It was everything a rivalry game should be. Trailing for much of the game, Burroughs High rallied to top visiting Burbank 74-73 in a Pacific League contest Friday night that saw several impressive individual performances on both ends.
“We had a rough first half, but we pulled together and did what we needed to do in the second half. I think we came out a little flat, but we knew in the second half we had to get straight to business,” said Burroughs Chase Kardosh, whose jumper with 25 seconds left turned out to be the game-winner.
Kardosh finished with 29 points, with all but four coming in the second half.
“We’re not a first-half team. That is something we’re trying to fix,” Burroughs coach Malique Johnson said. “I don’t know what it is, but I always have to go in at halftime with my coaching staff and hype them up and draw something up and we play better in the second half.”
Burbank (5-17 overall, 1-7 in league) has received a tremendous boost in recent weeks thanks to the addition of 6-foot-6 junior guard Odartey Blankson, who transferred to Burbank after the season started from DNA Prep Academy in Chatsworth.
Blankson, whose father who is also named Odartey, is originally from the Las Vegas area and his father played in college at UNLV.
He finished with a game-high 38 points.
“I had an expectation that it was going to be a hostile hyped crowd. We’re at somebody else’s home court and it can get pretty hectic, but my teammates tried to prepare me for how the atmosphere and how the crowd was going to be,” Blankson said of the Burbank-Burroughs rivalry.
Burbank coach Steve Eshleman praised his team for its effort.
“Everyone that got on the floor played as hard as they could play. As a coach, that is all you can ask for,” he said. “Sometimes it is not going to go your way. Our kids played amazingly hard. Our kids have enormous fight in them.”
Burbank’s biggest lead came at 29-14 in the second quarter following a basket by Blankson.
Burroughs (13-9, 4-4) then got a boost from junior Jacob Samontina, who came off the bench and scored seven of his 18 points in the second quarter.
Samontina’s 3-pointer with 4:46 left in the third quarter tied the game at 44. A three-pointer by Kardosh put Burroughs ahead 47-44.
Burbank fought back and a basket by Kevin Dehbashian with 50 seconds remaining actually gave the Bulldogs 73-72 lead. Dehbashian finished with 18 points.
Landon Everhart had 24 points (12 rebounds) for Burroughs. Jagger Topp had three points and Omar Payind had two points.
Burbank got eight points from Arthur Ambaryan and seven points from Kamran Alborzian. Are Aslanyan had two points.
Editor’s Note: The points for Everhart were changed from 22 to 24 points, and the rebounds were added. We apologize for the error.
Landon Everhart had 24 points and 12 rebounds.
Editor’s Note: We apologize for the error and the story has been corrected.
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