Boys’ basketball: No competition for Taft in West Valley League
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If Wednesday’s West Valley League game was any indication, Woodland Hills Taft might as well as play its second-stringers the rest of the way because the Toreadors had little trouble in routing Lake Balboa Birmingham, 75-33.
Birmingham (12-6, 2-1) is supposed to be the second-best team in the West Valley, and the Patriots might be, but they offered little opposition.
The most exciting part of the second half came when the final buzzer sounded and the players started to exchange handshakes. Suddenly, Birmingham Coach Jarvis Turner, a former USC player, was having heated words with Taft Coach Derrick Taylor.
‘We’re both competitors,’ Turner said.
Turner was not pleased that his team didn’t put up much of a fight against the No. 8 Toreadors (13-3, 3-0). ‘We played scared,’ he said. ‘You can’t play scare against a team as talented as Taft. We got caught up in the emotion of the game.’
Taft’s pressure defense left the Patriots reeling, as did Bryce Jones, who scored 25 points and had nine rebounds.
Taft has big nonleague games coming up next Saturday against Gardena Serra at Fairfax and Feb. 6 against Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick in the Nike Extravaganza at Santa Ana Mater Dei.
Taylor talked about his team’s progress, discussed playing Serra and what it will take to beat Westchester in video below.
-- Eric Sondheimer