Westchester Wins Its Sixth Title in Seven Years

Westchester keeps on winning City Section championships in boys’ basketball because the Comets always find a senior point guard to lead the way in pressure-filled games.

Ahmaad Cook was the latest to fill the role, scoring 17 points Saturday night and contributing decisive baskets to help the fourth-seeded Comets (24-6) defeat third-seeded Woodland Hills Taft, 68-58, at the Sports Arena.

It was Westchester’s sixth City title in the last seven seasons and 24th consecutive playoff victory, putting the Comets in the same class as Los Angeles Crenshaw, which won eight titles between 1978 and 1989.

Dane Suttle scored 22 points and Brett Goodwell added 11 points and nine rebounds for a Westchester team that even its coach, Ed Azzam, once wondered if it would be good enough to win it all. He got his answer last week with the Comets’ 79-63 semifinal upset of top-seeded L.A. Fairfax.

“By the end of the year, they showed they could compete against anybody,” Azzam said.

Taft (22-5) trailed by 13 points at halftime and got as close as six points in the third quarter behind senior guard Calvin Haynes, who finished with 27 points. But the youthful Toreadors missed too many shots and had trouble finding support for Haynes aside from sophomore guard Larry Drew Jr., who had 18 points.

Cook’s 12 first-half points, including two three-point baskets, kept the Toreadors in constant comeback mode.

“A lot of people counted us out,” Cook said. “We were supposed to lose to Fairfax. We won the City championship, and we’re not done yet.”

Westchester will try to defend its state Division I title, opening play in the Southern California Regionals on Tuesday.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Harbor City Narbonne 59, Los Angeles Dorsey 49 -- USC-bound Morghan Medlock had 13 points and 22 rebounds to lead a balanced scoring attack as the top-seeded Gauchos won their seventh City Section title in 10 seasons at the Sports Arena.

Danielle Lenoir and Gabrielle Clark each scored 10 points for Narbonne (23-6), which never trailed and led by as many as 13. The Gauchos also outrebounded Dorsey, 53-25.

Erica Inge of Dorsey scored eight of her game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter as the Dons (25-4) tied the score at 45 with 4:22 left.

Reiko Thomas, the Gauchos’ second-leading scorer, did not play, and Coach James Anderson would not disclose the reason.

Anderson did say that despite previously announcing that he would be retiring at the end of this season, he would return for two more.

-- Mayar Zokaei