Harvard Live Puts On Smashing Show

Don’t believe everything you see on television.

The Harvard-Westlake High basketball team Santa Paula Coach Tom Donahue saw on videotape was not the same one that beat his team, 76-49, in a Southern Section Division III-A quarterfinal Tuesday night at Notre Dame High.

“My impression from the tapes was that we could play with these guys and maybe beat them,” Donahue said. “I guess tapes are deceiving.”

Donahue also said the videotape showed Harvard’s top two players, freshman twins Jason and Jarron Collins, were somewhat lazy and could be handled.

Wrong again.

Jason Collins, 6-foot-8, scored 24 points by making full use of his height advantage--Santa Paula’s tallest starter was 6-3 Otis Henderson. He made 10 of 15 shots from the field, most of them close to the basket. He also blocked seven shots and grabbed 10 rebounds.

The Wolverines’ other weapon was senior Scott Garson, who also scored 24 points. Garson made five of seven three-point shots, including all three of his attempts in the first quarter.

“You’ve got the two big guys in the middle and (Garson) can really shoot,” Donahue said. “That’s obviously going to make them hard to beat.”

The Wolverines (24-2) broke the school record for victories in a season, set by the 1990 team, which lost in the Section semifinals.

Harvard-Westlake will meet San Dimas, a 55-52 winner Tuesday night over San Marino, in the semifinals Friday night.

But the Wolverines aren’t worried. They are playing their best basketball of the season.

“This is great,” Garson said. “Last game and this game is as close as we have to come to playing four great quarters. Our outside shooting is working. Our inside shooting is working. Our defense is great.”

The Wolverines beat Workman, 88-51, in the first round Friday night.

“I like these (kind of games),” Harvard Coach Greg Hilliard said. “We haven’t had a lot of them this year because we don’t usually score a lot of points. We’re starting to do some things we haven’t done all year, like find second and third options (on offense).”

Santa Paula (17-9) was able to hang within 10 points of Harvard for most of the first half, but the Wolverines put them away with a 12-2 run to start the second half and another 12-2 run early in the fourth quarter.

Harvard had some good performances by bench players, notably guard Bobby Ahn (six steals) and forward Robby Gregory (six rebounds).

The Wolverines held Santa Paula’s leading scorer, Manuel Escamilla, to 12 points.