Peek Season Arrives at Hart : Basketball: Junior center scores career-high 35 points in first-round playoff win over Buena.

Hart High basketball Coach Greg Herrick and Buena counterpart Glen Hannah, teammates at Loyola Marymount in 1972, had never met as opposing coaches until their teams’ Southern Section I-A Division first-round playoff game Friday at Hart.

In preparation for the game, Hannah sought the advice of another player on the 1972 LMU team, Bill Thomason, who now coaches at Loyola High.

Thomason loaned Hannah a videotape of Loyola’s 96-80 loss to Hart in December and advised Hannah to concentrate his defensive efforts on 6-foot-5 forward Marty Downen, who had scored 39 points against the Cubs.

Downen scored 21 points Friday in Hart’s 95-73 victory over Buena, but it was teammate Ali Peek who did the most damage.

Peek scored a career-high 35 points, connecting on 14 of 18 shots. The 6-4, 235-pound junior center also blocked five shots and had 12 rebounds.

“After watching the tape, I was worried about (Peek) the most,” Hannah said. “He sat out a lot of the Loyola game with foul trouble, but I could tell he was the most powerful one inside.”

Hannah assigned Matt Egan, his best inside defender, to guard Peek, and even tried double- and triple-teaming him.

“No matter what we did, he was a man against boys,” Hannah said about Peek, who also made seven of nine free throws. “We tried fouling him and he even shoots his free throws well.”

After a 4-5 start, Hart (19-7) captured its first Foothill League title since 1984 and also won its own tournament for the first time in 19 years. The Indians had won 15 of their past 16 games before Tuesday’s second-round 84-66 loss to Los Alamitos.

In a 59-57 loss to Alhambra on Jan. 25--the only loss during the streak--Peek had 10 points and eight rebounds in the first half but was limited to only three points and two rebounds in the second.

Alhambra trailed, 51-40, with three minutes left in the third quarter, but Hart scored only six points the remainder of the game and made only three of 13 shots.

It proved to be the turning point of the season for Peek.

“We had the game won, but I just shut down,” said Peek, who along with Downen and 6-5 forward Keith Halcovich call themselves the Newhall Power Co.

“We’re the power lines. We’re the big men inside that are supposed to do the job. I learned a lot after (the loss to Alhambra). I made sure that I focused better and worked hard to do everything right so we would win.”

Focusing for four quarters was not a problem against Buena. Peek had only six points in the first quarter but scored 19 in the second half, including 12 in the final period.

“Those were not all layups and dunks, either,” Herrick said. “A lot of those were seven- to 10-foot jump shots. The best thing about him is he can shoot. You can’t block his shot.”

Peek, who averaged 12.6 points in Hart’s first 21 games, averaged 25.5 in the four before Tuesday’s game.

“We lost a lot of games in the beginning,” Peek said. “We made it a goal to win league and win our tournament. It was one of my goals to raise my level of play for the playoffs.”

In an 86-63 win Jan. 31 over Schurr, which had been tied with Hart for first place in the league, Peek had 23 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks.

He followed it with 32 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks in a 91-68 win over San Gabriel.

Peek, who was born in Honolulu, split his time between basketball and swimming his freshman year until Herrick encouraged him to drop swimming and concentrate on basketball.

“He’s been getting better and has more confidence,” Herrick said. “I’m not a fortune teller, but I think he can play at the (NCAA) Division I level. He’s a tough load to guard and we haven’t played anybody who can stop him one on one.”