MISSION HILLS – The Loyola and Harvard-Westlake squads pushed through to semifinal wins Thursday night to advance to Friday night’s first-ever Mission League boys’ basketball tournament championship game at Alemany High.
The Loyola Cubs advanced to 21-5 with their 61-60 win over Chaminade in the first of the Thursday night, with the Harvard-Westlake Wolverines (18-7) using a strong collective rebounding and defensive performance to pull away down the stretch against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, 59-49.
The championship game (scheduled to tip at 8 o’clock) is also set to be televised by KDOC (Channel 56 on DirecTV).
The Cubs knocked off the Wolverines in their only league meeting this season, 66-61, in a Jan. 11 contest played on the Harvard-Westlake campus in Studio City.
Senior center James Keefe scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots for Loyola, with the second end of a two-shot free-throw opportunity (he missed the first) with 5.8 seconds to go putting the Cubs ahead to stay.
Weston Crump couldn’t connect on a jump shot that would have won it for the Eagles.
Sophomore guards Kenneth Simpson Jr. (24) and Keith Higgins Jr. (13 of his 15 in the fourth quarter) combined for 39 points for Chaminade.
Six-foot-seven Johnny Juzang scored nine of his team-high 23 points in the fourth quarter for Harvard-Westlake.
He, along with Brase Dottin (pictured) and Holden McRae, also helped do a tremendous defensive job in slowing down the Notre Dame high-powered duo of Boston College-bound Julian Rishwain and junior Ziaire Williams.
Rishwain was held to three points over the first three quarters and 11 points over overall (on four of 12 from the field), while Williams – who scored 18 points in the first half – missed his final eight shots from the field after hitting a 25-footer a minute into the third quarter.
Williams finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists.
Another key element for the Wolverines was the inside dominance of 6-10 junior Mason Hooks, who scored 15 points to go with 14 rebounds while effectively neutralizing Williams’ ability to crash the offensive glass.
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