'We did this together' - Harvard-Westlake's team win propels Wolverines passed Sierra Canyon and into Open Division final

(Lead photo by Nick Koza)

CHATSWORTH, Calif. -- After the final buzzer sounded, Trent Perry balled his eyes out. He cried tears of joy.

"Winning tonight was the best feeling of my life," the sophomore said.

No. 3 Harvard-Westlake beat No. 2 Sierra Canyon on the road 63-60 to win Pool B and advance to the school's first ever Southern Section Open Division championship game. Perry made both ends of a 1-and-1 with seven seconds to go, which put the Wolverines up by three forcing Sierra Canyon to shoot a triple on its last possession which the Trailblazers missed.

There were a lot of "bests" for Harvard-Westlake on Friday. Head coach David Rebibo called the victory the best win he's ever had as a coach. Junior Jacob Huggins said the triumph was right up there with when he won Peach Jam last summer as the best game he's played in but added: "This was a whole different atmosphere. Doing it for the fans, the people I'm in classes with, it's an amazing feeling."

Friday's game was close the whole way and required a total team effort from Harvard-Westlake. Junior Brady Dunlap scored the first 10 Wolverine points in the fourth quarter and hit the key jumper with 1:54 to go, which put Harvard-Westlake up 61-58.

"In big moments we look to [Brady] and he really executed," Huggins said. Dunlap finished with 17 points.

Senior Penn commit Cam Thrower drilled two deep threes in the third quarter and finished with a team high 18 points for Harvard-Westlake. The Wolverines two bigs, Huggins and senior Landon Lewis, worked hard on the glass to open up space for teammates to grab rebounds.

"We had the bigs box out the bigs and had the guards swoop in and go get [rebounds]," Huggins said "I think we executed that perfectly."

And then there was Perry who in addition to hitting the two clutch free throws defended star Sierra Canyon guard Amari Bailey for spells in the game and didn't look out of place.

"I was looking forward to this game for like the whole year now," Perry said. "...We had a well put together plan. Coach Rebibo helped us out a lot and we just executed it well. We did this all together."

Bailey scored a game high 21 points for Sierra Canyon. He tweaked his ankle at the end of the first half and still scored 11 second half points for the Trailblazers despite not being one-hundred percent.

"We knew Amari was hurt and tried to capitalize," Huggins said.

Harvard-Westlake will play Corona Centennial in the Open Division title game on the road next Friday. The Huskies won Pool A with three wins over Bishop Montgomery, Damien and Crean Lutheran.