Sheahan Does It His Way as Taft Catches Reseda

For the past three seasons, Taft High guard Casey Sheahan has been his coach’s fair-haired lad. Thick-skinned too.

Jim Woodard nearly squished Sheahan in a bear hug a few moments after Taft’s 71-64 victory at Reseda on Wednesday, then picked him clean off the floor and yelled in his ear.

But then, the Toreador coach has been barking at Sheahan seemingly forever, good times and bad.

“I’ve screamed at him for three years,” Woodard said with a grin. “I like him, don’t get me wrong. But he just does what he wants out there sometimes.”

Sheahan did precisely that in the fourth quarter, scoring 16 of his game-high 28 points to keep Taft (11-3) perfect in Northwest Valley Conference play at 3-0.

Sheahan made eight of nine free throws in the quarter to help put Reseda (7-5, 2-1) away.

Reseda held a 52-48 lead entering the final quarter, but the Regents failed to score from the field until 3 minutes 36 seconds remained.

Taft held a 60-59 lead when Sheahan scored on a drive inside and made a free throw. Sophomore center Johnny Williams blocked a shot by Demetrius Walker and Sheahan scored on a bank shot at the other end to extend the lead to 65-59 with 2:39 left.

Reseda trailed, 67-64, with 20 seconds left when Sheahan converted both ends of a one-and-one. Sheahan repeated the feat with seven seconds remaining to cap a streak in which he scored 14 of Taft’s final 18 points.

Taft point guard Adam James and reserve Terry Prince were the focal points of a box-and-one defense against Reseda swingman Marquis Burns.

Burns, who is headed for UCLA, often had trouble getting his hands on the ball. Eight of his 18 points came at the free-throw line.

Sophomore point guard Trenton Cross picked up the slack for Reseda by scoring 25 points, mostly on drives to the basket.