Reseda Goes at Double Time, Wins Twice in a Single Day

LA CRESCENTA — Ernie Banks would have been proud. The Reseda High basketball team won twice Friday.

The Regents beat Crescenta Valley, 72-65, to win the Crescenta Valley tournament, just hours after beating Palisades, 72-61, in a nonleague game at Palisades.

“I guess 72 was our lucky number,” Coach Jeff Halpern said.

It all came about because of an unusual circumstance in which the Regents were, at one point, out of the Crescenta Valley tournament. At that time, Reseda scheduled a game against Palisades.

When Crescenta Valley officials decided they needed the Regents, Halpern asked his players how they felt about playing twice in a day.

Sure, they said.

And they did. Leaving Palisades about 6 p.m., the Regents arrived at Crescenta Valley about 7:20 for an 8 o’clock game.

They started slowly, but put the game away with a flurry at the start of the fourth quarter.

Trailing, 47-46, as the final quarter began, Reseda opened the scoring with an alley-oop to Allison Carter.

The Regents stole the ball on three consecutive Falcon possessions, with Trenton Cross converting all three into layups, giving Reseda a 54-47 lead.

“Those three possessions were the game,” Falcon Coach John Goffredo said. “I couldn’t tell you what happened, though.”

What happened was Reseda (6-0) realized it was in a championship game.

“We were lackadaisical in the beginning,” Cross said. “It came down to did we want to win a championship or let it slip through our fingers?”

Cross scored 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter and added seven assists. Archie Williams had 24 points for Reseda.

Richard O’Neill scored 39 points for Crescenta Valley (5-3).