Brown Has Made His Point at Westchester

Bobby Brown of Westchester High has transformed himself from an unknown point guard into one of the most valuable players on a team that’s one victory from a second consecutive state Division I basketball championship.

Brown began the season almost invisible, except to Comet supporters. He rarely played on the varsity last season. Before that, he spent two years on the junior varsity. People still remember him as a 5-foot-3 freshman and wonder how he avoided being cut.

“I had too much heart,” he said.

As a senior, Brown stands 6 feet and his stature as a point guard keeps growing.

“He’s been a tremendous boost for the team,” Coach Ed Azzam said. “His play has been spectacular.”

Brown is averaging 13 points, hitting open shots and making sure Westchester’s three imposing big men get the ball at the appropriate times.

“My role is to get everyone involved and keep them in the game and take my shot after they get theirs,” he said. “I like to reward the big men to make them happy and play harder.”

Westchester is fortunate to have Brown because he was set to transfer after his sophomore year for fear he’d never play on the varsity. It took intervention from his mother, Gina, to convince him to stay.

“I told him, ‘No, you have to wait your turn. If you live with me, you’re going to stay at Westchester. I run the show,’ ” Gina said.

Brown has since thanked his mother for her wise parenting because his development has been crucial to Westchester’s success. The Comets were expected to lose the City Championship to Fairfax this season. Instead, Westchester won its fourth consecutive title and beat the Lions three out of four times.

“I feel good about what I’ve done,” he said. “I’ve been waiting so long to unleash all this. It’s been fun but hard at times.”

The hardest part was sitting on the bench during last year’s state final won by Westchester over Oakland Tech, 80-75.

“I was thinking, ‘I could be out there playing,’ ” he said. “I watched and waited for my time.”

There was no way Brown could crack the starting lineup, not with such players as Hassan Adams, Brandon Heath and Ashanti Cook.

“We had a lot of All-Americans,” he said. “I understood. I just waited patiently.”

During the fall, top point guard Gabriel Pruitt transferred to Westchester from Compton Centennial, and experts thought he could propel the Comets to another state title. But Pruitt was declared ineligible, and Brown stepped forward to claim the position.

On Saturday night at Arco Arena in Sacramento, Westchester (31-3) will play Oakland Tech (23-5) again for the Division I state title. This time, Brown will be in the starting lineup, a position he has earned because of hard work, perseverance and determination.

Several colleges, including Long Beach State, have begun to take a recruiting interest in Brown, who has a 3.5 grade-point average.

Everything seems to have worked out for Brown because his mother trusted her instincts and confidence in her son.

“I’m grateful,” Brown said. “Mom knows best.”

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Does anyone recognize the names Ryan Smiley, Victor Munoz, Rico Cabrera or Alex Gelbard? They all played college basketball but in high school went largely unnoticed as teammates of twins Jason and Jarron Collins on the North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake team that won state Division III championships in 1996 and ’97.

They eagerly embraced their understudy roles, which made the Collins era so successful.

This season, Harvard-Westlake has another player who has elite skills in junior guard Bryce Taylor, who is averaging 28 points.

Convincing everyone to play together on offense and defense has been the most challenging task for Coach Greg Hilliard, who has used lots of psychological tricks to get the Wolverines (29-6) to within one victory of a state Division III championship.

“It has been difficult [for the players] to learn and develop their roles,” Hilliard said. “We were struggling three quarters of the year understanding roles. We were vulnerable to any team on a given night.”

It took a stunning four-point loss to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in league play to get the players’ attention. Harvard-Westlake hasn’t lost in the 11 games since.Taylor knew his role and others have adapted. Junior center Evan Harris is the rebounder, shot blocker and inside scoring threat. Sophomore guard Ed White is the three-point specialist. Point guard Adam Gilman is the passer. Forward Harris Chung is the defender. Forward Zach Woolridge is the first of five reserves off the bench who provide a spark.

Wolverine players are finally having fun, something they weren’t doing early in the season.

“We played a lot of good basketball but there was joy missing,” Hilliard said.

If Harvard-Westlake expects to knock off favored Sacramento Foothill (32-2) Saturday at Arco Arena, the role players had better come through.

Hilliard said he hasn’t forgotten the players who helped the Collins twins triumph and he won’t forget this year’s group.

“They will be remembered -- all of them,” he said.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.