Burbank Boys Basketball Looks Sharp in Win Over Burroughs

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(Photo by Ross A Benson)

Many of the faces have changed, but the Burbank High boys’ basketball team closed out its regular season against Burroughs like the team that is ready for the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Last season the Bulldogs reached their first CIF championship game since 1926.

(Photo by Ross A Benson)

The Bulldogs overcame an early first-quarter slump to easily beat the host Indians 59-51 in a Pacific League contest Thursday.

“Our league has the best coaches, so it definitely prepares us for the playoffs,” Burbank coach Jamayne Potts said. “We wanted to go 4-3 in the second half of league and we did that. We’re right where we want to be.”

Burbank (17-10, 7-7 in the league) claimed the fourth spot in the league behind Pasadena, Muir and Crescenta Valley.

Burroughs (13-14, 3-11) struggled with numbers all season and even missed having coach Allan Ellis on the bench.  He missed the game for undisclosed reasons.

“This team has been through so many adversities this year,” acting head coach Scott Koulouvaris said. “We’ve had so many injuries. We lost our best player (Stefon Foster) at the beginning of the season. We’ve had guys with concussions, sprained ankles. You name it we had it. We played at one point with seven guys. It has been tough on the kids.”

(Photo by Ross A Benson)

Burroughs jumped out to an early lead and held a 15-14 advantage going into the second quarter.

Burbank then took over by going on an 11-0 run to begin the second quarter.

Burroughs remained tough, but never really threatened the Bulldogs again.  Burbank led 31-27 at halftime and pushed the advantage to 43-34 at the end of the third period.

Burbank was led by Erik Harutyunyan, who had a game-high 23 points. Sevak Mkrtchyan had 12 points, Xavier Davis eight, Justin De Sales seven, Tyrese Willis six and Ben Burnham had three points.

Burroughs was led by Omar Searcy, who had 13 points. Zion Bazzell had 12 points, Carson Clarke had nine, Quentin Roberts eight, Amir Montgomery seven and DJ Hubbell had two points.