Kennedy Makes Itself at Home

CANOGA PARK —  OK, so Kennedy High was robbed of a first-round home game in the City Section 4-A Division boys’ basketball playoffs.

No problem.

The ninth-seeded Golden Cougars, who felt slighted by the City seeding committee, took their show on the road Friday night and beat eighth-seeded Canoga Park, 69-60.

The Golden Cougars (13-10) contained Canoga Park’s Carloes Harper with a rigid zone defense and advanced to a quarterfinal game Wednesday at top-seeded Crenshaw.

Harper leads City players in the region with a 28.6-point average, but was held to 24 points, 10 coming in the final three minutes when Kennedy held a substantial lead.

“We’d let anybody else score if they wanted to,” Kennedy forward Michael Calloway said. “But don’t let [Harper] score 30 or 40 or anything crazy like that.”

Calloway scored 23 points for Kennedy and Clayton Powdrill added 17 despite strep throat.

Calloway connected on several high-arcing shots, including a three-pointer that gave Kennedy a 42-30 lead with 4:30 left in the third quarter.

Calloway, who credits his touch to his backyard hoop that measures 11 1/2 feet, also received help from an offense that beat Canoga Canoga Park (15-11) at its own game: Transition.

Kennedy was especially sharp in the third quarter, converting five fast-break opportunities, hitting its first eight shots and turning a 25-23 halftime lead into a 50-34 advantage with 50 seconds left in the quarter.

Canoga Park simply couldn’t hit the open shot, making 24 of 72 (33.3%).

“Our whole season was up and down,” said Harper, who has signed a letter of intent with Cal State Northridge. “This was one of our down days. Too bad it had to happen in the playoffs.”

How big was this one? Kennedy Coach Yutaka Shimizu skipped his P.E. teaching duties during the day in order to get ready for the night.

“I just tried to get my thoughts together,” said Shimizu, who might have to skip school again on Wednesday to prepare for defending state champion Crenshaw, which was an 88-54 victor over Taft.

“We’ve got something for Crenshaw,” said Calloway, who had 12 rebounds. “We’re not saying what it is, but we’ve got something.”