Harvard-Westlake Passes Road Test

Greg Hilliard gets tired, and the players he coaches on the Harvard-Westlake boys’ basketball team do too.

But when they are left weary by a schedule that recently included eight games in three states in a 17-day span, they think about their four-point loss in the state Division III championship game last season.

The grind, they believe, will be worth it in the end.

“I think we did what we wanted to do,” Hilliard said of his team’s nonleague calendar. “We lost in the state finals last year, and we thought our goal to win it could be fulfilled if we prepared for the big games down the line. My sole intention this year was to make the schedule very, very difficult.”

Mission accomplished.

On Monday, the Wolverines looked lethargic in defeating West Hills Chaminade, 58-48, in a Mission League opener that came two days after a three-point overtime loss to New York Lincoln in the Dream Classic at Pauley Pavilion. And that game came on the heels of a trip to Dallas, where Harvard-Westlake finished third in a tournament.

The Wolverines arrived from Texas on New Year’s Day, then were able to sneak in a practice Friday before meeting Lincoln and its nearly ready-for-the-NBA point guard, Sebastian Telfair. It was the only practice they’d had at home since before Christmas.

But they have valuable experience from having played teams of varying sizes, talent levels and styles of play in tournaments in Las Vegas and Dallas.

And after games against two more highly regarded challengers this week -- Los Angeles Loyola on Wednesday and Mission Hills Alemany on Friday -- Harvard-Westlake (8-5) will have played 11 games in 23 days and should have a good idea of what it will take to win its league.

“Sometimes, you get tired,” junior guard Ed White said. “The hotel beds aren’t necessarily comfortable, but having all those games against top competition is good practice. It was more about learning than winning.”

Hilliard used a similarly taxing schedule to toughen up his 1996-97 team, one led by heavily recruited post players, twins Jason and Jarron Collins. That season, the Wolverines played in three out-of-state tournaments and used the experience to cruise to a state championship.

“One of the reasons we were so strong that year is because we saw some very strong teams that played different styles,” Hilliard said. “We saw some teams playing at a level that we could strive to equal.”

They saw the same things this time -- and also a lot of each other, an experience they say made them a closer team.

In Texas, they visited the site of President Kennedy’s assassination. They also had a team contest for who could eat the most hamburgers from the fast-food chain that sponsored the tournament.

“Just being together like that, you get to see how guys really are,” said guard Bryce Taylor, who had 10 points and eight rebounds Monday against Chaminade. “You see them outside of the gym and outside of school, and a lot of us don’t see that from each other.”

Harvard-Westlake played against a team that had two 7-foot players, another that had a group of stellar athletes who played a menacing full-court press, and still another that stressed fundamentals and ran an offense that relied on complex screens. There is no shot clock in Nevada or Texas, so they also faced slowdown teams.

Harvard-Westlake was 4-4 on its trips, but the players believe their struggles were worth it.

Against Lincoln they trailed by 20 points at halftime but rallied to send the game to overtime -- a turning point they say might not have happened without the trips.

“A lot of what we went through last year was new,” said senior forward Evan Harris, who had seven rebounds and seven blocked shots to go with a team-high 17 points against Chaminade. “Now that we’ve gone around the country, it might help us feel used to traveling and sleeping in a hotel the night before a big game.”