Quartz Hill Pulls Off Another Escape

The Quartz Hill boys’ basketball team came from behind and won in the last minute.

Yawn. Stretch. Grab the car keys and head home.

It frustrates their coach, but the Rebels have created their own brand of basketball this season. They’re good. Then they’re bad. Then they’re ugly. Then they win. They might as well get a patent.

The latest escapade came Wednesday night against Hart in the first round of the Southern Section Division I-A playoffs at Quartz Hill.

After leading big in the first half, the Rebels melted in the second half but salvaged a 54-53 victory.

Quartz Hill trailed by three with 54 seconds to play, but Tony Johnson scored four points and, most important, set up Kevin Johnson for an easy lay-in with 13 seconds left to put the Rebels ahead by one point.

Hart had a chance to win but guard Tamir Barkan missed a running one-hander with three seconds left.

“It’s something in our kids’ psyche, but we need to be behind,” said Coach Bernard Nichter of Quartz Hill. “We’re very lucky to get out of here with a win. By the time we decided to turn it on, it was almost too late.”

Quartz Hill plays Riverside Arlington in the second round Friday at a site to be determined by a coin flip today.

The Rebels (19-7) breezed to a 30-19 halftime lead with Tony Johnson scoring 19 points. Hart (11-16) aided Quartz Hill by making only six of 26 shots in the first half.

Hart, normally not an offensive-minded team, responded with a 23-point third quarter and led, 42-39, going into the fourth quarter.

Hart held a late three-point edge, but Quartz Hill didn’t seem to mind.

The Rebels, co-champions of the Golden League with Littlerock, has come from behind all season.

They trailed Lancaster by seven points last week with just over a minute left in overtime. The Rebels won, of course, 74-73.

“That’s our style,” said Kevin Johnson, who was open under the left side of the basket when Tony Johnson found him for the game-winning lay-in.

“It doesn’t make sense, but it gives us something to play for.”

It was a tough end for Hart, which started the season with a 1-6 record.

Barkan, who finished with 13 points, and Liam Waters, who scored 18, led the Indians’ comeback.

“We flat outplayed them in every facet of the game after the first quarter,” said Coach David Montgomery of Hart. “The scoreboard doesn’t say so, so we go home. The basketball gods, whatever you want to call it, just wasn’t there.”

Tony Johnson scored 27 points and Sahael Almuallem, who has committed to UCLA to play volleyball, added 11 points for Quartz Hill.