Advertisement
Varsity Times Insider

Boys’ basketball: King advances to title game

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
Staff WriterFollow
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Even with star forward Kawhi Leonard saddled with foul trouble for much of the second half, top-seeded King pulled away for a 58-48 victory over fourth-seeded Taft tonight in a Southern California Division I regional semifinal at King.

Senior guard Chris Harriel scored all 22 of his points in the second half for the Wolves, who had trailed by 14 points midway through the third quarter. Leonard had 19 points despite spending more than four minutes of the second half on the bench after picking up his fourth foul late in the third quarter.

Advertisement

King students repeatedly chanted ‘UCLA!’ in the final minutes, a reference to the site of the regional championship game Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion.

Taft, which had led by as many as 15 points in the second quarter, scored only 14 points in the second half. Justin Hawkins scored 16 points and Terran Carter 13 for the Toreadors.

--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.

Advertisement