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Poly Has Good Word for North Hollywood

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<i> From Staff Reports</i>

Valley Pac-8 Conference rivals Poly (15-11) and North Hollywood (14-12) will meet today at 2 p.m. in a City Section Division boys’ basketball semifinal at L.A. Southwest College.

Poly relies on 6-foot-3 senior guard James Word, who scored 29 points in a quarterfinal victory over San Fernando. Since returning from academic ineligibility, Word is averaging 23.3 points in 10 games.

“He makes everybody else better,” Poly Coach Jay Werner said.

North Hollywood, coached by Rob Bloom, plays tough man-to-man defense and is adept at taking charging fouls.

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The Huskies have two effective guards in Rahnell Johnson and Dominic Johnson. The winner of today’s game will meet the winner of the Hamilton-Hollywood game for the Division title next Saturday at 3 p.m. at Loyola Marymount.

GIRLS’ NOTES

A semifinal victory tonight by Harvard-Westlake over Santa Ynez could set up a repeat matchup with Morningside in the Division III-A playoffs.

The Wolverines defeated Morningside last season in the Division III-A final, and again in the state playoffs. But top-seeded Harvard-Westlake isn’t looking ahead.

“You can’t just show up and expect to win,” Wolverine Coach Brian Taylor said.

Harvard-Westlake (25-4) isn’t at full strength. Senior forward Omelogo Udeze has been ill this week and junior forward Rolake Bamgbose is battling a twisted lower back and a sprained toe.

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Buena, ranked No. 1 in the region by The Times, has never lost more than four games in a season since the program started in 1971-72.

The Bulldogs (24-3) face Marina tonight in a Division I-A semifinal.

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High-scoring junior guard Kate Beckler has received most of the credit for Alemany’s drive to the Division III-AA semifinals, but the Indians probably wouldn’t be facing Pomona Ganesha tonight if not for the contribution of senior forward Anna Karas.

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Karas, a three-year varsity player, has quietly done much of the grunt work that doesn’t appear in the box score.

“You wouldn’t believe how important she has been to us this year,” Coach Melissa Hearlihy said.

Staff writer Eric Sondheimer and correspondent Dave Desmond contributed to this notebook.

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