High School Basketball : Burroughs Uses Bulk for Victory

St. Francis High trailed Burroughs by three points in the waning moments of Thursday night’s game and guard Allen Freemon--the Knights’ best 3-point shooter--leaned back in his folding chair and gazed upward in frustration.

Freemon, who had scored 20 points, fouled out with 3 minutes left in the opening round of the Crescenta Valley tournament.

“It felt like I was in prison,” he said.

Rather it was Freemon’s teammates--none of whom are taller than 6-feet, 2-inches--who were handcuffed.

St. Francis lost to a considerably larger Burroughs team, 80-69.

Whereas the Knights (2-3) had reasonable success with perimeter shots, Burroughs (4-2) was able to pull away when it slowed the pace and concentrated on working the ball inside to 6-5 center Tom Clemons (20 points) and forward Dan Murphy (29 points, 6 assists).

“We were going a mile a minute in the first half,” Burroughs Coach Ira Sollod said. “We slowed it up and ran a zone offense and that really helped.”

The Knights were behind, 69-66, with less than 4 minutes to play when forward Jeff Dyrek cut the deficit to 1 with a 10-foot turn-around jumper at the baseline.

But seconds later, Freemon was charged with his fifth foul, left the court and took any semblance of St. Francis momentum with him.

Murphy and Clemons combined for 10 of the final 11 Burroughs points. Even had Freemon not fouled out, the outcome might not have changed. Although he hit 3 3-pointers in the first half, he failed to make any in the second half.

And many of his misses were bombs launched from well beyond the stripe.