Harvard-Westlake boys basketball 'grinds' to 67-45 Open Division pool play win over Mater Dei

STUDIO CITY, Calif. -- If Friday’s Open Division pool playoff game between No. 3 Harvard-Westlake and No. 6 Mater Dei had been a prize fight, the Wolverines would have won by unanimous decision. 

Harvard-Westlake led 17-10 after one quarter and 33-22 at the half. With four minutes to play in the third quarter, Mater Dei cut Harvard-Westlake’s lead to seven, 39-32, when Wolverines’ head coach David Rebibo called a timeout. Harvard-Westlake senior Dahnte Russell drilled a 3 after the stoppage and the Wolverines went on to blow the game open winning 67-45. 

“I felt like early on we were trying to throw the knockout when we just needed to do what we do and grind them a little bit,” Rebibo said.

Senior Cameron Thrower scored a game high 17 points for Harvard-Westlake. Junior Brady Dunlap put in 14 points and senior Landon Lewis added 13, including two vicious first quarter dunks. Senior Jack McCloskey led Mater Dei with 16 points.

The Wolverines hadn’t played a game since ending the regular season on Feb. 1 with a 66-27 win over Chaminade. Rebibo thought the long layoff may have a negative effect on his team, but he left Friday night’s game with a smile.

“I’m very happy,” he said. ”…I love our team. We’ve got a great group of kids and they care about each other and they care about each other’s success, which is our success.”

Harvard-Westlake will play No. 7 Notre Dame in their second pool play game on Tuesday night. Notre Dame fell to No. 2 Sierra Canyon 89-70 on Friday. If Harvard-Westlake beats Notre Dame, a team they lost to 71-61 on Jan. 7, and Sierra Canyon beats Mater Dei on Tuesday, that would set up a de-facto Open Division semifinal next Friday between Harvard-Westlake and Sierra Canyon. 

“In the words of the late great Kobe Bryant, job not done,” Rebibo said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”