Lots of concern about Fairfax-Westchester rematch
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In response to security concerns and growing fan interest in the Fairfax-Westchester boys’ basketball rivalry, the City Section will begin looking for alternative sites for a potential semifinal matchup in the upcoming City Championship Division playoffs, City Section administrator Trent Cornelius said.
The teams played a double-overtime game Wednesday night at Loyola Marymount won by Westchester before a packed crowd. There was also a shooting incident afterward in which a 15-year-old Westchester student was injured outside the campus entrance of Loyola Marymount.
‘This is something that probably needs to be evaluated,’ Cornelius said regarding schools being allowed to host semifinal games on their home sites.
Fairfax and Westchester are tied for first in the Western League and will need a coin flip to determine the No. 1 seed from their league if they remain tied. Fairfax hosted the first meeting of the season between the teams at which fans had to line up three hours before game time to get one of the 1,000 tickets available. Others were turned away.
One problem is there are no good alternative sites near Fairfax, which means the Lions would lose home-court advantage. The City Section used to mandate semifinal games be played at alternative sites until a bad experience holding the semifinals at a local junior college resulted in a financial setback. Subsequently, it changed the rule to give schools the option of where to play. Fairfax and Westchester would still have the right to play at home, but fan interest could overwhelm the size of either’s gym.
Westchester tried to help lessen the problem by changing Wednesday’s game to Loyola Marymount, allowing a lot more fans to attend, though parking remained a big problem. In light of the shooting incident, Westchester has changed its Friday home game against Palisades to 4 p.m. from 7 p.m.
The City Section playoff seeding meeting is Saturday, and Fairfax and Westchester figure to be the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds behind Taft, resulting in a likely semifinal meeting between the two on Feb. 22.
-- Eric Sondheimer
-- Image from briargate.ppymca.org