Fairfax Falls Against Poly With Burns on the Bench

Clad in street clothes, Los Angeles Fairfax High forward Evan Burns clapped his left hand against his right forearm and exhorted his teammates as if he were their coach, doing practically everything a sidelined player could do to coax his team to victory.

Burns’ cheering routine reached a crescendo early in the fourth quarter Saturday as Fairfax trimmed Long Beach Poly’s 17-point lead to five on two occasions and looked like it was capable of winning a second consecutive game without its leading scorer. Burns, whose right hand was swathed in bandages, accidentally cut a finger on glass earlier in the week.

But that’s when Jackrabbit forward Marcedes Lewis stepped up to score five of Poly’s next 10 points as the Jackrabbits pulled away for a 76-66 victory in a Southern California Regional Division I semifinal at L.A. Southwest College.

The fourth-seeded Jackrabbits (30-3) will play top-seeded Westchester, a 91-74 winner over Fresno Clovis West, in the regional final at 8 p.m. Saturday at Long Beach Arena. It will be Poly’s first appearance in a final since 1990.

Reggie Butler led all Poly scorers with 22 points, Carlos Rivers added 14 and Bobby Jones had 12.

Alex Bausley scored 19 points for second-seeded Fairfax (30-5), which rallied after falling behind, 48-31, early in the third quarter. Lion guard Jahsha Bluntt’s third three-pointer of the quarter pulled Fairfax to within 54-46.

After Jamal Boykin scored inside to cut the deficit to 58-53 early in the fourth, Bluntt (16 points) and Kevin Bell (13) missed three-pointers that could have made it a two-point game.

“The guys played hard and showed a lot of character,” Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani said. “I’m proud of their effort.”

Ben Bolch

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Westchester 91, Clovis West 74--Brandon Heath started it, Trevor Ariza helped finish it and the Comets won a regional semifinal at Southwest College.

Heath scored 20 of his 28 points in the first half to stake Westchester to a 48-33 halftime lead, and Ariza scored on an acrobatic dunk in the third quarter to all but finish off Clovis West (28-4).

With 4:25 left in the third quarter, Ariza stole a cross-court pass, dribbled down court and dunked over two Clovis West players to give the Comets (30-2) a 61-39 lead.

“I didn’t see anybody,” said Ariza, who finished with 16 points. “I just saw the rim and me going up.”

Heath made four three-pointers in the first half. “I was feeling it,” he said. “I’ve been working hard all week to get in a rhythm. It was time for me to step up and play.”

Tyrese McDaniel had 33 points for Clovis West, which scored 10 of the final 12 points of the game.

Mike Bresnahan