Calabasas Outlasts Crespi, 73-65

Last spring, golf coaches Bill Bellatty of Calabasas High and Paul Muff of Crespi were playing a friendly round while their teams battled it out on the course. Since they also coach basketball, they reasoned that if the teams could play on the course, why not on the courts?

In the first-ever basketball game between the two schools, senior forward Steve Ward scored 27 points Wednesday night to lead Calabasas to a 73-65 nonleague win at Crespi.

Afterward, Bellatty was glad that his golf course gamble paid off.

“That was as good as we have played all year,” Bellatty said. “I never believe it when Muff says he is having a down year. I don’t bet with him on the golf course, either.”

Crespi (1-3), winner of the Del Rey League four of the last five seasons, including last season when it finished 25-5, has no returning varsity players. Opposing coaches are showing little sympathy for the struggling Celts.

“Crespi has been so good for so long,” Bellatty said. “It’s great that a 2-A team like us can even play with a 5-A team like Crespi.”

The win was the fourth straight for Calabasas, which improved its record to 5-2.

Ward, a 6-4 guard who was a Times All-Valley selection last season, nailed four straight free throws with 58 seconds left in the second quarter to give Calabasas a 36-33 halftime lead.

Ward picked up where he left off in the third quarter, scoring eight points as Calabasas built its lead to 11 points. Crespi’s Mike Kennedy, who finished with 21 points, scored on a pair of free throws and two jump shots as the Celts cut the lead to 50-43 by the end of the quarter.

Crespi, however, faltered at the start of the fourth quarter when sophomore forward Ken Lynch was assessed a technical foul when he inadvertently stayed on the court after a substitute entered the game.

Ward hit the foul shot, giving Calabasas an eight-point lead. Crespi cut the lead to 55-51 with four minutes left when Lynch scored inside, but Calabasas then outscored the Celts, 8-0, to stretch its lead to 63-51.

Calabasas forward Cory Marschalk had eight points in the final quarter for the Coyotes, and finished with 15.

CALABASAS--Ward 27; Fitzgerald 5; Bell 10; Marschalk 15; Drezner 11.

CRESPI--Kennedy 21; Turner 3; Ringler 21; Lynch 10; Smith 8; Tilkian 2.