Westchester Dominates Erie, PA,
"McDonald's Classic"--(Jan. 19, 2002)

LA City power Westchester flew to Erie, PA, this week to play in a mid-season tournment, the McDonald's Classic. The four-team tournament includes two top Erie teams,  Cathedral Prep and Chester, and two teams from opposite ends of the country, Westchester and Washington D.C. Dunbar.    Yesterday, Westchester won and they'll play Pennsylvania Chester HS for the tournament championship.  Hmmm, Chester plays Westchester.  Sounds too confusing....

The blurb below that we've put together below, is just to save time and to give you the down-and-dirty results of what happened.   It's a composite of the details available from the Times and the Daily Breeze:

Westchester 93, Washington D.C. Dunbar 51 --Brandon Heath scored 17 and teammate Keith Everage added 16 to lead Westchester (17-1, 6-0), while junior guard Ashanti Cook had 10 points, six assists and nine steals. Westchester tied two tournament records including most points (93) and largest margin of victory (42 points). Dunbar is 9-7. Hassan Adams finished with 15 points and four assists. Scott Cutley scored 14 points and 12 rebounds.

For the more in-depth report, we went to the local Erie Times at GoErie.com:

McDonald's Classic -- Westchester
By Ron Leonardi
Staff writer

About the only thing Westchester coach Ed Azzam could find fault with his team in Friday's opening-round McDonald's Classic matchup against Washington, D.C., Dunbar was a sluggish first quarter.

Westchester, a team loaded with athleticism and Division I talent, breezed into the tournament's championship game with a 93-51 dismantling of Dunbar before a near-capacity crowd of 2,401 in Friday's opening game at the Hammermill Center.

The Comets (16-1), ranked No. 4 nationally in the USA Today poll, will meet Chester in tonight's 8:30 championship game. Chester defeated Cathedral Prep 54-48 in Friday's second game.

The Comets (16-1), who played a Los Angeles City League game Thursday, had to endure an all-night flight that included a delay departing Los Angeles and two more delays on their flight from Pittsburgh to Erie.

"Most of our kids have never seen snow,'' Azzam said. "They've already had three snowball fights. Maybe that had something to do with the way we started the game.''

Westchester, which averaged 96 points a game during a 28-2 season last year, held a 17-9 lead over the Crimson Tide (10-6) after an extremely sloppy first quarter marred by poor shooting, missed layups and a slew of turnovers.

After that, Dunbar simply was overmatched by Westchester's superior talent. The Comets forced 33 turnovers and dominated the boards with a 58-33 advantage.

Brandon Heath, a 6-foot 3 guard headed to San Diego State, led the Comets with 17 points. Senior 6-6 forward Keith Everage had 16 points, 6-4 guard Hassan Adams, an Arizona recruit, 15 points, 6-6 junior forward Scott Cutley 14 points and 6-3 guard Ashanti Cook, a New Mexico recruit, 10 points.

"We definitely had a size advantage,'' Azzam said. "Our guards were much bigger. Athletically and size-wise, part of our game is to be able to dominate both ends of the boards.''

Dunbar coach Lorenzo Roach admitted the Comets did more than that.

"I knew coming in they would be athletic,'' Roach said. "I was just disappointed in the effort of my kids. Not to say that we are better than Westchester because they were better than us, but I'm just disappointed in how we showed up.''

An 18-2 run in the first and second periods gave the Comets a 46-26 halftime lead. It became a blowout when the Comets continued their assault with a 35-9 third period that left them up 81-35.

 
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