Boys’ basketball: Palisades takes aim at Taft
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Top-seeded Woodland Hills Taft remains a heavy favorite to win the City Section Division I championship, but Palisades is looking forward to testing the Toreadors on Friday at 6 p.m. at USC’s Galen Center in a semifinal game. Westchester will play Washington in the second game of the night.
Palisades is only 18-12, but as Coach James Paleno says, ‘We’ve got to be the best 18-12 team out there.’
The Dolphins lost a series of close games during the season but they’ve started to win some of late, including a quarterfinal victory over Crenshaw.
They have one of the best guards in the City Section in improving junior Donovan Johnson, who figures to be heavily recruited this coming year. He had 26 points against Crenshaw.
Paleno knows what he’s up against. ‘I know they are supremely talented,’ he said of Taft.
The good news for Palisades is that if the Dolphins can’t knock off Taft, their season doesn’t end. They have earned an automatic berth to the state Division I playoffs.
-- Eric Sondheimer