Westchester Looking for a Serious Challenge

Westchester High’s boys’ basketball team spent most of the winter break traveling across the country to tournaments in Florida and South Carolina.

Fairfax also hit the road, traveling to Oregon for a tournament.

So when the teams met Tuesday in a Western League game at Westchester, the City Section basketball community turned out en masse for the homecoming. What it saw, perhaps, was a preview of the City championship game.

Crenshaw, Fremont, Dorsey and others, of course, will have much to say in the matter before it’s done, but Westchester cemented its status as the overwhelming favorite with its 84-64 victory.

Twenty-point defeats are rarely encouraging, but with the exception of its eight-for-21 free-throw shooting in the second half, Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani was far from upset with his team’s performance.

“It was just a reminder of how much we’re going to have to step up the conditioning because of the depth factor,” Kitani said Wednesday. “Their second five is better than I thought.

“They have a lot of fouls to give, so you better be able to make free throws.”

Westchester Coach Ed Azzam’s substitute-in-waves strategy paid off in the fourth quarter when the Comets extended an eight-point lead to 25 points. The fresh Westchester legs quickened the pace, giving Fairfax’s guards less time to find Boston College-bound forward Craig Smith inside.

“It’s a little bit awkward, a little bit wild, but that’s our style,” Azzam said.

Said Fairfax forward Evan Burns, who scored 20 points: “If we can make our free throws and get back down the court on defense when they are bringing in new guys at the end of the game, it’s going to be a different story next time we play [Jan. 31].”