Oak Park boys basketball uses defense, free throws to beat Los Altos and advance to semifinals
OAK PARK — The Oak Park boys basketball team rose to the occasion in high-pressure situations to punch its ticket to the CIF Southern Section Division 2A semifinals on Tuesday night.
The Eagles made 13 of 17 free throws in the fourth quarter to build a lead big enough to beat Los Altos 55-45 and send them into Friday’s semifinal matchup against Canyon.
“We said it as soon as CIF started,” Oak Park junior Jadon Holmes said. “Why not us? It would be an amazing story if we were the team that won CIF and we brought it all back.”
Holmes led Oak Park in scoring with 23 points and Kevin Keshishyan contributed 24 points for Los Altos. Eagles senior Cody Fleetwood made all six of his free throws in the final quarter.
Turnovers hurt Oak Park’s chances of gaining a sizable lead in the third quarter and Los Altos 6-foot-6 forward Kevin Keshishyan made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to tie the game at 39-all and set up a competitive fourth frame.
The Eagles struggled to defend Keshishyan, who scored all but four of Los Altos’ points in the first half. However, they made defensive adjustments in the second half and held him scoreless in the fourth quarter.
It was also the fewest points scored in a game by the Conquerors all season.
“That’s a high-scoring team,” Oak Park head coach Aaron Shaw said. “They shoot a lot of 3s, they get out in transition, which they were able to do in the first half. For us, an emphasis was getting back and not letting them shoot 3s. We did a really good job defensively and we feel we can win games when we can hold teams to under 48.”
Oak Park had a 6-foot-6 forward of their own in Holmes and he matched up well in the post with Keshishyan, but Keshishyan’s ability to score from multiple levels put the Conquerors on an 8-0 scoring run to close out the first quarter.
Turnovers hurt the Eagles, too. Three in a row had given Los Altos a 13-0 lead with roughly one minute remaining in the first quarter.
“I feel like we were a little anxious,” Holmes said. “And when we slow the game down to really play our game, that’s when we’re at our best.”
Oak Park clawed its way into the game again with a back-and-forth second quarter. Holmes tipped in a layup with 15 seconds until halftime but Keshishyan came in clutch once again — this time just before the buzzer to give Los Altos a 23-22 advantage at the break.
The Eagles started the season 0-12 and couldn’t manufacture a win streak longer than three games. Still, they finished second in Coastal Canyon League play behind unbeaten league champ Camarillo to earn an automatic berth to the playoffs.
“At the beginning of the year we were losing a lot of games and we stayed together,” Shaw said. “You could easily start blaming and pointing fingers and things, but the guys stayed together and kept working.”
Other boys basketball scores Tuesday:
Open Division
Harvard-Westlake 61, JSerra 48
Notre Dame 67, Santa Margarita 59
St. John Bosco 60, Sierra Canyon 55
Division 1
Crean Lutheran 73, Campbell Hall 66
Division 2A
Canyon 60, Rancho Mirage 57