Providence boys’ basketball runs away with playoff opener
BURBANK — It was a shaky start to the postseason for the Providence High boys’ basketball team.
Playing Vistamar in a CIF Southern Section Division V-AA first-round game, the Pioneers struggled on offense early, and fell behind by 12 points less than four minutes into Friday evening’s game.
Bolstered by some sizable runs, Providence was able to fight back, find its offensive rhythm and turn back the Vikings for a 76-62 victory at home.
It was the first playoff victory in three seasons for the Pioneers (19-8), who won an Independence League title for the first time in five seasons. The victory was the 11th straight for Providence.
Providence moves on to the quarterfinals and will play on the road Tuesday at Hesperia Christian (20-5), the Cross Valley League champion which defeated Arrowhead Christian, 80-64.
Providence junior David Grigoryan had a huge game with 33 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman Bryce Whitaker added 12 points and juniors AJ Bautista and Kirk Helling chipped in with 10 points apiece for Providence.
Things didn’t go well for Providence in the opening minutes against Vistamar (15-8), which placed third in the Coastal League. When Viking Max Roque drained a three-pointer with 4:27 left in the first quarter the Pioneers faced a 14-2 deficit.
“We just came out flat and we just had no energy,” Providence Coach Michael Westphal said. “We just had to have some energy and a big thing that we preach is that we have to play 32 minutes. We didn’t play 32 minutes.
“It was probably a little bit of nerves, because it was our first playoff game or maybe it was the fact that it’s been a week and a half since we played our last game. But you can also say when you’ve had that much of a layoff you should be chomping at the bit.”
The Pioneers overcame the early problems. They outscored the Vikings, 12-4, to end the first quarter and trailed at the first break by four, 18-14.
Providence was kept in the first quarter by Grigoryan, who scored 12 of his team’s 14 points in the stanza.
It was a 14-0 run that helped the Pioneers seize control of the game in the second quarter, taking a 32-24 advantage with 1:50 remaining. Providence went into halftime with a 37-29 lead.
Increasing its advantage 54-45 after three quarters, Providence embarked on a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter to lead, 63-51.
“We have been doing that all season, where we go on big runs and we take control of the game,” Grigoryan said. “We have a lot of guys on this team who can shoot so we know we can spread it around and score the points when we need to.”
