Quartz Hill Easily Repels League Rival’s Challenge

Antelope Valley High and visiting Quartz Hill took a top-notch rivalry, a game for first place in the Golden League, and--whoosh!--flushed it down the drain with a dreadful display of basketball Friday night.

For the record, Quartz Hill proved the least sloppy of the two and stomped Antelope Valley, 61-37. But the score isn’t the only figure worth citing.

For example Quartz Hill, the winning team, made just 17 of 53 shots from the field. That’s 32.1%, if you’re counting.

Antelope Valley made just 14 of 53 shots from the field. That’s 26.6%, if you’re counting, which you should not be at this point.

No, aesthetics took a back seat on this night. Instead, Quartz Hill used a stunning 32-5 run--beginning midway through the first period and ending late in the second--to put Antelope Valley away before halftime.

But Quartz Hill Coach Don Moore would hear none of this “winnin’ ugly” talk. His team showed up to win a big game and that’s what it did.

“As soon as we got ahead, they folded,” Moore said. “They played a heckuva lot better the first time (a 70-64 Quartz Hill win Jan. 4). But I’m happy with it.”

The Rebels, who received a game-high 14 points from Chris Young, moved to 5-1 in league play (16-4 overall) and shoved the Antelopes two games back at 3-3 (9-12 overall) with four games left.

With Canyon’s win over Burroughs Ridgecrest, Quartz Hill is alone atop the standings, a game ahead of the Cowboys.

The Antelopes, none of whom scored in double figures, entered the night with ideas of forcing a first-place tie. And a 7-0 first-quarter lead showed that Antelope Valley meant business.

However, the Antelopes folded like a hand-held fan. Quartz Hill’s man-to-man defense began forcing the issue, creating five steals and three turnovers in a 19-0 run that gave the Rebels a 12-point lead and took any wind out of Antelope Valley’s flagging sails.

Antelope Valley Coach Skip Adams took the deluge passively, recognizing midway through the madness that this was simply one of those nights.

“Once they smelled blood, they went . . . directly for the jugular,” Adams said. “They’ve improved considerably on defense since the last time.”

How bad of a night was it for Antelope Valley? In the first three quarters, the Antelopes scored seven, nine and five points, respectively.

Adams emptied his bench midway through the third period. “We’re out there bleeding and the Red Cross is somewhere else,” Adams said. “We’re down 25, what am I supposed to do?”