Westlake Is at Major Loss for Timeouts

Oh, for another timeout.

The Westlake High boys’ basketball team lost, 52-51, to St. John Bosco on Friday night in a Southern Section Division I-AA quarterfinal game at Newbury Park High.

But with just one more timeout, it might have been a different finish for the Warriors.

After falling behind by nine points after three quarters, Westlake rallied to pull to within 52-49 with 2 minutes 53 seconds to play.

Westlake stole the ball with 1:02 left and worked it around until Billy Miller scored on a layup with 29 seconds remaining.

But, instead of fouling quickly after that, as Coach Gary Grayson wanted his team to do, the Warriors watched as St. John Bosco passed the ball around.

Westlake chased the ball for 19 precious seconds, finally fouling with 10 seconds on the clock.

“We wanted to foul,” Grayson said. “That’s what we talked about at the last timeout. They just did a great job passing the ball around.”

The Warriors still had a chance because St. John Bosco’s Eddie Ramirez missed the front end of a one and one.

Westlake took the ball downcourt for a frenzied attempt to take the lead, but a pass to Nasir Shakouri under the basket was picked off by Greg Jefferson with two seconds on the clock.

Jefferson, however, threw the ball away, giving Westlake one last chance to inbound the ball from half court. Steve Aylsworth could only get off a desperation 40-footer that hit the rim.

“If we had a timeout we could have set something up,” Grayson said. “We were just wild.”

Still, losing to St. John Bosco (20-8), last year’s Southern Section Division II-A champion, is no shame for Westlake (19-5).

“We played a good game and they played a good game,” Aylsworth said. “It just came down to one point. That pretty much explains it.”

Aylsworth led both teams with 21 points, including four three-point baskets.

“You are never going to stop him,” St. John Bosco Coach Brian Breslin said of Aylsworth. “You can only hope to slow him down.”

St. John Bosco did slow him down somewhat after the first half, when he scored 13 points on five-for-six shooting.

“They keyed me a lot in the second half,” Aylsworth said. “They weren’t going to let me score.”

Breslin said he thought St. John Bosco’s full-court pressure defense wore down the Warriors.

“Toward the end you could see that they were fatigued,” he said.

Brian Johnson scored 17 points to lead St. John Bosco.