Advertisement
Varsity Times Insider

Boys’ basketball: Big crowd on hand for Division I final

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.

There are already more people at the Galen Center tonight than there were at many USC basketball games over the last few years, not that that’s saying much.

But the place is more than half full for the Mater Dei-Westchester showdown in the Southern California Division I championship.

Advertisement

Tip-off is about 20 minutes away, running a little behind schedule because the previous games went long. It will be the ninth meeting between legendary coaches Gary McKnight of Mater Dei and Ed Azzam of Westchester, with McKnight holding an 8-0 lead in the head-to-head matchup.

Mater Dei has the more ballyhooed lineup, with three players who have already signed with major Division I colleges, but Westchester is super-athletic and scrappy. I’m picking Westchester in a close one.

--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