Oak Park boys’ basketball team eyes return trip to title game

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers SEND IT DOWN, BIG FELLA—Oak Park center Kareem Maddox hammers home the final points of Oak Park’s first-round victory over Lawndale. On Tuesday night at Chaminade, OPHS won its second consecutive postseason game. The Eagles now advance to Friday’s Division IIIA semifinal matchup vs. Harvard-Westlake. They’re at it again.

On the heels of last season’s unexpected run to the CIF Division IIIA title game at The Pond in Anaheim, the Oak Park boys’ basketball team has positioned itself for a return trip to the championship tilt this year.

Oak Park will play HarvardWestlake in a semifinal matchup Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Agoura High.

The winner faces Centennial Compton or Lutheran/Orange a week from Saturday at The Pond with a CIF banner in the balance.

The Eagles’ latest postseason run began last Friday night at home.

After falling 13 points behind Lawndale late in the second quarter, then chiseling the deficit down to four points by the end of the third, Oak Park finally took the lead with 4:28 remaining in the fourth quarter on a basket by junior center Kareem Maddox.

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers SCRAPPY PLAY—Eagle forward Brian Lantos, right, wrestles a loose ball away from Lawndale’s Bryce Cartwright. The Eagles’ lead wouldn’t last, however, and OPHS found itself down a point with less than two minutes to play.

Offensive rebounds were converted into points by senior forward Brian Lantos and senior guard Jason Fahn, putting Oak Park up, 58-55, with under a minute remaining. The Eagles wouldn’t relinquish the lead, winning the contest, 66-57.

“My whole life I’ve been playing basketball with these guys and I did not want it to end,” Lantos said after the game. “Not in front of everybody. Not in front of all my friends.”

Lantos led all scorers with 24 points and 15 rebounds.

Maddox had 14 points and grabbed six rebounds. Senior forward Nick Noyer contributed a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards. Noyer also logged four blocks.

Fahn said defense helped spur the Eagle comeback against Lawndale.

“Defense leads to our offense,” Fahn said. “Our shots, if they don’t fall, we know they’ll fall eventually. We just need to play defense. It’s all about defense.”

The win set up a quarterfinal showdown on the road against Chaminade Tuesday night.

Like the Lawndale game, Oak Park again found itself down early against Chaminade.

Fueled by a relentless, full-court pressing defense, Chaminade built a 22-13 lead with 6:31 remaining in the second quarter.

And then following a timeout, the game completely changed.

Rather than throwing passes away, Oak Park began beating the press and getting easy baskets. The Eagle defense quickly came to life too, with Maddox swatting away shot attempts and senior point guard Mikey Watts helping convert those opportunities into fast-break points at the opposite end of the court.

“We just tried to get quick passes, get something past the middle,” Watts said. “Just get it quick, that’s the key. We needed to get the ball out before they trapped us.”

By the time the first half ended Oak Park had put together a 19-2 run over the final six minutes and 31 seconds of play, and led going into the break, 32-24.

“That’s a nice run,” Chevalier said. “That’s big. A 17-point difference is big.”

With the support of a raucous student section that out-chanted and out-hollered the Chaminade fans throughout the evening, Oak Park continued its strong play into the third quarter.

Maddox seemed to defy gravity on an alley-oop pass from junior guard Nick Saliano. The 6foot-6 center went high above the rim to slam home a dunk that, for the first time all night and only for a brief moment, left the OPHS students nearly speechless.

“(The fans) are great,” Fahn said. “Last year they made us get to the championship. We wouldn’t be anywhere without them.”

Fahn stayed busy nailing basket after basket on his way to a game-high 24 points.

By the end of the third quarter, Oak Park had pushed its lead to 53-35. The Eagles had outscored Chaminade, 31-13, since 6:31 remained in the second quarter.

“The big man in the middle (Maddox) stepped up a lot and stopped their penetration,” Fahn said. “They were getting scared to put it up on him.

“We just busted out our fast breaks and we started taking care of the ball,” Fahn said. “We took up time and we got good shots.”

Chaminade never got closer than 14 points in the fourth quarter, as OPHS advanced with a 72-54 victory.

In Friday’s semifinals, OPHS will take on a Harvard-Westlake squad that’s 25-4 overall this season and was awarded Division IIIA’s No. 2 seed in the postseason.

The Wolverines are potent on offense, having averaged 73 points per game during the regular season. In the playoffs, they’re scoring 89.5 points per contest.

Harvard-Westlake is led by 6foot-10 senior center Alex Stepheson, who averaged 20.3 points and 17.9 rebounds per game.

Despite being underdogs, Chevalier says his team will be ready come tipoff.

“We’re ready,” Chevalier said. “A lot more ready than we were last year.”