Old, New Collide on Court

The not-so-distant past meets the present and probable future of City Section basketball when top-seeded Crenshaw plays second-seeded Westchester in the boys’ championship game tonight at the Great Western Forum.

Tip-off is at 8.

The girls’ final between top-seeded Harbor City Narbonne and defending champion Palisades is at 6.

Crenshaw (21-2), winner of a record 16 section and eight state titles, is in the final for the 23rd time. The Cougars, with a team led by senior guards E.J. Harris and Tommy Johnson and senior center Chris Davis, are making their first appearance since 1997, when they defeated Westchester, 87-70, for their fifth consecutive championship.

Westchester (22-6), the 1998 City and state champion, is making its third championship-game appearance in four years with a team that features an array of sophomores and juniors who probably will keep the Comets at the forefront of City basketball for the next few seasons.

“We don’t have all the titles they have, but we’ve been here now and they know they have to come through us,” Westchester Coach Ed Azzam said. “If you’re going to win the City title you have to go through Westchester.”

Crenshaw, under 30-year Coach Willie West, went unbeaten through the Coliseum League and defeated Eagle Rock, Palisades and Fremont to reach the final.

Harris, who has signed with Kansas State, missed much of the first part of the season because of an ankle injury, but is back to full speed. Johnson, who has signed with Washington, scored 22 points in both the quarterfinals and semifinals. Davis has been a strong scoring and rebounding presence throughout the playoffs.

But the overwhelming depth that characterized Crenshaw teams of the past is now a Westchester trademark.

Seniors Jason Breland and Cedrick Thompkins lead a team that has three sophomore starters in Ashanti Cook, Brandon Heath and Keith Everage. Sophomore Jason McKinney and junior Chad Bell are also key players for the Comets.

Westchester won the Western League and defeated Jordan, Van Nuys Grant and Fairfax to reach the final.

“We’re very young and sometimes we make young mistakes,” Azzam said. “During the season, we had periods in every game where we would go into a funk or do silly things. Eventually, we would snap out of it.

“But right now, we’re playing as well as we have played all year. If we continue to play like we have, you never know.”

In the girls’ final, Narbonne (29-0) is trying to win, and keep, its first championship. The Lady Gauchos defeated Palisades in the 1998 City final and went on to beat Berkeley in the Division I state championship game at Sacramento. But Narbonne was stripped of both titles for violations related to residence issues. The Lady Gauchos were banned from the playoffs last season.

Palisades (20-2) won last year’s title and is determined to repeat.

The Dolphins, however, face a formidable challenge in their third consecutive championship-game appearance.

Narbonne forward Ebony Hoffman is regarded as one of the top seniors in the nation. Guard Loree Moore is one of the top juniors.

Narbonne, ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today, won the prestigious Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions in December and has only gotten better. The Lady Gauchos defeated Hamilton, Van Nuys Grant and Chatsworth in the playoffs. Their goals are to win City, state and mythical national championships.

Palisades, led by guards Itricia Ewells and April Freeney and front-court player Melissa Henderson, defeated Wilson, Gardena and Crenshaw to reach the final.

Regardless of the outcome of tonight’s games, the Crenshaw and Westchester boys’ teams and the Narbonne and Palisades girls’ teams will compete in the Southern California regional of the state tournament that begins next week.