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Sylmar Puts End to Drought

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Score one for the San Fernando Valley.

A year after Valley teams went winless in five boys’ first-round playoff games in the City Section 4-A Division, Sylmar High gave its Valley comrades a boost with a 66-54 victory against Carson in a City Championship first-round game Friday night in front of a packed house at Sylmar.

Still, it wasn’t as easy for the Spartans as the score may indicate.

Sylmar (23-5), City 3-A champion last season, committed 19 turnovers in its first upper-division playoff game and never looked comfortable against Carson’s pesky defense.

“I thought we played absolutely terrible,” Coach Bort Escoto said. “But, we still managed to win a 4-A game [despite being] a Valley team.”

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Valley teams were 9-29 this decade in 4-A competition before this season. Sylmar will face Crenshaw in a quarterfinal game on Wednesday.

The Spartans trailed from the tipoff, tied it, 9-9, on a Branden Jacobs layup, but didn’t take their first lead until Dallas Townsend converted a layup off a Carson turnover to start the second quarter.

Sylmar was without Jeremiah Turner for most of the game and it was obvious the Spartans missed the senior forward. Turner, battling flu the last two days, played less than five minutes and did not start.

Townsend, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, took control for Sylmar early, scoring nine of his 15 points in the second quarter. His three-point play with 6:42 remaining in the second quarter gave Sylmar the lead for good, 22-20.

But it was his next basket that had the crowd in awe. Townsend rebounded the ball around his waistand banked it in, all while in midair.

“He played like the league MVP that he is,” Escoto said.

Just as Townsend cooled in the third quarter, George Wrighster began to heat up. The 6-5 senior forward scored nine of Sylmar’s 15 points and had six rebounds in the third quarter.

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It was a far cry from Wrighster’s performance in the first half, when he attempted only one shot and grabbed only one rebound.

Wrighster’s third-quarter heroics fueled Sylmar’s 53-44 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Carson (14-12) cut Sylmar’s lead to 57-51 with 3:30 remaining, but hit only one shot afterward, a three-point basket by Andre Johnson (17 points) with 35 seconds remaining to get within, 61-54. Carson was four of 16 from the field in the fourth quarter.

Townsend finished with 15 points and Wrighster had 13.

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