Quartz Hill Gets Well in Upset Over Littlerock

Brady Chelette was supposed to be home, sipping orange juice, popping vitamin C and relaxing in front of the television.

His Quartz Hill High teammates, whether he got over his cold or not, were supposed to get crushed by Littlerock.

Neither happened.

In a minor upset, Chelette played, and in a bigger upset, Quartz Hill defeated Littlerock, 54-45, in a Golden League boys’ basketball game Friday night at Quartz Hill.

Chelette scored 22 points, including nine in the fourth quarter, two points fewer than Littlerock scored in the quarter.

Chelette missed practice Wednesday and Thursday, but he didn’t miss much of anything against the Lobos.

“This was a must-win situation,” said Chelette, son of Newt Chelette, coach of the Antelope Valley College men’s basketball team. “I had to do what I had to do to get my team a W.”

Quartz Hill (15-6, 4-1 in league play), which announced the hiring of a new football coach Thursday, made another statement Friday: The basketball program is back.

The Rebels, who last won a league title in 1993, moved into a tie for first with Littlerock (17-3, 4-1) in the Golden standings.

First place was probably the last place Quartz Hill thought it would be after a poor performance in a loss to Lancaster on Tuesday.

But the Rebels forced Littlerock into 12-of-39 (30.7%) shooting in the last three quarters. Littlerock scored 17 points in the second half.

The loss to Lancaster never seemed so far away.

“When you have a talented team like we do and you’re down at the bottom intensity level like we were against Lancaster, you tend to come out and play well your next game,” Coach Bernard Nichter of Quartz Hill said. “It was a gut check. I loved our intensity.”

Littlerock, ranked No. 9 in the region by The Times, seemed to lose interest after taking an 18-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“We went cold,” Coach Ben Dale of Littlerock said. “Then we started getting lazy on defense. And another thing, they wanted it more than we did.”

Several Littlerock shots were rerouted by 6-foot-8 Quartz Hill center Sahael Almuallem, who had five blocked shots, two shy of the school record.

“They’d get a rebound, he’d block a shot,” Nichter said. “He came up huge.”

Gene Myvett scored 15 points for Littlerock on seven-of-20 shooting.

Chelette scored only three points in the third quarter, but rallied in the fourth quarter, scoring the Rebels’ first three baskets, including a layup that gave Quartz Hill a 46-35 lead with 5:20 to play.