CES in a rematch in the second round to make the semifinals.

East Valley never had a real chance against View Park, a small school in name only that has played mostly large public schools like Moorpark, Garden Grove, Buena, Canoga Park, Crenshaw, Locke, Belmont and others.

After upsetting Sherman Oaks CES on Tuesday, East Valley had just one day to prepare for View Park, and the Falcons did not have enough time to recharge, coach Matt Skeadas said.

“It was kind of bad timing for us because we put so much energy into beating Sherman Oaks that we were drained,” Skeadas said. “We ran out of gas.”

At least East Valley played tough defense, holding View Park to 28 first-half points – well below average.

“I’ve got to give me kids credit. They played like they were one-point down the whole way through,” Skeadas said. “That’s what we’ve done all year.”

East Valley finished 16-6 and 10-2 in the Valley League to finish second, and the playoff win at Sherman Oaks CES marked the Knights’ first home loss in three years.

The standouts were seniors Eddy Escobar and Andrew Faigenblat, and they will be missed. But the future looks secure because the roster included five underclassmen who figure to return – juniors Marc Wilson, Max Torres, Michael Masrelian, Shaquille Bell and Levondale Hawkins and sophomore Jeff Holguin.

In its fourth year, East Valley had never won more than 11 games in a season until this year.

Besides Escobar and Faigenblat, the other graduating seniors are Lewis Reynolds, Kevin Pitman and Manny Torres.

“We’ll have two starters back, Torres and Bell, and this year they carried the bulk of our rebounding and interior scoring,” Skeadas said. “The seniors really established the program and put us on the map. The seniors set the expectations about working hard with no excuses and giving 100 percent no matter what.”

Skeadas feels great about the future of the program.

“It doesn’t matter how much talent we’re going to have. We’ll still be successful,” Skeadas said.

It hurts to lose, and Skeadas knows it, and his teams knows it, too.

“Every kid on this team looked out for each other and never worried about their own stats,” Skeadas said. “We accomplished everything we set out to do, and after the game there were a lot of tears in the locker room.”

Nevertheless, it was a benchmark season, and Skeadas is beaming.

“I couldn’t be happier with how it worked out. I’m just so proud of the kids,” he said. “I asked a lot of them, and they asked a lot of each other, and they were dedicated every step of the way.”