Grant Takes Giant Step in League Behind Levy

With North Hollywood High throwing everything it possibly could into stopping Gilbert Arenas, all Grant needed was for one of the Lancers’ supporting cast to step forward.

Adir Levy did.

The senior swingman scored 23 points--including five three-point baskets--and helped shut down the Huskies’ star, Keron Wilkerson, leading Grant past North Hollywood, 74-66, Wednesday afternoon.

The win gave Grant sole possession of first place in the East Valley League.

Arenas did his share, scoring 24 points despite being double-teamed nearly every time he touched the ball. But it was Levy who made most of the big baskets for Grant (15-7, 6-1).

His three-pointer late in the first quarter started a 9-0 run that tied the score at 21-21.

His basket midway through the second gave Grant the lead for good at 28-27. And he scored eight points in a three-minute stretch in the third quarter that pushed the lead to double digits.

“It was an all-league kind of game,” Grant Coach Howard Levine said. “It’s probably the most complete game he’s ever had.”

A streak shooter who can score in bunches, Levy was consistent throughout, missing only two long-range shots and helping hold Wilkerson to 19 points.

In a two-minute stretch in the third quarter, Levy and Arenas played with three reserves--Daniel Tarr, Justin Buttikofer and Hans Hoehn--and still managed to outscore North Hollywood, 9-5.

“We’ve got a young team, we needed our seniors to step up,” Levine said. “Levy did great.”

Wilkerson--who averages 25.1 points a game--practiced just 10 minutes this week as he fought a cold.

But he didn’t feel any effects early, scoring nine of the Huskies’ first 13 points. He hit his first four shots.

But Wilkerson tired as the game progressed and as the Lancers tried different defenses on him, missing his last five shots before he was benched with three minutes left. He didn’t score in the fourth quarter.

“He came to me with a couple of minutes left and said he was done,” North Hollywood Coach Rob Bloom said. “Maybe if we had rested him for a couple of minutes in the first quarter, it would have been a little different.”

Wilkerson had support from point guard DeJon Lee and forward Chinua Wright. It just wasn’t enough. Lee scored 19 points, 12 off three-pointers, and Wright added 11. North Hollywood fell to 15-8, 5-2.

Arenas, who averages 30.5 points, made five of his first six shots. But he had difficulty finding openings in a half-court offense, making three of 12 the rest of the game.