TORRANCE TRIBUNE February 22, 2018 Page 3
Up and Adam
Torrance Tartars Fall to Culver City
Centaurs After Thrilling First Round Win
By Adam Serrao
The Torrance Tartars boys basketball team
endured a postseason that was eerily similar
to the regular season that ended nearly two
weeks ago. Joy and elation ultimately mixed
with sadness and dejection – all feelings that
any basketball team must surely experience
throughout a long and grueling year. For
the Tartars, the team’s postseason joy came
Wednesday night when they welcomed the
Glendora Tartans to town and beat them in a
first round playoff thriller by a final score of
65-63. Unfortunately for Torrance and head
coach Paul Nitake, dejection followed when a
76-57 loss to the Culver City Centaurs ended
the Tartars’ playoff hopes and eliminated the
team in the second round of the postseason.
This year’s Tartars team made it farther into
the playoffs than any other Torrance High
squad in the last six seasons. That alone is
something to be proud about for Nitake and
the rest of his ball club. That same ball club
played with massive amounts of pride last
Wednesday night when it defeated Glendora
by just two points. Torrance trailed by a score
of 58-57 with only two minutes remaining in
the contest. That’s when Kofi Asante came to
life. Asante not only scored his first points of
the game to give Torrance a one-point lead,
but then contributed six points in a row to
eventually crush the Tartans’ hopes of pulling
out a last-second win.
“We played our hearts out at the end of the
game,” Asante said of his excellent, crunch
time performance. “It wasn’t really about
me. It was about the team and making the
right play down the stretch.” Two of Asante’s
teammates played instrumental parts in making
those right plays when it mattered the
most. Jaylen Bourgeois scored a team-gigh 20
points in the game, while Konichi Morofuji
buoyed the team with 16 of his own -- eight
of which came in the third quarter of play.
Torrance was unfortunately unable to acquire
such stellar performances in the second game
of the CIF Southern Section Division 3A
playoffs against the Ocean League’s very own
Culver City Centaurs. Despite senior forward
Jerome Duhon beginning the game with six
early points, the Tartars soon fell behind by
10 points and saw the deficit widen to 23
points by the half. In a game in which they
were clearly outmatched, the Tartars could
only look on as opposing forward Cyrus
Johnson and guard Tevian Jones poured in
the points. The two combined for 37 points
and 13 rebounds in what eventually became
a 76-57 pounding to eliminate the Tartars
from playoff contention. Asante scored a
team-high 15 points for Torrance.
Even with the loss, the Tartars still succeeded
in putting themselves back on the high
school basketball map in the city of Torrance
this season. Repeating such a process may
prove to be difficult with the departure of 12
seniors from this year’s playoff team including
Asante, guard Tyler Morimoto and the
aforementioned Duhon. Nitake will benefit
from the return of junior forward Abdul
Ahmad, junior guard Kenichi Morofuji and
sophomore guard Jaylen Bourgeois, who all
had standout seasons this year. With a little
bit of health and a lot of dedication, this
Torrance team should find itself back on
top of the Pioneer League standings before
you know it.
West High
The West High Warriors’ postseason progressed
in much the same fashion as that
of the Torrance Tartars. After a huge 62-54
victory in the first round of the CIF Southern
Section Division 3AA playoffs against the
Schurr Spartans, the Warriors were slipped up
in the second round by the St. Paul Swordsmen.
A 52-48 loss put a cap on an otherwise
successful season for West and head coach
Perlmutter, who will undoubtedly look to
improve upon a third place finish in this
year’s Pioneer League standings.
An incredible performance from senior
guard Ken Asai helped guide West’s comefrom
behind victory in the first round. The
Warriors found themselves behind by three
points as the fourth quarter commenced. As
usual, a great all-around team effort pulled
West out of the deficit. While Asai led all
Warriors players with 18 points, senior guard
Nick Snyder and junior guard Alex Mishaw
each chipped in with 12 of their own. Senior
guard Justin Hight also brought 10 points to
the table to make it four West High players to
score in double digits in their eight-point win.
The Warriors’ success was short-lived after
they took on a St. Paul team that had lost
only seven games all season long. It was
evident that neither Perlmutter nor his team
cared about St. Paul’s record, as the Warriors
led for basically the entire the game
and played an extremely scrappy contest for
four straight quarters.
West was up by three points after one
quarter and took a 23-21 lead into the half.
The Swordsmen tightened things up and tied
the game heading into the fourth. Despite
Mishaw’s 28 points on the night, the West
High offense went cold at the most inopportune
time. After holding a three-point lead with
just over four minutes to play, the Warriors
went scoreless over two minutes of game
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See Up and Adam, page 6