HS HOOPS: Top-seed Taft loses to King in overtime
When the shot left Larry Drew’s hands, it looked perfect. An open look 20 feet from the basket, nice easy back spin, just enough arc – and the game on the line with the score tied and one second remaining in regulation.
But it was one of those nights.
The ball went in, then rolled back out as the buzzer sounded, and Taft High of Woodland Hills went on to lose 83-82 in overtime to King of Riverside on Thursday in the Southern California Regional Div. I basketball semifinals before a screaming, standing-room only crowd of nearly 1,500 at Taft.
“The ball was in the hole. I could have sworn I made it,” Drew said. “After it left my hands, I was waiting for the crowd to rush the floor. But the ball curled out and went the other way.”
Taft coach Derrick Taylor thought the ball was going in, too. “It looked good,” he said. “But there was no psychological letdown or anything like that. It’s two good teams, and King made the plays at the end. It could have just as easily been us.”
Exhausted without any help from its bench and discouraged about losing its grip on its most successful season ever, Taft faded in overtime. King scored the first seven points in the extra period, then the teams played evenly until Drew’s two 3-pointers in the final 15 seconds made it close but not close enough – just like his missed 3-pointer at the end of regulation.
Drew finished with 35 points, nine assists, three rebounds and three steals in his final performance. The North Carolina-bound point guard will represent Taft twice more in national all-star games, but Thursday felt like the end, and he was in tears afterward.
“We’ve been waiting all season to play a game like this here,” Drew said. “It was one heck of a season. It seemed like every time we made a run, they made a run, too. It was a struggle.”
King (32-2) plays Dominguez of Compton in the Southern California Regional final Saturday at 8 p.m. at the L.A. Sports Arena. Taft has the rest of the off-season to wonder what might have been.
But there were no regrets.
Taft (27-4) never stopped hustling, never stopped pressing, never gave up despite its bench being outscored 16-0, which turned out to be a key difference in the game.
We layed it on the line,” Taylor said. “King is a very good team. I won’t say anything about our bench. I just rolled with the guys we came with.”