North Hollywood Conquered by Romans, 82-65

North Hollywood High had one flickering hope: Maybe Los Angeles High hadn’t heard about Keron Wilkerson.

“Hopefully, they don’t know who he is,” Huskies’ Coach Rob Bloom said before the game.

The Romans didn’t--Wilkerson scored 25 points--but it didn’t really matter.

Los Angeles defeated North Hollywood, 82-65, in a first-round game of the City Section 4-A Division boys’ basketball playoffs Friday night.

Wilkerson sparked the Huskies to a third-quarter rally, but No. 5-seeded Los Angeles was too deep and too skilled for North Hollywood.

The Romans’ high-flying offense was also careful with the ball, committing only four turnovers.

Los Angeles (19-7) held the better seeding, but No. 12 North Hollywood (18-9) was the home team because it won the East Valley League, while the Romans finished second to top-seeded Westchester in the Western League. City Section rules mandate that only league champions may host first-round games.

No matter. Los Angeles felt right at home.

Leroy Dawson scored 22 points, Deon Green added 19 and Devin Hicks had 17 for Los Angeles, as each scored from outside and inside.

“They’re going to put up 60 points for me every game, which means that the other team will have to put up 85 or 90 to beat us,” Los Angeles co-coach John Brooker said.

North Hollywood, already undermanned because forward Jonathan Hicks was out with a sprained left ankle, was hampered because of a lack of scoring down low.

The Huskies battled back from a 50-34 deficit midway through the third quarter thanks to sharp shooting from behind the three-point stripe.

Wilkerson nailed three three-pointers for the Huskies, who closed to within 54-50 on a banked three-pointer by Wilkerson with 1:07 left in the third quarter.

But Los Angeles closed out the quarter with seven consecutive points for a 61-50 lead and the Huskies never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

“I wanted to keep [the season] going and shock a lot of people, but it didn’t happen that way,” said Wilkerson, who rebounded from a three-for-19 shooting performance in the regular-season finale against Grant.

“This hurts a lot.”

Bloom, who was wary of a run-and-gun game, knew what had happened.

“We got caught up in their style,” he said. “We can run with anybody in spurts, but when you’re up against a team with shooters and athletes like that, it’s a different level. We couldn’t sustain much over a long period of time.”

DeJon Lee scored 27 points for North Hollywood, 11 in the fourth quarter.

Los Angeles will play No. 4-seeded Crenshaw in the quarterfinals Wednesday.