Reseda Is Ready for Rough Stuff : High school basketball: Cross scores 20 as Regents move to 13-0 with 72-63 win over physical Chatsworth.

Battered, bloodied, bowed, bruised. . . .

Unbeaten.

Trenton Cross may carry a souvenir from Reseda High’s 72-63 victory over Chatsworth in a Northwest Valley Conference opener on Friday night.

Call it a not-so-subtle reminder of exactly how rough the game was.

“It was physical,” said Cross, who suffered a nasty cut when he got socked under his right eye. “I still can’t really see out of this eye. It’s still blurry.”

When his Cross-eyed vision gets back to 20-20, the Reseda guard will see that he scored 20 points and that the Regents (13-0, 1-0 in league play) are still undefeated. Interesting that Reseda Coach Jeff Halpern used the word “focused” about three times in his spirited postgame interview.

“These kids are tough,” Halpern said, his voice rising to a crescendo. “They don’t back down to anyone. We could not let them come into our house and intimidate us.”

Chatsworth (8-7, 0-1) had a pronounced height advantage, but it didn’t help beyond the first quarter. The Chancellors raced to an 11-5 lead with inside muscle, but Reseda reserve Patrick Galan helped even the score--and more.

In the second quarter, Galan scored all seven of his points and took some rebounding pressure off center Roderick Jones. What’s more, Galan hit a three-point shot from midcourt at the halftime buzzer to give Reseda a 33-24 lead.

“That was a real backbreaker,” Halpern said.

Thereafter, Reseda put the game on the backs of its guards. Cross and backcourt buddies Archie Williams and Damon Bailey combined for 50 points--and 14 of the Regents’ 18 in the fourth quarter.

With Reseda holding a 40-33 lead with 4 minutes 15 seconds left in the third quarter, Williams (19 points) scored inside to start an 11-4 run. Jones, a transfer from Chatsworth, scored twice in the mini-burst and made sure everyone knew about it.

“I was into (the game), big,” said Jones, who outscored opposing center Eddie Miller, 14-8. “It felt so good to get ‘em back.”

Reseda led by as many as 14 points in the fourth quarter, but Chatsworth made it close with a 16-6 run to pull to within 63-58 with 2:02 remaining. Chatsworth missed its next three shots, however, and Reseda made eight of 12 free throws down the stretch to hold the Chancellors at bay.

Good thing, because the Reseda pep band had started playing “We Are the Champions” with 4:19 left.

“This is a big lift,” Jones said. “People said we hadn’t beat nobody big. But we can play with anybody in the 3-A (Division), the 4-A or wherever.”