A 10 FOR WEST : Crenshaw’s Latest City Title Is a Landmark for Its Coach

Willie West, who has spent 18 years downplaying the idea of individual greatness and emphasizing the team concept, found someone to single out late Friday night, not long after Crenshaw High School won the City 4-A basketball championship.

Himself.

This victory, an 83-67 come-from-behind effort against Manual Arts of Los Angeles at the Sports Arena, was career win No. 386, against 42 losses, and City title No. 10. The latter represented a personal milestone of sorts.

“It feels really great,” West said. “I wanted to get 10 because another great coach in the Los Angeles area won 10 championships (John Wooden). He got his on the college level, and I wanted to get mine on the high school. It means a lot.

“To win 10, and with the competition in Los Angeles, is an honor. And to do it with so many different types of kids makes it even better. It shows that we do a little teaching at Crenshaw. We don’t always have the best talent every year, like everyone thinks we do.”

But this season, the Cougars do. Really.

Friday night, they also had composure. Manual Arts, which lost by 11 when the teams met in December, had a 42-36 lead at halftime after outscoring the favored Cougars, 30-14, in the second quarter. Five three-point plays, some on jump shots and some with free throws, made the difference.

But Crenshaw (26-0) used a 12-point turnaround to lead, 59-53, after the third quarter.

“We fell apart a lot,” Manual Arts guard Wayne Williams said. “Since we handled the pressure in the first half, we should have done a better job in the second half because we were into the flow of the game. But it didn’t work out that way.”

Said Toiler Coach Reggie Morris, who reached the title game for the second time in three years despite one starter at 6 foot 5 inches and the other four no taller than 6-1: “They have a great team, and we weren’t able to to put it together for four straight quarters. We didn’t have the concentration level we needed.”

Chris Small scored 30 points for Manual Arts (23-3), which had only 25 in the second half. Crenshaw was led by John Staggers with 22 points. Doug Meekins added 20, and Cornelius Holden had 19.