Crenshaw Gets a Test but Wins

Manual Arts High School, the little team that (almost) could, had the best basketball team in the state on the ropes for three quarters Friday night.

But in the end, it came down to the big team that can--and does. Crenshaw, favored to win the state’s Division I championship in two weeks, took the first big step by winning its fourth City boys’ 4-A championship in five years and 10th in Willie West’s 18 years as coach with an 83-67 victory over Manual Arts.

However, it was a game much closer than the score would indicate.

A crowd of 12,133 at the Sports Arena saw Crenshaw run its record to 26-0 by coming back from a surprising 42-36 halftime deficit. It had a 12-point turnaround to lead, 59-53, after the third quarter and then put the game away for good in the final eight minutes.

“I don’t think they had a chance once we got going,” said Crenshaw forward John Staggers, who scored a team-high 22 points off the bench. “I think it was over when we got the first lead (in the third quarter). That was it. It was over.”

It was that simple.

“It was meant to be,” Manual Arts guard Wayne Williams said. “It was in our hands. In the second half, we got comfortable and stopped executing what we were supposed to do.”

Manual Arts, which starts four guards and a forward, finished 23-3. The Toilers got a game-high 30 points from Chris Small.

Crenshaw, which won by 11 when the teams met in December, hit the ground running. From a Manual Arts point of view, it wasn’t a good way to begin an upset bid.

Manual’s first four possessions resulted in three turnovers and an offensive foul on an inbounds play as Crenshaw jumped out to a 6-0 lead. By the end of the first quarter it was 22-12, and Manual Arts, which is located down the street from Exposition Park, looked as if it was headed for the longest half-mile bus ride in history.

Until the second quarter, that is. Manual made such a comeback that it, not heavily favored Crenshaw, led at halftime, 42-36.

Manual Arts, whose only losses this season came against Crenshaw and Cleveland of Reseda, took the lead at 36-35 on Small’s layup and subsequent free throw. It was one of 21 points for Small in the first half and one of five three-point plays for Manual Arts in the second quarter.

Manual Arts kept the pressure on Crenshaw, outscoring it, 12-3, in the final two minutes of the first half. The only point for Crenshaw, a team that had scored 100 or more in 13 games, over the final 1 1/2 minutes before intermission came on a free throw by Cornelius Holden.

Manual Arts outscored Crenshaw, 30-14, in the second quarter, but the second half was a different story.