Harvard-Westlake boys basketball wins after Damien makes it close at the end

STUDIO CITY — The Harvard-Westlake boys basketball held on for a win over Damien on Friday in the CIF-SS Open Division playoffs.

The Wolverines defeated the visiting Spartans, 67-62, in a pool play game.

Harvard-Westlake (23-5) pulled ahead in the contest with a pair of third-quarter runs, including an 8-0 run that closed the period.

That seemed like it would be enough to hold off Damien (26-7), but the Spartans caught fire in the final few minutes. With the help of a few clutch offensive rebounds, Damien knocked down six of its 14 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.

Wolverines coach David Rebibo said that despite the late 3-point barrage by Damien, he was confident his team was still in the driver’s seat.

“I felt we were in control,” Rebibo said. “A couple offensive rebounds that we need to do a better job of. We’ll get better at it and we’ll move forward.”

Zaire Rasshan did a lot of the damage for Damien with his game-high 27 points, mostly off seven 3-pointers. But it was senior Elijah Smith who gave the Spartans a huge boost at the end with a trio of 3-pointers.

Smith grabbed a long offensive rebound and drilled a contested corner 3-pointer to get Damien within one possession, but Harvard-Westlake held on for the win.

The loss dropped Damien to 0-2 in the pool-play round.

“We know they’re supremely well coached,” Rebibo said. “Coach (Mike) LeDuc is a legend in the basketball world. We knew they’d come in with a really good plan. We knew they’d they’d execute, and their offense is so, so creative. It has so many counters and reads. I thought we did a really good job of taking them out of it, but I also thought they just made some really, really tough shots.”

Smith finished the fourth quarter with 12 of his 19 points.

The Wolverines were led by senior Joe Sterling with 22 points and seven rebounds. Junior Pierce Thompson also gave the team a boost with 15 points as he went 8 for 8 from the free throw line.

The two teams went blow-for-blow in the first half before the Wolverines mixed it up in the third.

“Ball movement, paint touches and tempo like when we can do those things, we’re tough,” Rebibo said of the team’s third-quarter push. “I think we’re slowly finding our groove here hopefully.”

The Wolverines had a height advantage with their pair of 6-foo-9 forwards, but Damien played the bigs tough and tightly, keeping them from becoming a problem.

Harvard-Westlake senior Dominic Bentho played well and had 10 points, five rebounds and a block.

Harvard-Westlake’s next pool play game is against face Santa Margarita, a team that defeated Damien on Wednesday.

The Wolverines will play at Santa Margarita on Tuesday with the winner earning a spot in the Open Division quarterfinals.

“Tomorrow we’ll do some prep. Sunday will be a nice off day,” Rebibo said. “Monday we’ll prep. And then Tuesday, we got Santa Margarita, so we’ll be ready to go.”

The Spartans won’t play again until their state play-in game on Friday, Feb. 20.