Walker Scores 37 as Brea-Olinda Wins Easily

Brea-Olinda High School junior forward Keith Walker knows there’s a long road ahead to reach his goal of a Southern Section 3-A boys’ basketball championship.

So even though he scored a game-high 37 points to lead the Wildcats to a 73-44 victory over La Sierra in a first-round game Wednesday, he’s not that thrilled.

“Our season’s not over yet,” he said. “So I won’t be happy unless we’ve won it all. I’ll get a little happier each game (we win).”

The Wildcats, who play San Dimas on Friday, got off to a fast start Wednesday on the strength of Aaron Charlton’s three-point play and Walker’s two three-point baskets for 9-0 lead.

Charlton finished with 16 points and Craig McPhee contributed 11 rebounds for the Wildcats.

The closest La Sierra got in the first half was at 22-16 when 6-8 center Keith Greeley sank two free throws midway through the second quarter.

Brea-Olinda (20-7) used a zone defense to shut down the inside game of Greeley, who was limited to 14 points, 11 below his season average.

“Usually we don’t do that,” Walker said of the double, and sometimes triple-teaming on Greeley, who will attend USC. “But I’ve played against him before, so I knew he was big and strong.”

Greeley missed his first four shots and made only five of 19 field-goal attempts in the game.

Walker was 14 of 28 from the field four of nine from three-point range.

Brea-Olinda opened up a 46-31 lead after three quarters after an 11-3 run to close out the period. Walker, whose season high was 42 points against El Dorado, had six points in the spurt.

The Wildcats maintained a comfortable lead through the final quarter. They never allowed the Eagles (15-8) to get any closer than 12 points, and closed out the game with a 14-0 streak.