Westchester Takes the Title

They came out and energized the crowd during warmups with a showcase of highlight-reel dunks.

Showtime didn’t end there, of course, for the flashy Westchester High Comets. Brandon Bowman took the opening tip and hoisted an alley-oop pass several feet over the outstretched arms of Ashanti Cook.

Brandon Heath received a technical foul for knocking his hands on his head, a la Clipper forward Darius Miles, following a finger roll. This list of flamboyant moves and needless mistakes went on.

But with its biggest game of the season on the line, Westchester tucked away its silly side and turned to a most unexpected weapon--free throws.

The Comets made all four of its free throws in the final eight seconds to hold off Oakland Tech, 80-75, in the state Division I boys’ basketball champion- ship game Saturday night before 9,928 at Arco Arena.

“It’s very important to make your free throws down the stretch,” said Heath, who knocked down two free throws with eight seconds remaining to help Westchester capture its second state title and first since 1998.

Oakland Tech’s Kevin Moore scored inside after Heath’s free throws to make the score 78-75 with three seconds to play. But Hassan Adams made two free throws with two seconds remaining and intercepted the ensuing inbound pass to seal the victory.

“This is just the greatest feeling,” said Bowman, who finished with 18 points. “We’ve been trying to get here for the longest time, and we finally made it.”

Westchester seemed like it had the game safely locked away when Adams, who finished with 24 points, scored on a putback to give the Comets a 70-62 lead with 3:17 left.

But powered by Leon Powe, who scored 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, Oakland Tech pulled to within 76-73 on an Armondo Surratt basket with 15 seconds remaining. Cook missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw situation with 13 seconds left, but Keith Everage got the rebound and passed to Heath, who made his two foul shots as Westchester pulled away.

“We started slowly and it took us a while to get in sync,” Oakland Tech Coach Hodari McGavock said. “Once we got in sync, we ran out of time. With five more minutes, it might have been a different story.”

The ending was especially difficult for Powe, whose mother was found dead Tuesday morning in an Oakland hotel room. The 6-foot-8 junior picked up his second foul early and sat out much of the second quarter. He scored only two points in the first half.

But he came through in the fourth quarter, scoring on dunks and powerful moves inside as the Bulldogs (28-4) got back into the game.

“I was trying to step up in the fourth quarter so we could pull it out, but we came up short,” Powe said.

Heath finished with 20 points but the technical foul against him late in the first quarter proved pivotal, keying a 6-2 Oakland Tech run as the Bulldogs pulled back to within four points.

Westchester (32-2) scored the first nine points of the game, highlighted by Adams’ scoop layup and Ariza’s two-handed dunk on a breakaway. The Comets’ lead fluctuated between three and 10 points for most of the game.

Adams said the title erases the sting of the Comets’ losses to Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy and Fairfax.

“Those losses [are] behind me,” Adams said. “I’m glad we lost early and didn’t lose this game. Coach always tells us you should win your last game.”