Requiem for the City’s fallen basketball teams
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So Taft and Fairfax, the first- and third-seeded teams in the boys’ Southern California Regionals, both go down in overtime Thursday in the Division I semifinals (in Fairfax’s case, double overtime). Westchester, seeded fourth, is ousted Tuesday in the quarterfinals. And unseeded Fremont was bounced in the first round.
I think Fremont went as far as it could. I know both Fairfax, defending state champion, and 2008 City champion Taft believed they were good enough to reach Saturday’s final at the Sports Arena. Maybe they are, but neither one will be there.
That leaves me with Westchester. After some reflection, I think the Comets were seeded too high.
Yes, they shared the Western League title with Fairfax. But I also think the Comets were the most one-dimensional of the four teams. Westchester lacked a strong inside scoring presence, and depended heavily on outside shooting if they couldn’t run-and-dunk on teams.
And if you’ve watched any high school basketball this season, I’ll bet you didn’t see many -- if any -- great outside shooting teams. That certainly includes Westchester.
-- Mike Terry
-- Image from www.brownsburg.k12.in.us/.