Joe Sterling is the owner of so many headbands (more than 20) that he could use an NIL deal when he reaches his next destination, the University of Texas at Austin. He also should make sure his shoes don\u2019t malfunction like they did in the second quarter Tuesday night against La Mirada. <\/p>\n
With his white headband working and his shoe repaired, Sterling helped lead a second-half surge by Harvard-Westlake that resulted in a 71-57 victory, sending the Wolverines into the Southern Section Open Division championship game Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Wolverines (26-5) will play Mission League rival Sierra Canyon (26-1) at 6 p.m. at Toyota Arena. Sierra Canyon defeated Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 70-46 in the other semifinal. Do the Wolverines have any chance of toppling the top-seeded Trailblazers?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we didn\u2019t have a chance, we wouldn\u2019t show up. We\u2019re showing up,\u201d Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo said.<\/p>\n
Sterling finished with 25 points and was supported by Amir Jones and Cole Holden, each of whom scored 14 points. Dominique Bentho played a big role in Harvard-Westlake\u2019s second-half surge, scoring six of his eight points in the fourth quarter. The Wolverines trailed 36-34 at halftime, then started the third quarter on an 8-0 run and led 56-43 with eight minutes left.<\/p>\n
The big adjustment the Wolverines made was making La Mirada\u2019s Gene Roebuck work a little harder. Roebuck finished with 29 points and was punishing the Wolverines with his strength driving and drawing fouls. Harvard-Westlake tried to tire him out in the second half denying him the ball and pushing him away from the basket.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a bulldog,\u201d Rebibo said.<\/p>\n
Harvard-Westlake has clearly gotten its mojo back after losing three of its last four regular-season games and now reaching the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe season is long,\u201d Rebibo said. \u201cWe hit our lull. We got to hit the reset button.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Sterling: \u201cWe used it as motivation. We were playing through the adversity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wolverines are playing loose with nothing to lose. They were laughing and smiling before the game. The one advantage they might have Saturday is that Sierra Canyon has played so many home games in February that the players might not remember what playing outside of Chatsworth looks like.<\/p>\n
Girls<\/p>\n
Sierra Canyon 66, Etiwanda 62:<\/b> Down by 18 points at halftime, Etiwanda made a frantic comeback, coming within two points with two seconds left until Sierra Canyon\u2019s Jerzy Robinson clinched the Open Division semifinal victory with two free throws. She finished with 24 points.<\/p>\n
Sierra Canyon will play top-seeded Ontario Christian in Saturday\u2019s 8 p.m. final at Toyota Arena. Ontario Christian defeated Sage Hill 86-54.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Sterling is the owner of so many headbands (more than 20) that he could use an NIL…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":614439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,263462,136408,78357,167838,263461,2961,205336,224,5337,143093,17820,449,263464,5395,263463,85193,229924,45357],"class_list":["post-614438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-co-lead-harvard-westlake","tag-etiwanda","tag-halftime","tag-harvard-westlake","tag-joe-sterling","tag-la","tag-la-mirada","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-ontario-christian","tag-p-m","tag-point","tag-prep-basketball-playoff","tag-saturday","tag-second-half-surge","tag-sierra-canyon","tag-toyota-arena","tag-wolverines"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}