Harbor Loses Argument, but Wins the Game, 84-78

The Harbor College men’s basketball team held on for an 84-78 victory over Mt. San Antonio College in a South Coast Conference game Saturday night at Harbor.

With Harbor leading, 73-71, with one minute 46 seconds to play, Danny Fernandez was intentionally fouled by Mt. SAC’s Mack Reliford.

But instead of Fernandez going to the line, Harbor forward Bassirou Niang stepped up to attempt the free throws. Niang made two free throws before Mt. SAC Coach Ralph Osterkamp was able to alert officials of the error.

“We wanted to send Bassirou to the line,” Fernandez said. “He’s our best free thrower, but they caught on. You never know unless you try it. Sometimes you can pull a fast one.”

Niang’s points were wiped away, but only momentarily. Fernandez made the two free throws to extend the lead to 75-71.

The Seahawks made eight consecutive free throws to increase their lead to 83-75 with 32 seconds to play.

Fernandez, a 6-foot-4 freshman from South Torrance High, made four and Roland Merriwether and David Boone, who had five assists, made two each.

“I thought that Fernandez was fouled in the first place,” Harbor Coach Carl Strong said. “Bassirou had a strange look on his face, but I didn’t want to say anything at that point because a technical at that time could be costly.”

Osterkamp, though, was not afraid to express his viewpoint.

“They did it on purpose,” he said. “They knew about it and we knew about it. Who knows how many times they’ve done it.”

Merriwether had a team-high 19 points and Niang, a 6-foot-7 sophomore from France, had 17. Jerry Allen added 17 points and nine rebounds for Harbor (11-12, 1-2 in conference play).

The Seahawks extended a seven-point halftime lead to 60-43 midway through the second half, but the Mounties rallied to close to 73-70 on a three-point basket by Greg Alley with 2:18 left.

Reliford made a free throw to cut the deficit to 73-71 with two minutes left.

William English had a game-high 23 points and Alley scored 18, including three three-point baskets in the second half for Mt. San Antonio (9-13, 1-2).

The Seahawks scored eight consecutive points to extend a two-point lead to 28-18 with 7:51 left in the first half.

Niang made a three-point basket to give Harbor its biggest lead of the first half, 38-27, with a little under two minutes left.