Verdugo Hills Rebounds From 22 Point Defecit to Beat El Camino Real
March 6, 2010
Jack Pollon
The Verdugo Hills of Tujunga boys’ basketball team pulled off one of the greatest playoff game comebacks in City Section history on Saturday in the inaugural Div. III championship game at Roybal High of Los Angeles.
The Dons (24-7) trailed by 15 points at the outset of the fourth quarter but outscored El Camino Real of Woodland Hills by 23 points for an improbable 60-52 victory in a game they were dominated for the first 24 minutes.
Even more impressive, Verdugo Hills finished the game on a 19-0 run to win the programs first ever section championship.
“We just kept trying our hardest,” 6’8 sixth man Chris Dees said. “We got this far so there was no reason to ever give up. We finally realized we were playing in a big game.”
Dees scored 20 points and made seven of nine free throws in the second half to lead Verdugo Hills.
Aragad Abramian had 13 points and Nick Brown and Sam Colmenero each chipped in eight.
Verdugo Hills was going nowhere fast as it trailed 27-10 after one quarter, 40-23 at halftime and was still down 48-33 going into the final eight minutes.
“I told them at halftime that we were getting bullyed,” Verdugo Hills coach Jared Gibson said. “We just kept fighting and started to trap out of our zone defense.”
Abramian, Dees and Colmenero got the Dons going in the fourth quarter as each had 3-point plays and the lead was down to 52-46 with 5:00 minutes remaining.
Less than two minutes later, Dees scored on a ally-oop out-of-bounds play to give Verdugo Hills it’s fIrst lead of the game, 53-52.
The Dons made 10 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter.
“I actually said at halftime we needed to cut into the lead in the third quarter but I guess it didn’t happen until the fourth,” Gibson said.
ECR was well on it’s way to an easy victory after leading 32-10 early in the second quarter but only managed 12 second half points and shot a lowly four of 28 from the field.
“They were making buckets and we stopped moving the ball,” ECR’s Tre Holden said.
Temjae Singleton had 19 points, Holden had 15 and Anthony Jones had 12 to lead ECR.
“We just started playing dumb,” ECR coach David Rebibo said. “A lot of dumb stuff went on the whole year and it showed today.”
ECR was trying to follow in the footsteps of it’s girls’ team that won the Div. II championship Friday against Granada Hills and the Birmingham of Lake Balboa girls’ team that won the Div. III championship earlier in the day to further West Valley League dominance.
However, after winning it’s first league championship since 1951 several weeks ago, Verdugo Hills can now add a section championship trophy to it’s remarkable season.