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Boys’ basketball: Taft pulls first-half surprise

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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It was hard to see this coming.

Unless, perhaps, you were privy to Taft Coach Derrick Taylor’s game plan.

The Toreadors are bottling up Fairfax big man Renardo Sidney with multiple defenders, and the ploy paid off in the first half of a City Section Division I semifinal in which Taft took a 31-24 lead into intermission.

Sidney did not score in the second quarter and has 10 points on four-for-10 shooting. The USC-bound center often had to bring the ball up past halfcourt himself to get touches. Three of Fairfax’s starters have not scored and the Lions are missing open perimeter looks.

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Michael Williams leads Taft with 11 points. The winner will play top-seeded Westchester in the championship next Friday night at the Galen Center.

-- Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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