Brantley Cuts San Fernando to Quick : Basketball: The Granada Hills guard scores a game-high 26 points in an 81-72 victory over the slower Tigers.

When Jermoine Brantley skipped off the floor with two minutes left in Granada Hills High’s blowout victory over San Fernando on Wednesday, he cast a quick look at Coach Bob Johnson, who had left his chair to meet the senior guard on the sideline.

Johnson gave Brantley a pat on the back and handed over a fresh towel. Sometimes, though, as Brantley knows too well, Johnson has been tempted to roll up the very same towel and whack a guy in the rear after a less-than-picturesque performance.

And, Johnson concedes, there have been quite a few bad days--and, quite likely, there are more on the way. “We’re erratic and we will be all year,” Johnson said, a trace of resignation in his voice. “Some days we can shoot like this. But we don’t all the time, so we’ll live and die by it.”

Led by Brantley’s life-saving 26 points and 10 assists, the Highlanders terminated San Fernando, 81-72, in a Northwest Valley Conference game at San Fernando.

By the time Brantley exited with 2:03 remaining--his first breather of the game--Granada Hills (10-7 overall, 1-1 in league play) had rolled to a 17-point lead. Brantley, who runs the floor show from his point-guard position, made four three-point baskets in the second quarter to help give Granada Hills a 47-37 halftime lead.

The Highlanders scored 25 points in the second period, taking advantage of the absence of foul-plagued San Fernando starters Russell Baldwin and Errol Garnett, and simply outsprinted the Tigers with a blistering offensive pace.

“I very much like the up-tempo game,” Brantley said with a grin. “The best asset of our team is its speed.”

And as San Fernando Coach Dick Crowell knows, speed kills. Especially when your asset is on the bench.

“The foul trouble, with (Baldwin) on the bench, that didn’t help,” Crowell said. “And they were unbelievably hot.”

With Baldwin and Garnett riding pine to open the second quarter--both had picked up three fouls in the first four minutes--San Fernando went to its substitutes. Reserve center Lance Whitaker, a fierce-looking, 6-foot-7, 240-pound senior whose tongue-in-cheek nickname is “Sweet Pea,” scored 11 points in the period and finished with a team-high 19.

With a starting lineup as skinny as Olive Oyl, Granada Hills needed to make some alterations inside, and fast.

“We had to front him in the second half,” Johnson said, in reference to Whitaker. “We packed it in in the second half and held ‘em down.”

Indeed, even with Whitaker and Baldwin (14 points) in the lineup to open the third period, San Fernando (8-4, 1-1) was unable to make a run as Granada Hills sagged inside and encouraged the Tigers to take perimeter shots.

It didn’t take much prompting.

“We should have been taking 30 or 40 seconds a shot, pounding it in,” Crowell said. “Sometimes, when a young kid’s open, he thinks he’s supposed to shoot.”

In all, the backcourt duo of Brantley and Osiris Nalls outscored the Tiger starters at guard, 38-13. And while senior forward Aaron Lattimore added 17 points, the damage was done elsewhere: When it came down to trying to match players such as Brantley in the all-out sprint department, Crowell threw in the towel.

“We have no speed at guard,” Crowell said. “Shoot, we don’t have one kid on this team that’s quick.”

This time, that made for a quick exit.