By Corey Kwok
(Keppel High School) – Keppel had little counter against strongman Carlos Barrios in the first half, as he dominated the boards for 15 caroms and gave Alhambra 10 second chance boards to lead Alhambra to a 49-42 win over the Aztecs Tuesday night.
Barrios ended his night with 14 points and 19 rebounds for Alhambra, who benefited from strong play at the guard spots and a smooth stroke in the clutch by Miles Ford, a transfer from Serra in Gardena.
Ford, a junior who came to the Moors’ program his sophomore year but missed most of it because of injury, supplied a game high 20 points and eight rebounds with three steals and two assists for Alhambra, who opened up a 10-point lead on a Ford basket a mere nine seconds into the fourth and held firm the rest of the stretch run.
The defending champ Aztecs (17-8, 6-1) came in undefeated in Almont play and had handed the Moors’ (14-7, 6-1) lone league loss in a triple overtime thriller their prior bout.
Keppel closed the first stanza with a three at the two second mark by Kyler Lee to go ahead 15-14 into the second, but never scored again until 2:53 to play while Alhambra stretched out a 6-0 run to that point, when Lee hit consecutive jumpers (one for three) in quick succession to even it at 20-all. Adam Thompson then stole and scored to regain the lead for Keppel, but Jonathan Eng answered near the halftime horn by dancing his way around defenders to lay it in with three seconds to go for the tie.
Thompson struck paint paydirt and Lee added a free throw to squeeze Keppel a 25-22 lead with 5:32 to play in the third, but the Aztecs didn’t hit a field goal the rest of the quarter, nor saw the lead again, as Alhambra closed on a 15-4 run which culminated in a desperation bomb at the buzzer banked in by Aaron Cosme from mere steps inside the half court dash, which proved to spark the Moors to victory and a first place tie.
Kyler Lee staggered to the finish as Keppel’s leading scorer with 12 points (11 in first half with three 3-pointers), going a cold zero for 10 the second half. Bailey Kikuchi and Adam Thompson (5 rebounds-3 assists) both scored 10. Bertram Mak added six, with six boards, two blocks, and two steals.
This Friday night, Alhambra returns home to face Montebello, while Keppel has its final regular season homestand versus Schurr. Both games start at 7:00pm.
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