Ollie’s Shot and Block Save North Hollywood at Wire

Senior forward Damon Ollie, who leads the region in rebounds and blocked shots, came up with one of each in the final 25 seconds of overtime Friday night to key North Hollywood High’s 65-63 victory over Grant in a physical East Valley League game.

Both teams--the biggest of rivals in the Valley Pac-8 Conference for the past eight seasons--went into the game with 7-0 marks in league play.

In the end, however, heavily favored North Hollywood came up with the key plays to win it. And Ollie, who was corralled by three defenders for most of the game and held to 15 points, proved to be the deciding factor.

Sparked by the outstanding play of brothers Ron (17 points) and Don Patterson (14 points, 13 rebounds), Grant refused to give in to the Huskies’ thieving defense and fast-paced transition game. The Lancers tied it three times in the first half, but were forced to play catch-up for most the game. Grant’s Alvin Castro hit a 10-foot turnaround jumper for a 59-59 tie with 1 minute 10 seconds remaining in regulation.

In the overtime period, North Hollywood maintained its role as pacesetter. Arthur Lee buried (25 points) a baseline jumper to open the period. Ali Karimian answered with a short jumper to tie it. North Hollywood’s Fantasia Johnson (22 points) banked in a eight-foot shot with 2 minutes left to reclaim a two-point lead for the Huskies.

With 25 seconds remaining, Johnson missed on the front end of a one-and-one, but Ollie grabbed the rebound and hit a short follow-up shot to give the Huskies a 65-61 cushion.

Grant’s Ron Patterson nailed two free throws with 10 seconds left to get the Lancers closer. One second later, Ollie was fouled, but he missed on his first free throw and Ron Patterson grabbed the rebound and pushed the ball up the court. Alvin Castro (11 points) misfired on a three-pointer, but Don Patterson (13 rebounds) rebounded and went back up for a basket that could have tied the game.

But Ollie smacked the ball away from Patterson at the buzzer.

North Hollywood (14-5, 8-0), which has not lost to a California team this season, will face Grant (16-4, 7-1) next Friday in the final league game of the season.

Grant Coach Howie Levine, who was extremely pleased with his team’s play against The Times’ second-ranked team, can only hope the Lancers are up for a repeat performance next week.

“Can we do this again and beat them at our place? I don’t know,” Levine said. “We played really good defense. We’ll have to do the same thing Friday.”