Grant Wins When North Hollywood Gets Technical, 74-64

Grant High assured itself of a share of its second consecutive Sunset Six League boys’ basketball championship Wednesday in part because North Hollywood chose an awful time to be assessed its first technical fouls of the season.

Mike Charleston scored 18 of his 25 points in the first half as the Lancers took a 15-point lead, including parlaying technical fouls against Josiah James and Aaron Ruiz into six points late in the half, in a 74-64 victory at Grant.

“I told the referee that in this kind of a game you should give them a warning,” said North Hollywood Coach Rob Bloom, whose team entered the game tied for the league lead with Grant. “I told him he was giving them out like candy. That’s stupid for a championship game.”

James was called for the first technical with 1:03 left in the first half for uttering an obscenity, Bloom said. Nino Loquelano converted both free throws.

Ruiz was called for a technical 41 seconds later for slamming the ball to the floor after being called for fouling Dwayne Anderson. Anderson made two free throws for Grant, which made all 13 it took in the game.

With Grant maintaining possession, Anderson added a basket on a four-foot bank shot, completing a 12-0 run which led to a 38-23 halftime lead.

“We played a real lousy first half,” Bloom said. “We lost our poise. We just dug ourselves a little bit too deep a hole.”

Ken Hauser scored eight points and James six as the Huskies outscored the Lancers, 17-12, in the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 50-40 entering the fourth quarter. North Hollywood (17-6, 7-2 in league play) pulled to within 52-45 on Nathan Stern’s three-point basket with 6:37 left.

Grant (18-6, 8-1) responded by scoring the next eight points on Gino Riney’s three-point basket, Anderson’s three-point play and Chris Robinson’s basket for a 60-45 lead with 5:15 left. A 9-2 run brought the Huskies to within 64-57 with 1:24 remaining, but three-point plays by Charleston and Anderson sealed the victory.

“We came in at halftime and said, ‘They’re going to make runs,’ ” Grant Coach Howard Levine said. “There’s no doubt about it. We’re going to have to be able to withstand that kind of pressure, and we did just a good enough job in the fourth quarter to hold them off.”

Anderson finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds, and Riney had14 points.

Gus Ruiz scored eight of his 16 points in the first quarter for North Hollywood. Hauser had 12 of his 14 in the second half and Stern scored 11, including eight in the fourth quarter.

The Lancers complete regular-season play Friday night at Verdugo Hills. Grant was a 99-51 winner Jan. 24 in their first meeting.