The fat lady hasn’t sung yet on the Bulldogs’ season, but she certainly is warming-up those vocals. Facing a must win against the Glendale Nitros to cap the final day of January on Tuesday, the Burbank High boys’ basketball team found itself down by as many as a dozen before rallying to close within one possession late.
In the end, Glendale staved of Burbank, 49-46. It was more of the same for the underachieving Bulldogs this season. With the exception of a brief three-game stretch to close out the first round of league play, the Burbank High boys’ basketball team has found the Pacific League to be rough waters this season. It has been good enough to battle Muir to the final seconds, but it has been inconsistent and has too often simply found ways to give games away in crunch time.
Now 3-8 in Pacific League play, and having been swept by the Nitros on the season, the Bulldogs find themselves two games back for the final playoff spot with just three games left. The same two teams that played to a 70-66 shoot out three weeks ago on January 11 played in a defensive struggle in which neither team could manage 50 points on Tuesday.
Glendale opened with a three-point advantage after the first quarter of play and it had built a double-digit lead by the half — largely because the Bulldogs only managed two field goals in the second quarter. Burbank rallied in the second half, and took its only lead of the night, 46-45, with Andre Spight sinking a short jumper.
It could have been a great story as Spight was returning from a injury and led all Burbank scorers with 16 points. However, Glendale got consecutive field goals from Sevan Pogosyan lifted the Nitos. The senior scored a game-high 23 points, half of his team’s total.
Burbank also got 14 points from Caine Brown-Kennedy, an athletic junior transfer from Las Vegas who should pay off big time next season. However, with just three games left and with the Nitros having both Burroughs (1-10 in league) and Hoover (2-9) left on their schedule, setting things up for next season may be all the Dogs have left to play for this season.
Burbank is at Hoover on Friday, February 3 and then plays Arcadia and Burroughs next week.
