Simi Valley Overruns Quartz Hill

A good team, the adage allows, will beat a good player any day.

Even if that player is Gabe Higa of Quartz Hill High, player of the year in the Golden League last season.

Higa stands 6 feet, 6 inches, but he is about eight-feet tall with his right arm in the air and his back to the basket.

And that’s a good picture of Higa’s posture for most of Tuesday night’s Southern Section 5-AA Division playoff opener at Simi Valley.

Higa wanted the ball--and he got it, scoring a game-high 27 points. But Simi Valley, five-time Marmonte League champion, wanted the game--and the Pioneers got it, checking Higa enough to walk away with a 68-59 victory.

Simi Valley (18-8) led the entire game, penetrating in the front court to leap to a 24-9 first-quarter advantage then harassing Higa in the second half.

Forward Kenny Hood, with the timely help of center Mike Wawryk and guard Tim Jaqua, blanketed Higa whenever he set foot in the paint, frequently forcing him to dish the ball off to a teammate.

Hood scored 17 points to complement Wawryk’s team-high 23. Both players had nine rebounds.

“We knew going in that Higa was their man and that they were going to try and go to him,” Hood said. “Not enough of their team contributed enough to hurt us that bad, and I held him--right around his average, anyway.”

Higa, who will attend UC Irvine in the fall, averaged 23 points in his fourth varsity season. But, at least on this night, he received little support.

Guard Chris Young scored 11 points, but no other player for the Rebels (14-12) scored in double figures.

“I don’t think that was necessarily the deciding factor,” Higa said. “We tried to get it inside, but we couldn’t. In the first half, we didn’t run any plays to speak of.”

Simi Valley moved the ball expertly in the first half, zipping the ball in and out of the key in search of the high-percentage shot. Many of them were located.

Wawryk made four jump shots from the lane and Hood added seven points in the first quarter.

Quartz Hill opened the second quarter with a 7-0 run, but Simi Valley, with six points each from Wawryk and Hood in the period, went to the locker room with a 41-30 advantage.

In the third quarter, Quartz Hill made its biggest move, pulling to within 52-48 in the final minute as Higa scored eight points. But Simi Valley reserve guard James Krevitz, after an instant of hesitation, unloaded--and buried--a back-breaking, all-net three-point shot with 33 seconds to play to give the Pioneers a 55-48 lead.

Quartz Hill pulled to within 56-52 on two free throws by Higa, but Steve Carnes’ five free throws--four in the final minute--boosted Simi Valley.

“Sure, you want to have your No. 1 shooter have the ball every time down the court,” Quartz Hill Coach Don Moore said. “But they’re not stupid. They put three guys on him and our other guys had bad shooting nights. Gabe played about as good a game as he could. He missed only a couple (or) three shots.”

For the record, Higa, Quartz Hill’s career scoring leader with more than 1,400 points, made 11 of 16 shots from the field.

Simi Valley sizzled from the field in the first half, making 15 of 30 from the field. But he made only three of 18 in the fourth quarter to finish 23 of 59 (38.9%).