Brown Proves His Points as Granada Hills Claims Crown

Alvin Brown, a 6-foot, 5-inch, 240-pound senior forward for Granada Hills High, said that he had two things to prove in the championship game of the North Hollywood tournament against Bell-Jeff on Saturday night.

The first was to show himself that he was capable of playing well on defense as well as offense. The second was to show himself and his teammates that the Highlanders were a good basketball team.

He did both in resounding fashion as Granada Hills blew away Bell-Jeff, 85-69.

Brown scored a team-high 19 points and grabbed a game-high 22 rebounds, 10 of them at the offensive end.

“I knew I was capable of playing a game like tonight,” said Brown, who also blocked 5 shots. “People were bad-mouthing us before the tournament. Saying we weren’t good enough to win. But we proved tonight that we were.”

Granada Hills, powered by Brown’s 11 points, had a 39-33 lead at halftime, then put the Guards away with a 13-0 run to start the second half.

“I didn’t tell them anything fancy at halftime,” Granada Hills Coach Bob Johnson said. “I just told them to keep playing defense like they had been and to start making layups.”

The Highlanders must have listened to Johnson as Granada Hills hit 6 of its first 7 shots in the second half.

Granada Hills, which held a 69-46 lead in the fourth quarter, also used a a stifling defense to disrupt Bell-Jeff’s potent offense.

Led by guards John Johnson (17 points) and Jamal Brantley (13), the Highlanders forced 17 turnovers, 10 in the first half.

Johnson, Brantley and reserves Erly Saldiano and Renardo Page were adept at crashing the offensive boards, frequently getting inside for offensive rebounds when Brown was boxed out.

Johnson, the tournament MVP, Brown and teammate Joey Rosas (14 points) were all named to the all-tournament team for their efforts.

Bell-Jeff (7-1), which made a valiant, but futile run against Granada Hills late in the fourth quarter, was led by Greg Dunn with 19 points and Nick Sanderson with 18.

“This was our best game of the year,” Johnson said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Bell-Jeff would probably agree.

In other tournament games:

Poly 87, Birmingham 78--The Parrots, ignited by 3-point baskets by John Bruner and Scott Cooper, went on a 10-0 spree early in the third quarter to break open a close contest in the consolation championship.

Cooper scored a game-high 32 points for Poly (3-4) and Bruner added 23.

Birmingham (3-4) was paced by Glenn Sucich, who scored 16 of his 24 points in the fourth period.

Sucich scored 6 consecutive points at the start of the fourth period as the Braves narrowed their deficit to 10 points.

Tyrone Craig and Danny Larson added 15 and 14 points for Birmingham.

Grant 54, Chatsworth 50--An inability to hit free throws and open shots cost Chatsworth in the third-place game.

Chatsworth held a 42-36 lead at the end of the third quarter but converted only 1 of 8 field-goal attempts and 5 of 14 free throws in the final period.

Sean Watkins led Grant (5-2) with 14 points and Nate Conner, Chris Cooke and Keith Weinstein each added 10.

Rick Garrick had 16 points and Dominic Desantis added 15 for Chatsworth (5-2).