Reseda Overcomes Stellar Effort by Kennedy’s Wyatt

Senior forward David Horesh hit five three-point shots en route to a career-high 21 points, and junior guard Trenton Cross had 14 points Wednesday to lead Reseda High to a 64-57 Northwest Valley Conference victory over host Kennedy.

The Regents (4-7, 2-1 in league play) overcame a game-high 32 points by Kennedy senior guard Joe Wyatt.

“I told the team, ‘Let (Wyatt) get his 30 as long as we can stop everyone else,’ ” Reseda Coach Jeff Halpern said.

Wyatt, the City Section leader in scoring with a 30.2 average, scored Kennedy’s first nine points of the fourth quarter--on two three-point shots and a three-point play--to cut Reseda’s lead to 51-49 with 3 minutes 55 seconds remaining.

But Wyatt, who scored 11 of Kennedy’s 17 points in the quarter, could not win the game single-handedly. The balanced scoring of Reseda was the difference. Six Reseda players scored in the final quarter. Cross and Horesh each scored five points, and Nathan Gilmore, Tobe Lewis, Patrick Galan and Anthony Moreno combined for the team’s other 10 points in the quarter.

“That’s what we’ve got to do, play as a team,” Halpern said. “Usually, Trent gets double figures. We’ve got to have everybody step up for us to win.”

Said Wyatt: “I’d take balanced scoring over a (loss). We can win, but everybody has to step up.”

Guard Jermon Cooks scored 13 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Kennedy (5-12, 0-3).

“We only have one shooter,” Kennedy Coach Yutaka Shimizu said. “We do the best we can with what we have.

“They have to try to do the things they can do well, and stay away from the things they can’t.”

In a game that featured Cross (24.6 scoring average) and Wyatt, it was the play of Horesh that gave Reseda the lead for good. Horesh hit his fourth three-pointer with 1:55 left in the third quarter to give Reseda a 40-38 lead. “I stepped up today and it had to be a team effort,” Horesh said.

In the early going, both teams tried to set up their offenses around their standout players. But Horesh gave a foreshadowing of what was to come when he hit the first of his five three-pointers with 5:20 remaining in the first quarter.

Horesh made two more three-point shots in the second quarter to give Reseda a 32-30 halftime lead.