Granada Hills Shoots Down N. Hollywood in 66-59 Win

It didn’t take long for North Hollywood High to realize it was in over its collective head size-wise against Granada Hills in a City Section 3-A quarterfinal playoff game Wednesday night.

“Granada Hills has more wide-bodies than TWA,” said North Hollywood assistant Eli Essa at halftime.

But even though Coach Steve Miller’s band managed to ground Granada Hills’ big ol’ jet airliner--6-9, 230-pound senior center Gary Gray--the Huskies were shot down by another high-flying Highlander, senior forward Sam Puathasnanon.

Puathasnanon scored a season-high 26 points on 9 of 12 shooting as Granada Hills downed North Hollywood, 66-59, at North Hollywood.

Granada Hills (18-4) will face San Fernando, a 61-50 winner over Huntington Park, in the semifinals on Friday.

“We’ve had Sam open like that all year, he’s just been under wraps,” Granada Hills’ Coach Bob Johnson said. “I’ve been telling him to shoot all season long.”’

Puathasnanon was open largely because the Huskies were trying to keep Gray wrapped up inside. Gray entered the game averaging 26 points, but North Hollywood double- and triple-teamed Gray to limit him to 13.

The defensive ploy left Puathasnanon--who averaged 11.5 points in the regular season--wide open outside, and the 6-5 senior responded by sharpshooting the Huskies’ lights out.

“We watched a film of North Hollywood over the last couple of days,” Puathasnanon said. “We knew what they were going to try to do with Gary. I just took the pass from whoever was out on the wing.”

North Hollywood offset a 16-8 first-quarter deficit by making 9 of 15 shots in the second quarter. Peter Nappi’s 15-foot jumper at the buzzer brought the Huskies even at halftime, 26-26.

Granada Hills opened up a 45-40 at the end of the third quarter on some more outside gunning, this time by senior guard Terrell Smith, who had eight of his 13 points in the period.

North Hollywood trailed, 49-43, with 6:15 remaining following a pair of free throws by Puathasnanon. The sighting of Puathasnanon at the line was to become a familiar one for North Hollywood--he made 7 of 8 in the quarter and 8 of 9 in the game. All the attempts in the fourth quarter were on one-and-one situations.

“Things went almost exactly like I thought they would,” Miller said. “We kept Gray under control . . . The thing that killed us was (Puathasnanon’s) free throws.”

Danny Klein kept North Hollywood close by scoring 11 of his 15 points in the final period. The Huskies crept back to within 49-47 on a Klein basket with five minutes remaining.

Klein fouled Puathasnanon on the next Granada Hills’ possession. Puathasnanon made both free throws and followed those with a pair of baskets on jump shots. North Hollywood got no closer than five the rest of the way.

Gray put North Hollywood (15-7) away for good with a sonic-boom dunk with 46 seconds left to give Granada Hills a 60-53 lead.

To most, the performance of Puathasnanon and the rest of the Highlander team proved that Granada Hills isn’t a one-man blitzkrieg. Puathasnanon pooh-poohed the thought.

Said Puathasnanon: “We have had a tendency to rely on Gary too much some times, and we have gotten into trouble by just tossing it into him and expecting him to score. Tonight we showed that we can win other ways, too.”