Farmar Helps Taft Reach the City Final

Jordan Farmar has signed to play at UCLA next season, but he isn’t ready to become a Bruin just yet.

The 6-foot-2 senior guard had 29 points and seven assists to lead Woodland Hills Taft to a 64-63 victory over Dorsey in a City Championship semifinal Friday night at West L.A. College.

Third-seeded Taft will meet top-seeded L.A. Fairfax at 7 p.m. next Saturday at the Sports Arena in the championship game.

Jabari Samuel’s rebound and layup gave Taft (26-2) a 62-60 lead with 37 seconds left. Kyle Gibson missed a jumper on Dorsey’s ensuing possession and Farmar was fouled with 13 seconds to play. His two free throws were the deciding points.

“This was the biggest game of our lives, so we all had to step it up,” said Farmar, who made all six of his free throws in the game.

“With this team, you never know who the hero is going to be. Tonight it was Jabari. His basket was huge.”

Dawayne Cotton made a desperation three-pointer and was fouled by Taft’s Matt Cook with four seconds left to pull the second-seeded Dons (24-3) to within one point, but his free throw hit the front of the rim and Pierce Brooks tapped the rebound to Farmar, who dribbled to half court and tossed the ball as time ran out.

Chuma Awaji had 23 points, including five three-pointers, and Jonathan Heard and Gibson each added 12 points for Dorsey, which opened the second half with an 11-0 run and led 50-42 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Steve Galluzzo

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Fairfax 73, Reseda Cleveland 64 -- Jamal Boykin, a 6-7 junior, scored 29 points, including a career-best four three-pointers, and Josh Shipp added 25 points for the top-seeded Lions (23-4), who are looking for their first City Section title since 1987.

Fairfax opened leads of 11 points in the first half and 15 points in the second half, taking advantage of Boykin’s dominating play.

“The way he played was the difference,” Cleveland Coach Andre Chevalier said of Boykin. “He was on fire.”

Nick Young scored 28 points for Cleveland (25-4), which got as close as seven points in the fourth quarter. But UCLA-bound Shipp took over, scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter.

Eric Sondheimer

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North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake 67, Torrance Bishop Montgomery 59 -- The second-seeded Wolverines benefited from a height advantage and Bryce Taylor’s shooting to advance to their second consecutive Southern Section Division III-AA final.

Harvard-Westlake (21-6) outrebounded the third-seeded Knights, 40-25, and Taylor made 11 of 19 shots to finish with 29 points.

The Wolverines also relied on 6-8 sophomore center Alex Stephenson, who scored 14 points and had 19 rebounds, and 6-8 senior forward Evan Harris, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.

Bishop Montgomery fell behind by four at the half after getting outscored, 19-11, in the second quarter.

-- Dan Arritt