Muir Causes Glendale to Lose Contact After Harper Finally Finds His, 89-65

Jason Harper lost a contact lens early in the first quarter of the Glendale High basketball team’s game against Muir on Tuesday while struggling for a rebound. The game was stopped while players and referees searched the floor.

The lens was found after several minutes, and with his vision restored, Harper had no trouble finding the mark.

However, Harper’s teammates never found theirs in an 89-65 loss in a Pacific League game at Muir.

Harper scored a career-high 35 points, including 26 in the second half. The 6-foot-6 senior forward connected on 12 of 17 shots while Glendale struggled, hitting only 23 of 57 (40.4%).

Jerry Armen added 11 points and was the only other Glendale player to score more than six.

Muir improved to 13-4 and 3-0 in league play while Glendale, which had won nine of its past 10 since a loss to Crespi in December, dipped to 11-6 and 2-1.

“We just fell apart from their pressure,” Harper said.

“We didn’t get into our offense and didn’t get back on defense.”

Muir’s 89 points were the most allowed by Glendale this season. The Dynamiter defense had yielded an average of 54.3 points during the streak and allowed more than 58 only once.

“We were terrible,” Glendale Coach Bob Davidson said. “We missed a lot of easy shots. We’ve never been pressured defensively like this.

“We fell behind and lost our composure. We got into their running game and that’s not something that I wanted to do.”

Muir broke an 11-11 tie in the first period and took the lead for good, 16-13, at the end of the quarter.

Glendale closed to 19-17 in the second quarter, but Muir put the game out of reach by scoring nine consecutive points.

Simaine Stewart scored seven of his 16 points during the spurt and the Mustangs went on to outscore the Dynamiters, 16-4, during the run and take a 35-21 halftime lead.

Rob Apcar and Harper combined for Glendale’s first seven points of the second half to bring the Dynamiters within nine points, 37-28, with 6:23 left in the third quarter.

The Mustangs quickly deflated the Glendale rally with a 10-2 run, four points coming on consecutive dunks by Darren Greene.

Glendale couldn’t get closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

Phillip Turner and Jacque Vaughn added 15 and 14 points for Muir as six Mustang players scored in double figures.