Granada Hills Wins in 2 Overtimes

All the ingredients were there. Fervent fans trading taunt for taunt across the gymnasium at one another. Rival cheerleaders matching leaping routine for leaping routine. Several near-melees between students during the game and another afterward.

Throw in a double-overtime white-knuckler, and what have you got?

The Kennedy-Granada Hills high school rivalry, of course.

Friday night at Granada Hills, the basketball more than matched the hoopla as the Highlanders defeated Kennedy, 77-73, in double overtime in a North Valley League game.

“It was a great game for a spectator,” a disconsolate Kennedy Coach Yutaka Shimizu said. “I’ve been through a lot of these.”

None more hotly contested than this one.

Kennedy (10-7, 3-2 in league play) looked like a sure winner when the Highlanders’ Jermoine Brantley, not realizing that his team was out of timeouts, called one with nine seconds to play and the score tied, 62-62. A technical foul was assessed, and Kennedy’s Juan Segura hit the second of two free throws to give the Golden Cougars a 63-62 lead.

Kennedy also got the ball out of bounds, and Garret Anderson (a game-high 36 points and 10 rebounds) increased the lead to 65-62 by sinking two free throws with seven seconds left.

Brantley (30 points, five steals) redeemed himself by hitting a long three-point shot with two seconds remaining, sending the game into overtime.

Brantley scored four points in the first overtime, including a short jump shot that gave Granada Hills (13-7, 4-1) a 71-69 lead with less than 30 seconds to play.

But Brantley and teammate Aaron Lattimore (14 points, 10 rebounds) both missed the front end of one-and-one situations in the final seconds and Anderson, who scored all six Kennedy points in the first overtime, sank an 18-foot shot at the buzzer to send the game into a second three-minute period.

Kennedy failed to score another basket. Brantley put Granada Hills ahead for good, 75-73, with his third three-point shot of the game, and reserve forward Jevon Lee sank two free throws with 13 seconds left to clinch the win.

“Brantley’s our guy. We kind of live and die by him,” Granada Hills Coach Bob Johnson said.