Harvard-Westlake boys basketball rolls past Valencia
STUDIO CITY — The Harvard-Westlake boys basketball team rolled to a 68-49 win over Valencia to improve to 9-1 to open the season.
“We knew they’d be a good matchup for us; they (Valencia) shoot the ball really well,” Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo said. “We’re still working out some kinks and it was a good game to get out of the way and we’ll get better from it.”
Harvard-Westlake guard and Texas signee Joe Sterling had 26 points and five rebounds, with seven 3-pointers made, to lead the way for Harvard-Westlake. Sterling shot at a 70% clip from behind the 3-point line in the game.
“It was a good win for us against a good tough Valencia (7-4) team,” Sterling said. “We just wanted to build some momentum heading into Hawaii next weekend and continue to get these wins up.”
The No. 3-ranked team in the Daily News area, Harvard-Westlake, was able to jump out to a 15-4 lead after one, thanks to some very aggressive defense and eight points from Sterling. No.12 Valencia really struggled to get going in the first couple minutes of the game before finding their groove in the second half.
“For two and a half quarters, I think we defended at the level we’re capable of,” Rebibo said. “Then I think we kinda lost focus and Valencia kept competing and that’s the right way to play.”
Sterling had 14 points at the half to help give the Wolverines a 34-16 lead. Georgia State signee Amir Jones had 17 points and four rebounds in his first game back from injury for Harvard-Westlake.
“Being aggressive just opened up a lot of things for me, it’s something I worked on all offseason,” Jones said of his offensive performance. “I attacked close outs and the game gets easy when you have an aggressive mindset.”
Sterling scored 12 points and made three 3-point shots in the third quarter to extend the Wolverine lead to 53-31 after three.
Valencia guard Issac Michel-Zavala had 18 of his 22 points in the second half to help the Vikings stay in the game. Michel-Zavala also had eight rebounds in the game.
Valencia outscored Harvard-Westlake 18-15 in the final quarter. The Vikings also did not allow Sterling, who did not play the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, to score a point in the final quarter.
“We knew we were gonna have to work really hard against this type of team,” Valencia coach Greg Fontenette said. “It took us a little bit to get used to their speed and physicality, but I thought we gave everything we had and I couldn’t ask for more.”
Harvard-Westlake guard Cole Holden had a strong performance in the game as he had 12 points, five assists, five rebounds and four steals. Barron Linnekens had five points and ten rebounds for the Wolverines.
“According to our standards, this game was pretty disappointing,” Holden said. “A little bit of fatigue kicked in in the second half but there’s no excuse and we have to continue playing hard defense.”
Christian Byrne had seven points and five assists off the bench for Valencia. Valencia’s leading scorer, Steven Irons, had six points and three rebounds after missing the game against Saugus this Tuesday.
Harvard-Westlake will look for their ninth straight win when they take on Punahou of Hawaii in the Iolani Classic on Dec. 16. Valencia will try and quickly bounce back with a Foothill League game on Dec. 12 at Castaic.