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Boys’ basketball: Westchester wins its own tourney

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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It’s hard to imagine any teams besides Westchester and Taft competing in the City Section title game three months from now judging by the impressive array of talent on the floor tonight in the championship game of the Westchester tournament.

Top-ranked Westchester prevailed, 71-62, after making all 10 of its free-throw attempts in the final 1 minute 18 seconds, but the Comets couldn’t contain Taft big man DeAndre Daniels, who had 29 points and 16 rebounds. Daniels scored 22 points in the second half and helped the second-ranked Toreadors (3-1) close to within two points early in the fourth quarter before Menas Stephans and Jordin Mayes responded with back-to-back three-pointers to stretch the lead back to a comfortable margin.

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Mayes had 24 points and Kareem Jamar made five three-point baskets on the way to 19 points for Westchester (4-0).

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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