Boys' Basketball: Taft advances to Fairfax tournament championship game

The Taft of Woodland Hills boys' basketball team had no letdown Friday after its big quarterfinal victory against Mater Dei of Santa Ana a day earlier.

Taft moved into tonight's championship game with an impressive 68-46 victory against Santa Monica.

Taft will play Long Beach Poly at 6 p.m.

Taft has a six-player attack consisting of three guards and three front-court players that simply was too much for an undersized Santa Monica team to handle.

6'10 center Kevin Johnson scored 21 points and was virtually unstoppable when he caught the ball on the block.

Sophomore guard Chris Yanku scored 13 points, forward Brandon Perry had 10, forward Stephen Maxwell had six and guards Spencer Dinwiddie and Khiry Williams each had six as well.

More impressive for Taft is the fact it is playing team basketball and playing to its strength of pounding the ball inside.

"We are all getting touches and the scoring is balanced," Dinwiddie said. "The focal point is Kevin but with his presecnce inside it just opens things up for everybody else."

With Johnson and the improved Perry controlling the paint, Taft is the clear cut favorite to win the City Section championship next year.

"They do have all the pieces right now," Fairfax coach Harvey Kitani said.

Taft led early by nine points but slipped and let Santa Monica come back and grab a one point lead at halftime.

However, the Vikings didn't have enough in reserve to keep up with the Toreadors.

Taft started pulling away five minutes into the second half and outscored Santa Monica 48-23.

In other games, Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood beat Fairfax, 67-55; Loyola of Los Angeles beat Crespi of Encino, 90-66; Serra of Gardena beat La Canada, 54-51; Pasadena beat Orange Lutheran, 69-56; St. Bernard of Playa del Rey beat Crenshaw of Los Angeles, 92-90 and Mater Dei of Santa Ana beat Price of Los Angeles, 68-66.

Zena Edosowman scored 23 points to lead Harvard-Westlake, which also received 14 points each from junior-to-be Josh Hearlihy and San marcos of santa Barbara transfer Danilo Dragovich, the younger brother of former UCLA guard Nikola Dragovich.

Justin Rubia had 18 points and sophomore-to-be London Perrantes had 13 in a losing effort for Crespi, which played without sharp-shooting guard Matt Mounier.

Mike McGlashan poured in 27 points but it wasn't quite enough for La Canada.

Thurman Thomas made a putback layup at the buzzer to help St. Bernard upset City Section title contender Crenshaw.

Katin Reinhardt made a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1.8 seconds remaining to give Mater Dei the close victory. The Monarchs also received a stroke of luck when Askia Booker's 80 feet heave went through the basket but came after the buzzer had sounded.