Vanquished Foe Admires Grant’s Balancing Act

Mike McNulty’s voice shows a trace of envy when he discusses Grant High, which unceremoniously ousted El Camino Real from the City Section 3-A Division basketball playoffs last week, 72-48.

“They do a couple of things real well,” said McNulty, coach of the Conquistadores. “They play pretty good man defense, but what they really do well is pass the ball. That’s something that can hurt a lot of high school teams. They’ll make 10 passes when they have to.”

Grant’s scoring balance also has toppled many teams. McNulty almost gets wistful talking about it.

“They don’t have that one real good guy,” he said. “They have three or four guys who can hurt you. I’d rather have it that way, any time.”

Grant (21-3), the East Valley League champion, will play in the quarterfinals at 7:30 tonight at home against Locke.

Call him restless: With the exception of garbage time, Jermoine Brantley is hardly ever taken out of the lineup during a game, a rarity at Granada Hills.

“I’ve never had a kid who played the whole game,” Granada Hills Coach Bob Johnson said. “I almost always rest a kid the final minute or two of the quarter, so they get the minute during the timeout too. But with Brantley, I realized I didn’t need to.”

Brantley, for instance, played every minute of Granada Hills’ double-overtime victory over Kennedy in the regular season.

In Friday’s City 4-A playoff loss to Washington, though, Brantley finally needed a breather. After playing the entire first half of the first-round game--Granada Hills took a 50-33 lead--Brantley was removed in the third quarter.

“For about 30 seconds,” Johnson said.

Granada Hills, a finesse team, took a second-half pounding at the hands of physical Washington, which won in overtime, 87-85. Johnson said that Brantley often was double-teamed, held, pushed and knocked down. After a season of setting the pace, the 5-foot-11 senior finally ran out of gas.

“There were two or three times in a row in the second half where he drove right down the floor to the hoop, or dished it off to somebody,” Johnson said. “That, along with the physical pounding he was taking, finally wore him down, I think.”

Add Johnson: The 12th-year coach said that the development of the team left him deeply satisfied with the season, first-round playoff loss or not.

“The team progressed so much from where we started that I have to be happy with the season,” he said. “We had some serious problems early with bickering on the team. I actually had a guy come up to me early in the season, wish me luck and ask me how I was going to put up with these guys.

“We had guys who griped, moped and groaned all the time.”

Johnson, who led Granada Hills to the 3-A title three seasons ago, credited Brantley and senior forward Aaron Lattimore with taking charge.

“The team changed,” Johnson said of the Highlanders, the Times No. 2-ranked Valley team at the end of the regular season. “It ended up being one of the more fun years I’ve ever had.”

Surprise package: In North Hollywood’s 94-68 dismantling of Lincoln, the Huskies might have unearthed the extra weapon needed to make a statement in the playoffs.

His name? Tommy Byrdsong, senior guard. His effort? Twenty points. That from a player who averaged less than 10 during the regular season.

One need not convince Coach Steve Miller of Byrdsong’s importance.

“Absolutely (we need that),” Miller said. “They left him open all game.”

Worrying about Byrdsong, of course, becomes an added nuisance for Husky foes when a team is already concerned about forward Harry Marks, who scored 21 points Friday night, and center Dana Jones, who scored 19 points to go with 10 blocks, 15 rebounds and seven assists.

Add North Hollywood: Miller called North Hollywood’s effort against Lincoln the team’s best since the Huskies played Granada Hills. North Hollywood pounded Granada Hills, 70-49, on Nov. 29, the team’s first game of the year.

Afterward that November win, Miller said: “We have to get better. We’re going to get better.”

It took some time, but now, Miller surely would agree, is as good as any. North Hollywood (21-3) will play at Hamilton at 7:30 tonight in the quarterfinals.

Voodoo basketball: Don’t ask Reseda Coach Jeff Halpern out to lunch today, unless you’re willing to buy him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

After all, it is game day.

Halpern, who subscribes to the old-fashioned, I-won’t-shower-until-we-win-another-game superstition, will carry on his lunchtime tradition in anticipation of tonight’s 3-A quarterfinal against San Fernando. As will his wife, a firm believer in the power of the basketball occult.

As for dinner?

“Normally we don’t eat that,” Halpern said. “We’re too nervous by that time.”

Anticipation: The name Lisa Leslie would strike fear into most high school girls’ basketball coaches. After all, the 6-foot-5 Morningside senior recently scored 101 points in one half.

But Channel Islands Coach Ryle Lynch-Cole has been hoping for the opportunity to play Morningside, the defending Southern Section Division 5-AA champion. Lynch-Cole wants to see how 6-foot junior center Sal Tauau of the Raiders matches up against Leslie.

“It’s been one of our goals all season to play Morningside,” Lynch-Cole said. “We wanted Sal to get a shot at playing against her before (Leslie) graduates.”

A 44-42 win over Alhambra on Saturday night fulfilled Lynch-Cole’s wishes. Channel Islands will play top-seeded Morningside at 7:30 tonight in a 5-AA quarterfinal game at Channel Islands.

Kirby Lee and staff writers Steve Elling and Brian Murphy contributed to this notebook.