It’s been the anticipated finals matchup virtually from day one of the season.

Westchester High School, the defending section and State Division I champion, squares off with Taft at 8 p.m. Saturday at USC’s Galen Center for the City Division I boys basketball title.

The top-seeded Comets, ranked 16th nationally and second in the state, take a 26-3 mark into the contest. No. 2 Taft, 33rd nationally and fourth in the state, is 24-4. One of the Toreadors’ losses was a 71-62 setback to Westchester in the title game of the Westchester Tip-Off Classic Dec. 5.

This figures to be the first test for either team since the City playoffs began.

Westchester has won its three playoff games by 37, 36 and 37 points. The Comets 90-53 semifinal victory over Washington Prep was pretty much decided before the first quarter was over.

They built a 29-5 lead by the time the period ended, then only had to withstand one mild run when the Generals (22-7) closed the gap to 42-30 early in the third quarter. Westchester went on another run to put it away.

“That first quarter was a combination of us playing well and them being a little jittery,” Comets coach Ed Azzam said. “They were nervous and we captialized on their mistakes. Once they got over the nervousness, they cut into the lead.”

“We just came out ready to play,” senior guard Jordin Mayes, who had a game-high 22 points, explained.

Mayes and Dwayne Polee, who had 20 points, 12 rebounds and four assists, did much of the damage, although the Comets had other contributors. Guard Denzel Douglas had 15 points and five assists, center Reggie Murphy had 12 points and forward Kareem Jamar added nine points and nine rebounds.

Stephen Dafney scored nine points, all on 3-pointers, to share scoring honors with Michaelyn Scott for Washington Prep. Darrion Thompson-West had eight points and six rebounds.

Polee, the USC signee, is looking forward to repeating as City champion, which would give him one more title than his father Dwayne, who led Manual Arts to the 1981 section crown with a record 43-point performance against Crenshaw in the final.

“I’d like to get that extra ring and get City player of the year (which his father was that season), too,” he said.

Standing in the way of Polee and his teammates is a Taft team that has won by an average margin of 54 points in the playoffs, including an 81-60 semifinal victory over Crenshaw.

The Toreadors can certainly shoot from long range, as the seven 3-pointers they drilled against Crenshaw showed. Six were during a first half in which they were taking early control.

USC-signee Bryce Jones, who is averaging 15.5 points and 6.6 rebounds, had 27 points and nine rebounds, and Pierson Williams had 18 points, the bulk coming on four 3-pointers in the first half against the Cougars (21-4). DeAndre Daniels, a 6-8 junior, is another threat from long range. He had 14 points in the semis.

Crenshaw and Washington Prep, in the meantime, are not through playing this season. By virtue of being semifinalists, they have automatically qualified for the Southern Regional playoffs that begin next week.

“The good thing is the season doesn’t end for us,” Crenshaw coach Ed Waters said. “We’ve got the regionals ahead. Hopefully, we’ll learn something from this, the main thing being, we’ve got to come out ready to play.

“The next time we play, we need to identify who the other team’s best guys are and stop them. How far you go (in the playoffs) is not based on offense, it’s defense.”

Against Taft, Crenshaw relied on its backcourt combo of Deuce Zaid, who had 23 points and six rebounds, and Reynaul Baker, who had 13 points. Forward Darnell Taylor was the rebound leader with nine.

Small Schools Division
View Park Prep (15-16) and LACES (11-18), the top two seeds, play for the City’s Small Schools Division title at 8 p.m. Thursday at Roybal Learning Center.

View Park, which plays in the Coliseum League, was not tested in reaching the final. Its 73-46 semifinal victory over Douglass was the closest game it had in the postseason.

LACES, from the Western League, also rolled through the playoffs. Its 69-46 semifinal win over SOCES was its closest game in the postseason.

The Division 2 final between University and San Pedro is at 8 p.m. Friday at Roybal and the Division 3 title game between El Camino Real and Verdugo Hills is at 1 p.m. Saturday at Roybal.