Harvard Stars Again in Title Role

Ryan Smiley admits he wouldn’t have done it at the beginning of the season.

But when he sprang free on a breakaway in the closing moments of Harvard-Westlake High’s rout of Morningside at the Pond on Saturday, he rolled the ball off his fingertips short of the basket and let 6-foot-11 center Jason Collins slam it with both hands.

The crowd went wild.

So did Harvard, which captured its second consecutive Southern Section Division III-A title with a 75-53 victory.

No one would have blamed Smiley, who finished with 15 points, for simply scoring two more.

But nobody knows better than Smiley that he should be the setup man for Jason Collins and his 6-10 1/2 twin brother, Jarron.

“An assist is just as good when you can get a dunk out of it,” said Smiley, a 6-3 junior guard. “It pumps up the team and the crowd.

“I’m a crowd pleaser.”

And so was Harvard (26-2) after a rocky first half in which the Wolverines committed 16 turnovers and couldn’t pull away after taking a 10-0 lead.

But by the fourth quarter it was showtime.

Jarron Collins finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Jason Collins, after not scoring in the second quarter and spending most of it on the bench with three fouls, had 20 points, 13 rebounds and five blocked shots.

And he ignited Harvard during the third quarter when the Wolverines outscored Morningside, 27-13.

Jason (10 points) and Jarron combined for 18 points in the quarter, which started with a 13-2 Wolverine run.

By the fourth quarter, the pressure defense of Morningside (20-9) had disappeared.

So did the fearful expressions that Coach Greg Hilliard saw on the faces of some of his players in the first half.

“Maybe the fact that we’re a little young, we got flustered,” Hilliard said. “We needed time in the locker room to talk about things.”

Senior forward Alex Gelbard had 14 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocked shots.

But the show belonged to the Collins brothers, as Smiley proved with his fake layup.

“I was ready to [shoot], but I heard Jason say, ‘Ryan. Ball! Ball!’

“Everybody has a role on this team and everybody is willing to accept their roles. I had a problem with it at the start of the season. So did other guys. We were firing shots, trying to get our points.

“But Jason and Jarron are really unselfish players. Whatever you give, they give back.”