Showing growth, Landon Lewis helps Harvard-Westlake top Mater Dei in playoffs

Landon Lewis is healthy, which helps explain how Studio City Harvard-Westlake is soaring in high school basketball. He has grown from 6 feet 2 to 6-7 over four seasons. As a freshman, he was sidelined because of bursitis. As a sophomore, he had a fractured hip. As a junior, he had another fracture. As a senior, he’s a star headed to Brown.

“I’m finally healthy. Got to make the most of it,” he said Friday night after contributing 13 points to help the Wolverines defeat Santa Ana Mater Dei 67-45 in an opening game of the Southern Section Open Division playoffs at Harvard-Westlake.

The first quarter, in which he scored 10 points and had two thunderous dunks, set the tone for a Harvard-Westlake team that had lost to Mater Dei each of the last two seasons in the Open Division playoffs.

“Any time you beat a storied program like Mater Dei with its coaching and tradition, it’s good,” coach David Rebibo said. “It’s a great moment for our guys because we won an Open Division game, which are hard to come by.”

Said Lewis: “Coach had us locked in with a lot of pent-up energy.”

Landon Lewis goes up for a dunk in Harvard-Westlake’s victory over Mater Dei.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Harvard-Westlake (22-2) is seeded No. 3 and in the same four-team pool bracket as Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, which opened with an 89-70 win over Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. Amari Bailey scored 21 points as his future coach, UCLA’s Mick Cronin, watched from a courtside seat. On Tuesday, Harvard-Westlake will face Notre Dame and Sierra Canyon will play Mater Dei. Then the showdown game that many have waited for — Harvard-Westlake at Sierra Canyon — will take place Friday night.

Harvard-Westlake’s Cameron Thrower, who scored 17 points, drives against Mater Dei.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Harvard-Westlake will need its guards to play as well as they did against Mater Dei (25-3). Cameron Thrower scored 17 points, Brady Dunlap had 14 points, and Trent Perry, Robert Hinton and Dahnte Russell all made big shots. Jack McCloskey scored 16 points for Mater Dei, the Trinity League champion.

In the other four-team pool, La Verne Damien rallied from a 19-point deficit to secure a 64-59 victory over Irvine Crean Lutheran. Jimmy Oladokun scored 18 points. Top-seeded Corona Centennial (27-1) rolled to a 78-53 win over Torrance Bishop Montgomery and will face Damien on Tuesday. Jared McCain scored 25 points.

In the City Section, playoff pairings will be announced Saturday and it’s anybody’s guess which team will get the No. 1 seed in the Open Division. Fairfax made its case by defeating Venice 65-60 in overtime to win the Western League championship. The Lions finish the regular season at 13-6 and 9-0 in league. David Mack scored 19 points and Tyler Bey 1`8 for the Lions. Venice took second in the Western League.

King/Drew finished 10-0 in the Coliseum League with an 84-43 win over Dorsey in which Kalib LaCount scored 59 points.

Saugus 68, Hesperia 65: Davis White scored 29 points for Saugus.

Santa Monica 66, La Salle 53: AJ Economos finished with 23 points for Santa Monica.

Santa Margarita 72, Los Alamitos 65: Rockwell Reynolds led the Eagles with 18 points.

St. Francis 47, Santa Clarita Christian 35: Buckley DeJardin finished with 20 points.

Rolling Hills Prep 68, Palos Verdes 51: Kenny Manzi had 21 points and Benny Gealer 19 for Rolling Hills Prep.

West Ranch 66, Orange Lutheran 61: Jaqari Miles led West Ranch with 26 points.

Narbonne 64, San Pedro 63: Andrew Gill made the winning shot with 1.8 seconds left for Narbonne.

Girls’ basketball

Eagle Rock 85, Sotomayor 6: The Eagles finished 10-0 in the Northern League and 19-3 overall. Jasmin Jones scored 29 points.

Boys’ soccer

Servite 3, Downey 0: The top-seeded Friars won their Division 1 playoff opener. Justin Faison scored two goals. Merrick Cook had three saves.

Loyola 1, Santa Barbara 1: Charlie Munoz scored a goal late in regulation to tie it for Loyola and then the Cubs won it on penalty kicks.

Cathedral 4, Tesoro 0: Alex Bastidas scored two goals.

Girls’ soccer

Orange Lutheran 2, Marymount 1: Isabella Barrett had the winning goal in overtime.