TORRANCE TRIBUNE February 15, 2018 Page 3
Up and Adam
Torrance High Tartars Conquer Warriors,
Capture Share of Pioneer League Title
By Adam Serrao
The Torrance Tartars may not have won the
Pioneer League crown outright, but they sure
came close. After a thrilling 51-49 victory
at home against the West High Warriors last
Thursday night, Torrance accomplished what
seemed to be impossible at the beginning of this
year’s regular season. Head coach Paul Nitake
and his team began the year in the dumps by
losing each of their first six games. Now, with
the regular season officially in the books, the
Tartars have valiantly fought their way back
in the standings to take home a share of this
year’s Pioneer League title.
Now that the regular season is officially
over, the Tartars can look back and say that
they dominated every other team from their
hometown city of Torrance in divisional play.
The Tartars swept South High, West High and
North High on their way to an 8-2 record in
Pioneer League play with their only two losses
of the year coming to the Leuzinger Olympians.
“We swept all of the Torrance schools,
so our boys are super proud and happy,” a
jubilant Nitake explained after the game. “At
the beginning of the year, we had to deal with
some injuries. We took our lumps early. We
went 0-6 to start the season -- but since then,
we’ve won 16 of our last 21 games.”
It was obvious to see that Nitake’s team
was at full strength last Thursday night on its
home floor against the Warriors. Despite only
mustering seven total points in the first quarter
of play, the Tartars more than doubled that
output in the second quarter to take a slight
22-21 lead at the half. Ken Asai and West High
came out of the break on a mission, though. The
Warriors took the lead to start the half with a
three-point basket by Asai, who had 10 points
and led his team in the quarter. The Tartars
knew they had their work cut out for them
when they trailed 37-32 to begin the fourth.
That’s when the Tartars began to feed their
big man. “We saw a mismatch, threw it in and
tried to see if they would double-team,” said
Torrance senior guard Kofi Asante. “We took
care of our size advantage.” That size advantage
was due to the length of junior forward Abdul
Ahmad. Ahmad had four key buckets in the
fourth quarter along with two free throws to
put up 10 points for his team. He was the catalyst
for other players like Asante and Tyler Morimoto,
who came up with a clutch three to get
going in the quarter. It was obvious that West
had no answer for Torrance’s big man, who gave
his team a 51-49 lead with a bucket in the final
minute of play. The Tartars clung to that twopoint
lead in the final seconds of the game to
beat the Warriors for the second time this season.
Asai led the Warriors in the loss with a
game-high 24 points. His teammates Justin
Hight and Nick Snyder each chipped in with
nine and eight points respectively in what turned
out to be a valiant loss for West High. The
Warriors had been on a roll recently, notching
victories in each of their last four games before
the loss to Torrance. West finished the year in
third place in the Pioneer League standings
and will likely receive a spot in the Division
3AA playoff bracket.
Torrance will now roll into the playoffs with
all possible momentum on their side. Ahmad led
the Tartars with 20 points on the night, while
Asante racked up 14 in what was Torrance’s
second straight win and sixth in the last seven
games. The Tartars finish the regular season in
a first place tie with the Leuzinger Olympians
for the Pioneer League crown and will now
turn their focus onto doing damage in this
year’s CIF Division 3A playoffs.
North High vs. South High
The North High Saxons traveled to South
High to take on the Spartans in what was
an inner-city rivalry game to round out the
regular season for the two last place teams in
the Pioneer League. North was looking for its
first divisional victory of the season and first
win in the last 13 games of play. The Spartans
had lost four straight coming into the game
and most recently notched a win against this
very same Saxons team in an overtime battle
three weeks ago.
Despite putting up a decent effort, North was
outmatched from the start. The Spartans’
defense held the Saxons to just six points in
the first quarter of play, as South ran out to an
11-point lead to begin the game. The lead grew
to 13 at the half, but the Saxons put together
a couple of nice quarters in the second half to
bring things a bit closer. Even still, the Spartans
always seemed to hold the game firmly in hand
and eventually ran out the clock to take home
a 59-50 victory in the final game of this year’s
regular season. Neither North High nor South
High will make it into this year’s CIF playoffs.
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
“Basketball is so unique. It’s both
a team and an individual sport.”
– Adam Silver
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