LOS ANGELES — After losing to Westchester in the LA City Open Division championship game last week, the Chatsworth boys basketball team got together and talked about their mistakes and vowed to make things different if they played the Comets again.
The chance at redemption came Saturday in the Division II regional semifinal.
Chatsworth broke open a close game with a suffocating defense in the second quarter, which forced 12 turnovers, outscoring Westchester 28-8 on the way to a 75-61 win.
Westchester (24-10) never got any closer than 13 in the second half as Chatsworth earned their revenge. Chatsworth, the third seed, will host fifth-seed Bakersfield Christian in Tuesday’s regional final.
“We had a nice talk. We knew we didn’t play well from the beginning (of the Open Division Final),” Chatsworth coach Sam Harris said. “We just tried to regroup and refocus, to get them to play the way that they needed to, and we were able to do that tonight.
“The energy and effort were better tonight. We were able to get locked in on defense. (Taj Unuakhalu) is unheard in this era as a shot blocker and rebounder and he was big time tonight.”
After a slow first quarter that saw both teams struggle offensively, Chatsworth turned up its defense, led by Unuakhalu. Alijah Arenas scored consecutive baskets, the second one on a breakaway dunk after a V’Elijah Miller steal, to put Chatsworth up four. After a 3-point play by Westchester’s Tajh Ariza cut the lead to one, Miller and Aaron Krueger hit 3-pointers.
After two free throws by Arenas, Unuakhalu blocked a Jordan Ballard shot inside and then a Ty Ingram shot as well. Krueger took a pass from Arenas and buried another 3-pointer to extend the Chatsworth lead to 25-13 with 4:45 left in the half. The run would increase to 17-0, giving Chatsworth a 31-13 lead with 1:51 left in the half.
“Everyone played good, everybody played hard tonight, it was a total team-effort it is going to stay like that,” Arenas, who had 15 points, 11 rebounds and five steals, said. “(We have to) Stay hungry, stay disciplined, and stay working hard and it will lead to a lot of good things.”
Chatsworth took a 38-18 lead into halftime after Miller, who was fouled shooting a 3-pointer, made all three free throws.
“We came out flat, we thought we had it in the bag (because of last week),” Ariza, who had 19 points and 12 rebounds, said. “We knew that he (Unuakhalu) was going to get boards and block shots, we just weren’t playing smart enough tonight. (In the second quarter) we let their shooters get going and made too many mistakes. They just wanted it more than us.”
Westchester came out strong to start the third quarter with an 8-1 run to cut the Chatsworth lead to 13 with 6:29 left in the quarter. Chatsworth leaned on its defense to stop the run as three steals by Tekeio Phillips led to consecutive lay-ups by Miller and Arenas in a 7-0 run, that pushed the lead back to 20 with 4:46 left in the third.
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“We came out today with the mindset that we lost to this team (last week) and we got to play with more intensity and get them back on their home court,” Unuakhalu, who had 10 points, 12 boards and seven blocks, said. “I knew I needed to be more active on defense tonight to disrupt their passes and block their shots. We were very sad after last week and we didn’t want to feel that way again.”
Despite the loss Westchester coach DeWitt Cotton was pleased with the season and is looking forward to next season.
“I told the kids that they don’t have any reason to have their heads down, we had a great year, we won the Open Division back home to Westchester,” he said. “If everybody comes back we are going to have a really, really great season.”
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