Taft Shows Plenty in Reserve to Pull Out Win

Just as Taft High reserve Joe Snow knifed through the lane for a driving layup late in the fourth quarter, Granada Hills’ Jerry Allen swooped in from behind and batted the ball off the glass and out of bounds. In the blink of an eye, the entire Taft bench was up in arms, screaming for a goaltending call.

That is, most of the Taft starters were out of their seats, because much of the Toreador bench was on the floor.

Riding a second-half wave sparked by a trio of reserves, Taft crawled out of a 13-point halftime hole to defeat Granada Hills, 74-71, in a North Valley League game at Taft on Thursday.

“That’s got to be the first time we’ve had a comeback like that with three guys off the bench leading the way,” Taft Coach Jim Woodard said. “We have a good bench, maybe our best ever, but this was something.”

It was something wild, to be sure.

Granada Hills (16-5, 5-3 in league play) jumped to a 39-26 halftime lead as Taft made only eight of 30 attempts from the field. The cold snap didn’t last long, however.

Taft (14-6, 6-2) went on a 9-1 roll to open the third quarter, cutting the Highlander lead to 40-35. Taft junior guard Casey Sheahan scored seven of his game-high 22 points in the quarter and reserves Steve Harris (six points), Miguel Carrillo (five) and Snow (10) contributed key baskets as the Toreadors stayed within 55-51 entering the fourth quarter.

Sheahan scored on a three-point play and a driving layin to tie it, 56-56, with 6 minutes 20 seconds remaining. Thereafter, no team led by more than four and the final 2 1/2 minutes were a study in zenith-to-nadir momentum change.

Granada Hills forward Gene Barshtak (11 points) drilled a three-point shot with 2:30 left to cut Taft’s lead to 62-61, but things were just heating up. Here’s proof: Counting Barshtak’s bomb, the Highlanders made five of their last seven shots and still lost.

Sheahan then nailed an NBA-length, three-point shot to restore Taft’s four-point lead, but Randy Eason answered with a layin. With 1:45 left, Snow broke loose on a fast break when Allen, who had 20 points, skied in from behind for the block. Or so it seemed.

“It was goaltending all the way,” Woodard said. “Everybody in the gym saw it.”

Well, not everybody. After a few seconds passed--during which time Woodard was turning a curious shade of blue--one official overruled the second and Snow gained credit for the basket to give Taft a 67-63 lead.

Barshtak, however, canned another three-point basket with 1:11 left to cut that to one. Sheahan responded by driving through the key and tossing in an underhanded shot off the glass. He was fouled and made the free throw to give Taft a 70-66 lead with 1:06 left.

Sagy Koren (10 points) answered with yet another three-point basket with 55 seconds left to pare the lead to one, and Taft went into a stall. The Highlanders fouled Snow with 20 seconds left and called time.

With a surname name like that, however, this guy wasn’t about to be iced: Snow made both ends of the one and one for a three-point Taft lead. Koren missed a shot from just inside the three-point line with 10 seconds left and Barshtak tipped in a follow shot to cut the lead to one. But Taft’s Eric Dafney was fouled and made both free throws to close out the scoring.