Roundup: Shalhevet feeds off electric crowd to advance to 3A semifinals

Home-court advantage in basketball had pretty much disappeared during COVID-19 restrictions, but Shalhevet, a modern orthodox Jewish school seeded No. 1 in Southern Section 3A, decided Tuesday’s quarterfinal playoff game against 14-0 El Segundo deserved a party-like atmosphere, complete with loud music, screaming students wearing masks and fans waving handmade drawings of starting players created by a math teacher.

“We feed off them,” sophomore Ari Halpert said after scoring 28 points to lead Shalhevet to a 67-52 victory and into the 3A semifinals.

“It was electric,” Shalhevet coach Ryan Coleman said of his team’s fans. “We’ve been waiting 16 months to pack our gym. Our community loves basketball. It brings us together.”

With El Segundo focused on stopping seniors Ze’ev Remer and Jacob Pofsky, Halpert was left open and made El Segundo pay. He had six threes. He’s the younger brother of two former Shalhevet standouts. Eitan plays for Yeshiva University and another brother, Simcha, plays in Israel.

“I’ve been bullied all my life,” Halpert said of competing against his brothers.

“There’s no moment too big for him,” Coleman said.

Remer contributed 20 points and CJ Hardy led El Segundo with 27 points. Shalhevet is expected to play on Thursday night in the semifinals at Marina.

Mater Dei 62, Harvard-Westlake 57: Harrison Hornery scored 26 points and Nick Davidson 22 for the Monarchs. It means in the Division 1 pool B, Mater Dei, Harvard-Westlake, Damien and Corona Centennial are all 1-1 going into Friday’s final round of pool play.

Etiwanda 48, St. John Bosco 46: The Eagles are 2-0 in Pool A and will play at Sierra Canyon on Friday to decide the pool winner.

Sierra Canyon 82, Ribet 70: Amari Bailey broke loose for 38 points to rally the Trailblazers to victory.

Santa Margarita 42, Laguna Beach 34: Jake Heberle had 11 points and Colby Barnes 10.

Capistrano Valley 57, JSerra 50: The Cougars advanced to take on Heritage Christian in Division 1.

Rolling Hills Prep 48, Fountain Valley 47: Kenny Manzi scored 17 points and Benny Gealer 10.

Dominguez 69, Servite 52: Elijah Evans scored 26 points and Cristan Butler and Colby Evans 16 apiece for Dominguez.

Los Altos 58, Colony 49: Jazz Gardner had 26 points to help Los Altos eliminate the top-seeded Titans in 2AA. Los Altos will face Long Beach Poly, which defeated Orange Lutheran 67-49. Jalen Pitre scored 24 points for Poly.

Chaminade 72, St. Bernard 68: The Eagles advanced to the Division 1 semifinals. Keith Higgins scored 24 points and KJ Simpson 23. The Eagles will play Bishop Montgomery on Friday at Chaminade. Bishop Montgomery defeated Oak Park 63-60 behind Xavier Edmonds, who scored 26 points.

Heritage Christian 64, Windward 54: Malik Moore had 17 points.

Agoura 65, West Ranch 59: The Chargers pulled off the road victory.

Boys’ soccer

Birmingham 4, Godinez 2: The Patriots advanced to the Division 1 regional semifinals behind goals from David Diaz, Cristian Moran, Enrique Pineda and Anthony Miron. Birmingham will play Clovis, which defeated Loyola on penalty kicks.
Mira Costa advanced to the other semifinal against Servite after defeating El Camino Real on penalty kicks.

Salesian 3, Bell 1: Julian Valasquez and Ernesto Vergara had goals to help Salesian advance in Division 3.

Sierra Canyon 2, Canoga Park 1: UC Irvine-bound Jordan Becker scored a golden goal in a Division V game.

Girls’ soccer

Harvard-Westlake 1, Torrey Pines 0: The unbeaten Wolverines advanced on a golden goal in overtime from Daniela Quintero in Division 1.

Villa Park 7, Granada Hills 0: The Spartans eliminated the City Section champions and will play at Harvard-Westlake on Thursday in the semifinals.

Golf

Granada Hills won the City Section girls’ golf championship. Kira Reisner of Granada Hills won the individual title with a one-under-par 72 for a two-stroke victory.

Patrick Song of Yorba Linda won the Central Regional boys’ individual title in the Southern Section, firing a 69.

Lacrosse

Loyola 15, Palos Verdes 8: The Cubs advanced to the Division 1 semifinals. Matt Gottfried was 26 for 27 on faceoffs and Aidan Lee had four goals and Owen Gaffney three.