Harvard-Westlake Rumbles Past Fairfax, 67-48

WESTWOOD — Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour, but for some reason the Harvard-Westlake High boys’ basketball team didn’t look sharp in the finale of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Classic at Pauley Pavilion.

At least for the first half.

The Wolverines overcame a one-point halftime deficit to Fairfax by scoring the first 16 points of the second half en route to a 67-48 victory Monday night.

In the second half, Harvard-Westlake held the Lions scoreless until the final minute of the third-quarter and without a field goal until one minute into the fourth quarter.

Counting two free throws by Jason Collins to end the first half, Harvard went on an 18-0 run to blow the game open. Fairfax never got closer than 13 points.

Collins and Ryan Smiley each scored 20 points for Harvard (21-1), the top-ranked team in the state. Jarron Collins was held to four points.

The game supposed to start at 8 p.m. but tip-off was delayed by nearly two hours as the day-long schedule of eight games lagged further and further behind.

It didn’t help the Wolverines early that most of the 8,000 fans who came to see the previous game between Dominguez and Crenshaw streamed for the exits as both teams warmed up.

The Wolverines turned the ball over on their first three possessions, going scoreless the first two minutes.

The Lions weren’t immune to problems either. Fairfax missed 15 consecutive shots at one point in the first quarter mostly due to the inside presence of Jason Collins.

Jason Collins blocked four shots in the first quarter, seven in the first half and eight in the game.

In an earlier game, Antelope Valley dropped a 75-62 decision to Long Beach Poly, which won comfortably even without Stanford-bound guard Mike McDonald.

McDonald missed his fourth consecutive game with a bruised thigh, but Richard Anderson, Poly’s 6-9 junior center, hit two three-pointers in the opening minute as the Jackrabbits (16-3) opened up a 12-0 lead. Anderson finished with 16 points.

Antelope Valley (14-6) trimmed Poly’s advantage to 44-37 in the third quarter, but couldn’t get any closer. Ziaire Williams scored 21 points for Antelope Valley, Le’Tre Kelly added 17 and Tony Walker scored 15.