No Slowing the Streaking Comets, 69-58

There was a time in the 1990s when Westchester looked up to the City Section’s basketball power of that era, Crenshaw.

Now it’s the Comets who have become the standard for excellence, stretching their unbeaten City playoff streak to 20 games Saturday night with a 69-58 thumping of Western League rival Fairfax before 5,000 in the City Section Championship Division final at the Forum.

Westchester (21-3) won its sixth City title in the last eight years.

Fairfax (24-5) lost for the fourth consecutive season in the City final, with Westchester, which was banned from postseason play last season, inflicting three of those defeats.

“It’s nice to have a lot of guys who can play,” Coach Ed Azzam said of a Comet team that used 12 players in building a nine-point halftime lead that was expanded to as many as 18 points in the fourth. Fairfax scored the first nine points of the third quarter to tie the score at 31-31, but Westchester kept sending wave after wave of defenders, wearing down the Lions with its relentless man-to-man defense.

“We know they can’t handle our pressure,” guard Jerard Moret said.

The game’s decisive moment came 13 seconds into the fourth quarter when Jamal Boykin, Fairfax’s 6-foot-7 Duke-bound senior, picked up his fifth foul.

Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani said afterward he regretted leaving Boykin in the game with four fouls, but he had no choice.

“Down by 10, I couldn’t afford to take him out,” Kitani said.

Boykin, who finished with only nine points, said, “Even though I had four fouls, I was trying to play as a person who didn’t have four fouls.”

Westchester received a big lift from the return of All-City forward Marcus Johnson, who was sidelined for four weeks because of torn ankle ligaments. He made a three-point basket on his first shot in the first quarter and finished with eight points.

Amir Johnson led a balanced Comet attack with 15 points and nine rebounds. Jerren Shipp and JaShon Hampton each scored 13 points for Fairfax, which lost for the third time this season to Westchester.