Westchester Might Not Like It, but Formula Works Again

The scenario is becoming familiar.

Westchester High toys with an opponent for the first half, then starts the second with an offensive and defensive showcase that blows the competition away.

It happened again Tuesday night at Los Angeles Southwest College, where Westchester defeated Long Beach Poly, 67-51, in the first round of the Division I Southern California regional of the state boys’ basketball tournament.

Westchester (27-3) will play Clovis West, an 82-68 winner Tuesday over Manual Arts, in the semifinals Thursday. The winner advances to the championship game Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion. The regional champion will play the Northern California titlist in the state championship game March 21 at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

Westchester led Long Beach Poly, 28-27, at halftime, then opened the second half with a 15-0 run. The Comets held Long Beach Poly scoreless for more than six minutes of the third quarter and had a 45-31 lead at the end of the period.

It was nothing new for Westchester, which did almost the same thing in its 78-62 victory over Manual Arts Friday in the City Section championship game at the Sports Arena.

“I don’t know why it takes us so long to really get going, but I don’t think we came mentally prepared to play tonight,” said Westchester forward David Bluthenthal, who scored a team-high 20 points. “We’re disappointed in ourselves at halftime. We know the only way we can make it up is by coming out strong in the second half.”

Bluthenthal scored the Comets’ first seven points of the fourth quarter as Westchester increased its lead to 52-33. Chris Williams’ jump shot with 5:50 left gave Westchester a 21-point lead, its largest of the night.

“The coaches told us at halftime that we needed to pick up our defensive effort,” said Williams, who scored eight points and pressured the Jackrabbit guards into several turnovers. “If we play defense, we can beat anybody.”

Long Beach Poly (23-8) came into the game after suffering its third loss of the season against Lakewood Artesia in the Southern Section Division I-AA championship game Saturday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. As they did against Artesia, the Jackrabbits stayed close in the first half.

But they were ambushed after the break by Westchester.

“We played as a team in the first half, but not the second,” said Long Beach Poly center Ricky Anderson, who scored 10 points. “Westchester played solid defense and didn’t let us pass the ball inside in the second half.

“[Westchester] is quick. We had to realize they were going to come out and try to jump us--and we weren’t ready.”

Westchester Coach Ed Azzam said his team needs to learn to play hard from the start.

“You can’t just go through the motions, especially defensively, as you get deeper into this tournament,” Azzam said. “In the first half, it looked like we didn’t even want to be here.

“If I knew what it was that was causing our guys to play that way in the first half, I wouldn’t wait until the third quarter to fix it. We need to start playing a good game for four quarters. And we need to start doing that on Thursday.”

Mike McIntyre scored a game-high 22 points for Long Beach Poly.