Another solid offensive performance from Alex Copeland ’15 and a career night from Aaron Glazer ’17 weren’t enough to propel the varsity boys’ basketball team to victory on Monday night, as the squad dropped a close 59-52 matchup to Crespi (13-4 overall, 2-0 in Mission League), the only undefeated team remaining in league play.
Copeland led the team in scoring with 19 points on the night, including ten of the team’s 11 in the first quarter. Glazer, starting his second consecutive game following a foot injury to Wolfgang Novogratz ’16, was also impressive, approaching a triple-double with 11 points, seven rebounds, and a staggering nine steals on the night, while going 3-for-6 from three-point-range. Noah Gains ’15 was held to four points before fouling out in the fourth quarter, but contributed heavily defensively with 11 rebounds and two steals.
“We’re already undersized, especially in a league as difficult as the Mission League, and we’ve had to deal with some injuries, but we’ve battled hard in our last two games against solid teams, and a lot of our younger guys who have never been in this position before have had to step up … we’re scrappy, we play hard, and we’re a pretty resilient team,” Copeland said to the Los Angeles Daily News’ Evan Barnes after the game.
The team struggled offensively by collectively shooting 20-for-60 from the field.
“For every shot that we hit, they seemed to match us, and we could just never close that gap,” said Glazer to Barnes.
Harvard-Westlake drops to 9-6 overall and 1-2 in Mission League play with the loss, and will continue its Mission League road trip with a Wednesday game at Flintridge St. Francis (9-7 overall, 0-2 in league) at 7 P.M. The Wolverines swept St. Francis in 2013-14, and are ranked 105th in California in MaxPreps’ most recent rankings, compared to 196th for the Golden Knights.
A recap of Monday’s game by the Daily News can be seen here: http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20150112/crespi-boys-basketball-uses-balance-and-defense-to-hold-off-harvard-westlake
