TORRANCE TRIBUNE January 25, 2018 Page 3
Up and Adam
Tartars Dominate Saxons
in League Play
By Adam Serrao
The race for the Pioneer League title is on
and despite being seemingly left out of the
conversation, the Torrance Tartars have been
pushing to gain some recognition lately. An
extremely close overtime loss to the Leuzinger
Olympians may have lessened the Tartars’ simmer
a bit, but head coach Paul Nitake and his
team have remained hot nonetheless. A 72-48
victory at home against the North High Saxons
last Friday night kept the Tartars within range
of the rest of their divisional foes and on track
for a first place finish in the league standings if
the team can keep rolling and manage to notch
victories in upcoming games that count most.
Torrance used two huge quarters to bury the
Saxons last Friday night, including an efficient
first quarter of play that saw the Tartars put up
22 total points and jump out to an early 11-point
lead. Sophomore guard Jaylen Bourgeois paced
the team with 11 points in the quarter and
helped put all of the momentum in Torrance’s
favor as the team jumped out to an eight-point
lead heading into the halftime break.
The Tartars best quarter of the game came
immediately following halftime. Once again, it
was Bourgeois who scratched fist for Torrance
with a three-point shot for the first points of
the half. The sophomore eventually put up
eight more in the quarter, but his team was
able to manage 23 total points while holding
the Saxons to just 11 in order to slowly begin
to put the game away. A 56-36 lead after three
quarters eventually turned into what seemed
to be an easy 24-point victory for the Tartars.
Bourgeois finished with a game-high 22
points. Senior guard Tyler Morimoto finished
with 16 while junior forward Abdul Ahmad
and senior guard Kofi Asante each finished
with eight apiece. The Tartars (11-10, 3-1)
have now won five of their last six games and
eight out of their last 10. Torrance will face
the Centennial Apaches this week. As of last
weekend, Centennial was one of four teams
tied atop the Pioneer League standings with
a 3-1 record in divisional play.
Senior Justin Collins led the way for North
High on the night with a team-high 13 points.
Despite the elite play from both Collins and
senior point guard Yusei Shigeta this season,
the Saxons (2-15, 0-4) have remained unable
to manufacture wins. North has now lost seven
games in a row dating back to last weekend,
and as the Pioneer League’s last place team
has quite the hole to dig out of before the end
of the season comes in less than two weeks.
West High
The biggest thorn in the heel of the West
High Warriors lately has been the play of
the Leuzinger Olympians. Last Friday night
at West High, the Warriors were finally able
to pull that thorn out. An excellent second
quarter of play set the tempo for West as
head coach Neal Perlmutter’s defense was
able to limit the Olympians to just six points
in the quarter. With 15 points of its own,
West was able to jump out to a nine-point
halftime lead. “We used our press to slow
them down and it kind of threw them off
balance,” Perlmutter explained of his team’s
efficient play just before the half.
Leuzinger refused to lie down and battled
back toward the end of the third quarter. The
play of junior guard Alex Mishaw was enough
to maintain a 10-point lead heading into the
final moments of the game, however. Six
straight points by the Olympians exemplified
the team’s never-say-die attitude, but the Warriors’
60 points were ultimately too much to
overcome on the night. Behind Mishaw’s 21
points, West took a 60-56 victory.
Senior guard Justin Hight added 10
points and sophomore forward Brandon
Kircher threw in 11 for a Warriors team that
has won five of its last six games dating
back to last weekend. By ending last week
with an overall record of 15-4 and a league
record of 3-1, West remained locked in a
four-way tie for first place in the Pioneer
League standings. The Warriors will look
to remain in first place as they welcome the
North High Saxons to their home court this
Friday night.
South High
The South High Spartans are the only team
in the Pioneer League besides the North High
Saxons that have seemingly dug themselves
a hole that is currently too big to crawl
out of in the Pioneer League standings. As
losers of their last five games in a row, the
Spartans’ 0-4 record in league play currently
has them tied with the Saxons for last place
in the division.
An 80-69 loss last Friday night on the
road at the hands of the Centennial Apaches
didn’t help South’s cause much. The Spartan
defense allowed 20 or more points in three
of the four quarters played and saw senior
point guard Ervin Allison go off for 36 points
and 11 assists for Centennial. South was able
to score 48 second-half points, but after the
Apaches took a 15-point halftime lead, the
game was well out of hand. South will try
to get back on the winning track this week
against the Leuzinger Olympians.
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
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Health Officials: Flu
Shot Still Good Idea
By Rob McCarthy
Los Angeles County health officials said
Friday the influenza outbreak that overwhelmed
hospital emergency rooms and
contributed to at least 96 deaths so far in
January has peaked, and that the annual flu
shot isn’t to blame.
Officials say the H3N2 influenza virus
making the rounds in South Bay communities,
schools and workplaces reached a peak
much earlier than in previous years. This
year’s flu shot is reportedly between 10 and
30 percent effective against the powerful
strain of influenza. Still, county health
officials and local physicians continue to
recommend a flu shot for anyone over six
months of age.
