Granada Hills Wins in 2 Overtimes

Granada Hills guard Sam Puathasnanon has a last name that is long on spelling and a style of play that isn’t short on cool.

Puathasnanon demonstrated his ability to handle pressure by making four free throws in the second overtime of the Highlanders’ 61-59 win over previously unbeaten Van Nuys on Saturday night in a semifinal game of the Birmingham tournament.

Granada Hills will play Poly, a 67-55 winner Saturday night over Birmingham, in the championship final Monday at 8 p.m.

“Sam is one of our best players,” Granada Hills Coach Bob Johnson said. “He’s always in control and he’s a very intelligent player. I’m glad we had him at the line in those situations.”

Granada Hills (5-1) was lucky Puathasnanon was able to stand up after Van Nuys guard Pat Meyer pushed him while trying to prevent a break-away layup with 1:40 to go in the second overtime. The resulting foul set up the first of his four free throws.

Granada Hills had to come from behind to earn the victory and the Highlanders had to do it without Gary Gray. The 6-8 junior center had scored 17 points before he was ejected along with Van Nuys’ Damon Fredieu with 1:20 left in the third quarter.

Van Nuys was leading, 35-32, when Gray threw a ball that was heading out of bounds off Fredieu’s leg, enabling Granada Hills to keep possession. Fredieu fired the ball back at Gray and the two players went after each other.

“I was very concerned when Gary was thrown out,” Johnson said. “I just told our kids to be patient.”

Meanwhile, Van Nuys took advantage of Gray’s absence and built it’s lead to 46-36 with 1:20 left in the third quarter.

The Highlanders’ patience began to pay off in the fourth quarter. Granada Hills came back behind the play of Jeff Inzar and Terrell Smith and tied it, 50-50, when forward Dennis Bishop made a short jumper with 2:14 left.

Granada Hills had the final possession of regulation, but Inzar’s shot was off and the game went into overtime.

Both teams scored two points in the first overtime.

“When someone like Gray goes out of the game, the other kids have to pick up the slack,” said Reseda Coach Kevin Duford, whose team is 5-1. “I think we lost some intensity when he went out. From that point on, they picked up the slack and we didn’t.”

The Wolves had built a 28-25 halftime lead behind Meyer, who scored 20 before he was ejected for shoving Puathasnanon.

“We had the lead and we just threw the ball away,” Duford said. “If you can’t protect the lead, you can’t win. Hopefully, our kids will learn from this loss. I think some of them might have been thinking about an undefeated season. Now we can get back to work.”

Poly 67, Birmingham 55--Forward Alex Ruzich scored 21 for the Parrots, who came from behind to advance into the championship final.

Poly trailed, 30-27, at halftime, but came out firing behind guard Dean Ehrlich, who scored nine of his 16 points in the third quarter. Poly led, 44-41, at the end of the quarter and coasted behind Ruzich and guard Jorge Ramos, who scored eight.

Grant 53, Canoga Park 31--Grant took a 14-2 first-quarter lead and cruised to an easy win against the winless Hunters (0-8).

Grant (2-4) got balanced scoring from Daniel Walton, who led the team with nine points and Donald O’Neal and Garrick Belser adding eight points each.

Reseda 60, Monroe 56--Reseda forward Terrance Hamilton scored 19 and guard Stanley Williams added 14 as the Regents held off a late Monroe rally to advance to the consolation final against Grant.

Monroe guard Barry Thomas scored 26 and led a 24-9 fourth-quarter surge by the Vikings that turned an apparent rout into a close game.

CANOGA PARK--Mears 4; Harvey 4; Woolridge 6; Constantine 1; Galowitsch 2; Delange 14.

GRANT--Bolton 7; Dudulao 6; O’Neal 8; Sutton 6; Belser 8; Cohen 4; Sabalburo 3; Stanley 2; Walton 9.

RESEDA--Spears 8; Hamilton 19; Nickelson 6; Williams 14; Wills 2; Ricks 2; Whiting 7; Jackson 2.

MONROE--Finley 5; Grant 3; Bond 1; Thomas 26; Stribling 19; Ray 2.