Santa Monica Nips Westlake in 4-A Final

Southern Section officials balked at allowing Santa Monica High Coach Cliff Hunter into the Sports Arena on Friday night because he didn’t have a proper pass. “Go outside and buy a ticket,” assistant Commissioner Dean Crowley told Hunter gruffly.

Crowley was upset because Hunter had given his pass to a friend and thought he would slip through the door along with his team.

Although the coach finally was allowed inside to lead Santa Monica against Westlake in the 4-A final, he could have just asked one of his players to steal a pass for him.

Santa Monica made six steals during the game, including one by guard Danny Price with five seconds left, to defeat Westlake, 62-60. The Vikings walked out of the Sports Arena with a pocketful of pilfered passes--each one courtesy of a Westlake player.

“Steals are our trademark,” Hunter said. “We play man-to-man defense like no one else. It’s the most tremendous man defense I’ve seen.”

And it helped result in the first Santa Monica title anyone’s seen in a long time. The Vikings last won a championship in 1928, the year before the Great Depression.

This win caused mass depression for Westlake (21-8), whose players crashed to the floor in disbelief after Price’s steal--which was the only Viking heist not off a pass.

The Warriors had a chance to tie after Santa Monica’s Keith Neal missed a free throw with 15 seconds left. Rather than call a timeout, Westlake steamed down the floor for a final shot.

Rick Welch passed to Jim Henderson at the free throw line, and Henderson, who had scored eight of his 15 points in the fourth quarter on drives through the lane, prepared to penetrate again.

“Jim’s a money player,” Westlake Coach Roy Gilmore said after the game, but Price slapped the ball away and chased it down as the buzzer sounded.

“I poked my hand in there,” Price said. “After Henderson made those baskets I switched and covered him the last two minutes. That confused him enough for me to get the steal.”

Said Henderson: “We had a set play but everything got sort of garbled at the end. I don’t know how they beat us.”

A lot of teams have been saying that about Santa Monica. After going 4-8 in nonleague games, the Vikings won 14 of their last 15 games, including an overtime upset win over Simi Valley in the quarterfinals.

Like practically every underdog champion this season, Santa Monica attributed the turnaround to a certain movie. After a team viewing, The Vikings believed they went from losers to Hoosiers.

“Before league games began I took the team to see ‘Hoosiers,’ ” Hunter said.

“Yep, we’re the Hoosiers,” chimed in Price, who was seated next to the coach.

Westlake center Dave Heckmann had to take a similar seat after picking up his fifth foul with 2:41 left in the game. Heckmann had six points and, along with Henderson, had a game-high 11 rebounds.

Santa Monica was outrebounded, 36-32, but the numbers are deceiving. The Vikings had 14 offensive rebounds and converted them into nine baskets. Three times a Santa Monica player grabbed a missed free throw and scored. Forward Keith Neal had 20 points--mostly from inside--and seven rebounds. Center Trane Hunter added nine rebounds.

“We hit the boards real well early in the game,” Hunter said. “They sat in that zone defense and I wasn’t sure we could get the boards. But we did.”

Westlake’s zone enabled Price, Santa Monica’s leading scorer, to shoot wide open from the outside. The 6-4 senior had 18 points on 9 of 19 shooting.

“I figured they’d play me tighter,” Price said. “I missed a couple early but started hitting.”

The most important thing he hit was the ball rather than Henderson’s hands on the crucial steal. Had Henderson been fouled, he probably would have sent the game into overtime with two free throws. In playoff wins over Muir and Lynwood, Henderson made 8 of 8 in the last two minutes.

“Jimmy wanted the ball tonight and he played an excellent game.” Gilmore said. “I was blocked out on the last play. I guess he had it knocked out of his hands.”

Westlake, which finished second in the Marmonte League but won the first four playoff games in the school’s history, was attempting to be the first Valley-area team ever to win a 4-A title.

The Warriors appeared nervous in the first half and made only 11 of their first 26 shots. A 35-foot shot by sophomore Syrus Yarbrough at the buzzer gave Santa Monica a 30-24 halftime lead.

Welch, who finished with eight points, and Paul Keenan, who had a team-high 16, found their range in the third quarter when Westlake outscored Santa Monica, 15-10.