“The vaccine may not completely prevent
the flu. But it does help the body launch an
immune response,” said Dr. Deborah Lehman,
who is an infectious disease specialist and
professor at the UCLA School of Medicine.
The Los Angeles County Public Health
Department reminds residents that being
vaccinated against flu protects a person who
receives the vaccine and reduces their risk
of contracting influenza and spreading it
to others. Receiving the flu vaccine is “the
most effective way to protect yourself and
others” from getting the flu, according to
health officials for the region.
Nearly half of Americans skip annual flu
shots that some employers and health plans
offer for free, according to U.S. Centers
for Disease Control. For people with heart
disease, a flu shot can have an additional
benefit. Studies have shown that a flu vaccination
can prevent heart attacks, according
to medical researchers. “When people hear
the vaccine isn’t that effective, they assume
there’s no point in getting it -- and that’s
very frustrating,” said Dr. Lehman at UCLA.
Public health officials in the United
States and Great Britain have called for
greater public-information campaigns to
boost flu vaccinations among patients with
known heart conditions. The British medical
journal Heart reported in October 2016 on
the link between the flu and heart attacks.
A “wealth of studies shows that heart attack
risk is significantly increased within days of
contracting the flu, and risk remains elevated
for up to a year,” the paper’s authors wrote. In
fact, their data showed that a flu shot was as
effective at preventing a heart attack as quitting
smoking or regularly taking cholesterol
medicine. An annual flu vaccine can reduce
cardiac risk by 19 to 45 percent, they found.
In comparison, cholesterol-controlling medication
lowers the risk by 25 to 30 percent,
the authors wrote.
Even with its limited effectiveness, the
current flu shot should ward off the more
serious effects of the strong H3N2 virus
making the rounds this month, health experts
say. Healthy vaccinated children and adults
may still experience a fever, cough and several
days of discomfort. The current strain
of flu is called the A variety, and the annual
flu shot is most effective against the B type,
according to health officials. A B-type of flu
could make the rounds here in late winter
or early spring, they caution.
The flu outbreak is waning, but it’s not
gone by a long shot, so health officials advise
residents and caregivers of children or the
elderly to recognize the signs of distress due
to the current flu strain, and to take emergency
action if necessary. That includes these warnings
from the UCLA School of Medicine:
• Elderly and people with compromised
immune systems need to pay special attention
to flu symptoms.
• Dehydration is a main danger because
it can set off a chain reaction that makes it
harder for the body to defend itself.
“If children, the elderly and immunocompromised
people don’t get enough fluids
-- or if they can’t keep food and drink down
-- they need more help than a parent or
other caregiver can provide,” UCLA health
professionals caution.
Seek medical attention if a person with the
flu has difficulty breathing or their breathing
becomes fast. Children who are unusually
irritable or sleepy should see a doctor right
away, too.
Frequent hand-washing during the cold and
flu season can help health people not get sick,
experts say. Getting adequate sleep, exercise
and eating a balanced diet also are keys to
warding off cold and flu germs, they say.
These common viruses spread in families,
schools and offices through sneezing and
contact with surfaces.
The county public health office lists
the flu’s symptoms as: fever, cough, sore
throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body
aches, headaches and fatigue. It adds that
pneumonia is the most common complication
of the flu, which can worsen asthma
or heart disease. This year’s H3N2 virus
is responsible for at least 36 deaths in the
county so far, compared with 13 deaths at
this time a year ago, according to the county
health department.
L.A. County offers flu clinics to South
Bay residents at two locations through Feb.
18. Call the Curtis Tucker Health Center in
Inglewood at (310) 419-5325 or Torrance
Health Center at (310) 354-2300 for clinic
appointments. The public health centers are
open weekdays and see patients on a firstcome,
first-served business.
During the first two weeks of January,
nine percent of all emergency room visits
were for flu symptoms and more serious
complications, county officials said last Friday.
Flu, like the seasons, follow a distinct
pattern where these nasty bugs run hot and
cold, the county’s weekly “Influenza Watch”
revealed in its Jan. 19 bulletin. “In a typical
flu season, illnesses caused by influenza A
viruses predominate early in the season,” it
said, adding that the B-type viruses come in
a second wave later in the flu season, which
runs from October to May.
The H3N2 type-A virus peaked earlier than
usual, officials say, and is widespread across
the contiguous 48 states. It has contributed
to 96 deaths -- mostly among older residents
in their 80s -- as of Jan. 19, according to the
county health department.
The CDC says that colds and flus are easily
confused, though both are upper respiratory
illnesses. Flus are worse than common colds,
with more severe and intense symptoms,
federal health officials say. The telltale sign
of the flu is a fever, while a cold is more
likely to bring on a runny nose or stuffed
sinuses, the CDC says. “Colds generally
do not result in serious health problems,
such as pneumonia, bacterial infections or
hospitalizations,” it adds. •