St. Bernard Takes a Bite of Westlake, 71-70

The David Whitmore flying basketball circus staged an air show Saturday night at Beverly Hills High.

Whitmore, St. Bernard’s designated soarer and scorer, went up, over and around the Westlake defense for 28 points to lead the Vikings to a 71-70 victory and third place at the Beverly Hills tournament.

Palisades defeated Beverly Hills, 58-48, to win the tournament championship.

Whitmore, a 6-4 guard, is headed for Georgia Tech next fall, having already signed a letter of intent. He collected his points on an assortment of dazzling drives, dunks and jumpers.

“He’s a good player, but I don’t know whether he’s a Georgia Tech-type player,” said Westlake Coach Roy Gilmore.

Westlake’s Warriors (3-2) came within a turnover of winning third place at the tournament. They made up all but one point of an 11-point third-quarter deficit, pulling within 71-70 on two free throws by Jim Henderson with 13 seconds to play.

Westlake then forced St. Bernard (6-2) into a five-second inbound violation to regain possession of the ball.

Following a timeout, the Warriors worked the ball inside, but Paul Keenan’s pass to Henderson was knocked out of bounds with two seconds left. Westlake called another timeout to set up a play, but Rick Welch’s inbounds pass was stolen by Eric Nelson.

Welch attempted to force the ball inside to center Dave Heckmann, but Gilmore claimed the play was set up for Keenan to shoot from the corner.

“I don’t know why Rick didn’t throw it to Keenan. He was open out there,” Gilmore said.

Westlake, which trailed 37-30 at halftime, didn’t start to make a move until late in the third period, when Gilmore went to his second unit and implemented a 2-2-1 zone press. The second five, consisting of Kevin Logan, Bill Fassl, Matt Fischer, Eric Tokuyama and Darrin Forster, got as close as 60-56 with a hawking pressure defense that forced St. Bernard into numerous turnovers.

Gilmore brought the first unit back in with 4:39 to play, and they continued the pressure on the Vikings. Westlake got as close as 65-64, but Nelson made a steal and jammed home two points, and Whitmore worked his way inside for a pair of hoops to put St. Bernard ahead, 71-66.

Henderson hit a jumper and his two clutch free throws to account for the final score.

Henderson finished with 14 points and drew accolades from Vikings Coach Jim McClune for his outside shooting.

“God dang, does he always shoot like that? I hate kids who shoot like that,” McClune said.

Heckmann led Westlake with 16 points, but had only two in the second half, disappearing as he did Friday when Palisades shut him out the final two periods.

“He plays in spurts,” Gilmore said. “He tends to fade at times. He’ll come out and play hard one game, and the next game he’ll disappear.”

Earlier Saturday, Saugus defeated Thousand Oaks, 74-60, to win the consolation championship.

In the consolation title game, Rusty Morse scored 21 points for Saugus (4-3) and John Thomas added 12.

Thousand Oaks got double-figure scoring from Jon Walker (15 points), Kevin Martin (14) and John Schlossman (10).