Prep Basketball CITY BOYS : Last-Second Jumper Sends Reseda Over Granada Hills

Reseda High’s Alan Gindlesperger hit an 11-foot jumper with two seconds left in the game to lift the Regents to a 53-52 victory over Granada Hills at home Tuesday evening.

Nine seconds before, the Highlanders’ Sergio Peralta had scored from 15 feet to put Granada Hills ahead, 52-51. While the Highlanders celebrated on their bench, the Regents called a timeout and Reseda Coach Dennis King mapped strategy on his clipboard for one final play.

“I diagrammed a play with two options,” King said. “The first option didn’t work, so we passed to Gindlesperger, who has been our bread-and-butter guy all season.”

Plan A was a length-of-the-court pass to Jeff Johnson under the basket, but the 6-4 senior wasn’t open. Plan B was a length-of-the-court pass to Reggie White. White, a 5-10 senior, then passed off to Gindlesperger for the winning field goal.

Reseda now sits atop the Valley 3-A League with a 3-0 record. It is 9-5 overall.

Gindlesperger, who is averaging 18 points a game and scored a team-high 20 points for Reseda, said he was surprised by the strength of Granada Hills’ defense.

“I felt a lot of pressure near the end of the game,” said the 6-1 senior. “I really didn’t think they would stay that close to us. I thought we would beat them by five or six.”

Neither team had more than a five-point lead in the game, however. Granada Hills led, 37-32, for eight seconds in the middle of the third period.

Peralta led all scorers with 21 points. All-City forward Desmond Cerceo added 19 points and grabbed 16 rebounds for Granada Hills, which is now 2-1 in the league and 7-5 overall.

Johnson had 10 points and six rebounds for Reseda, while White handed off a game-high 10 assists.

Granada Hills was playing without the services of its regular point guard, Jack Peterson, who was sick and not in uniform. Peterson, who is averaging 10 points a game, was replaced by Pierre Lyons.

Kennedy 50, El Camino Real 42 Balanced scoring and a third-quarter knock-out punch enabled Kennedy High to maintain an unblemished Valley 4-A record.

Host El Camino Real overcame a 28-16 halftime deficit to pull within four points with three minutes remaining in the third period. Kennedy responded with six straight points to lead again by a comfortable margin.

Kennedy’s James Walton scored 14 points, while teammates Greg Fontenette and Andrew Como added 10 points each to offset a 20-point performance by the Conquistadores’ Rick Hergott. Walton also had five rebounds.

Tony Goodall helped El Camino pull back into the contest in the third quarter by scoring six of his 11 points. Goodall also led the Conquistadores in rebounds with nine.

Kennedy, which is 3-0 in league, improved its overall record to 9-5. El Camino fell to 2-1 in league and 10-4 overall.

Taft 60, Monroe 50 Taft High notched its first Valley 4-A League victory by taking a seven-point first quarter lead at Monroe High and never wavering.

The Toreadors are 1-3 in league and 4-8 overall. Monroe fell to 0-3 and 3-10.

Taft won despite an impressively balanced rebounding exhibition by the Vikings. Warlett Brown snatched 11 rebounds, Anthony Johnson and Wendell Williams each grabbed seven. Eric Fuller added six.

Fuller and Williams also scored 10 points each and Brown added nine for Monroe.

Taft broke to a 17-10 first-quarter advantage behind the play of Bobby Green and Kevin Franklin. Monroe picked up one point on the Toreadors to trail, 27-21, by halftime. But Taft refused to give up any more ground.

Van Nuys 111, Verdugo Hills 34 Verdugo Hills High is beginning to be nothing more than a breather for its opponents in the East Valley 3-A League.

Van Nuys outscored the Dons, 32-8, at home in the first quarter--then poured it on. The Wolves led, 55-18, at halftime. The 111 points were the team’s high for the year.

Last Friday, Polytechnic whipped Verdugo Hills by 57 points, and the Dons are still looking for their first win. They are 0-3 in league and 0-6 overall.

Anthony Cook paced the Wolves with 24 points and 17 rebounds, and he wowed the partisan crowd with four slam dunks. Pat Meyer and Maurice Idolor added 16 points each for Van Nuys.

Van Nuys improved its league record to 3-0. The Wolves are 12-2 overall.

Polytechnic 92, Birmingham 62 Polytechnic High made short work of Birmingham behind a well-rounded scoring attack on their home court.

The Parrots led, 20-8, after one quarter and held the Braves to 36 points until the fourth quarter. Play in the last period turned ragged as each team scored 26 points.

Guard Mark Harkay scored 18 points for Poly, and James Welsh and Alex Ruzich each added 15 points. Welsh had 13 rebounds.

Steve Quan and Dean Erhlich scored 10 points each to round out the Parrots’ balanced offense.

Both teams are now 2-1 in the East Valley 3-A League. Poly is 5-7 overall, while Birmingham fell to 8-4 on the year.

North Hollywood 61, Grant 57 Senior forward Derrick Preston scored a season-high 28 points--13 of them in a furious fourth quarter--to push host North Hollywood High past Grant.

Grant had overcome a 29-19 halftime deficit to pull within three points by the end of the third quarter. Preston started popping from the perimeter, however, and the Huskies maintained their lead the rest of the way.

Guard George Perez scored 14 points for the Huskies and center Clifford Barnes chipped in with nine points, including five in the final period.

Chatsworth 45, Canoga Park 40 Chatsworth High overcame a 32-25 fourth-quarter deficit behind the play of reserve center Sean Bolding at home. With Bolding scoring six points and grabbing four rebounds, the Chancellors outscored Canoga Park 20-8 in the final period.

Senior forward Matt Bellers scored 17 to lead Chatsworth. Senior forward Dwayne Johnson paced Canoga Park with 13 points.