Granada Hills Stands Tall With Win Over Grant

Some would call it verticality, the ability to stand tall, to resist gravity with the greatest of ease. Granada Hills High Coach Bob Johnson probably has never heard of the word.

Granada Hills, led by front-line starters Alvin Brown and Joey Rosas, defeated Grant, 69-59, in a North Hollywood tournament championship semifinal Friday. In the championship at 8 tonight, Granada Hills (4-1) will meet Bell-Jeff, which defeated Chatsworth in the other semifinal, 66-56.

Brown and Rosas will never be confused with the sky-walkers of the world. Nor will either be mistaken for Manute Bol. If you say jump, they won’t ask how high, they’ll ask why. “They don’t need to jump,” said Grant forward Setro Terzian, who spent much of the night unsuccessfully battling Rosas and Brown underneath the basket. “When you’re that big, if you can screen out, nobody is going to stop you.”

Brown, a 6-foot, 5-inch senior, tilts the scales at 230 pounds. At least that’s his version. “He’s probably more like 240,” Johnson said. “We had to buy him a new uniform this year. We haven’t got him any new warmups yet, so he really fills those things out.”

Brown and Rosas, who is 6-7, 230, were too much for Grant (4-2), a City Section 3-A Division finalist last season. Granada Hills led, 53-48, after 3 quarters, and Brown went to work in the final 8 minutes, scoring 6 of his 22 points. He also helped key a Highlander defensive effort that limited Grant to 11 points in the quarter on 4-of-12 shooting.

Rosas, who scored 15 points, buried a 10-foot jump shot with 2:53 left to give Granada Hills a 63-55 lead.

In other tournament games:

Bell-Jeff 66, Chatsworth 56--Bell-Jeff advanced to the championship game by holding off a late Chancellor rally in a battle of unbeaten teams.

Bell-Jeff senior center Nick Sanderson scored 27 points and was 4 for 4 from 3-point range to lead the Guards (7-0). Greg Dunn scored 15 points and was 3 for 3 from 3-point range for Bell-Jeff.

Rick Garrick scored 26 points for Chatsworth (5-1).

Poly 61, North Hollywood 48--North Hollywood was outscored, 15-5, in the fourth quarter and was eliminated from its own tournament by the upstart Parrots (2-4).

Scott Cooper scored 18 points for Poly and John Bruner added 13.

Birmingham 70, Reseda 59 (OT)--The Regents nearly won their first game of the season, a consolation semifinal, behind a game-high 24 points by Michael Hawkins, but Reseda (0-6) was outscored, 13-2, in overtime.

Glenn Sucich scored 23 points for Birmingham (3-3), which erased a 29-21 Reseda lead at the half.