Taft Just Didn’t Plan on Harper

Riding a six-game winning streak, Taft High made plans to upset Canoga Park on Thursday night.

For three quarters, it seemed plausible enough.

Then Carloes Harper rescued the Hunters, scoring 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter while shutting down Amir Bar-Netzer to secure a 71-58 boys’ basketball victory for Canoga Park at Taft.

“This was a disappointment,” Bar-Netzer said. “We should have played better in the second half. We’ve been practicing for this all week.”

Canoga Park led, 30-28, at halftime and, 48-44, after three quarters.

Canoga Park Coach Ralph Turner, uncomfortable with the way things were going, made a defensive adjustment in the fourth quarter, pulling David Redmond off the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Bar-Netzer and replacing him with Harper.

Bar-Netzer scored one point in the fourth quarter.

“[Harper] did me up,” said Bar-Netzer, who had 10 points and eight rebounds. “[Redmond] couldn’t guard me off the dribble in the first half. That’s why I kept going to the basket.”

Canoga Park, which led by as many as 12 points in the first quarter, pulled away in the fourth on a 15-4 run to claim a 64-51 lead.

Nine of those points came from Harper, a 6-4 swingman who has signed a letter of intent with Cal State Northridge.

Canoga Park could not stop forwards Darryl Harris, who scored 18 points, and Brandyn Fisher, who had 17.

“That’s a real good team,” Turner said. “They gave us all we could handle.”

Taft (6-3) pulled even, 36-36, with 4:49 left in the third quarter on a layup by Fisher. But the Toreadors could not get the lead.

The Hunters (7-3), The Times’ No. 3-ranked team in the region, seemed out of sync in the first half with 11 turnovers. But they scored 20 points on dunks.

Pat Farzaneh was the set-up man on four alley-oop dunks, and also finished with 20 points.

Held to six points in the first half, Redmond finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.