Mertes Pulls Inside Job for Chatsworth

It was the simplest of victory equations. One team won and another lost because the former paid attention--sort of--and the latter didn’t.

Chatsworth High, ordered to whip the ball inside to 6-foot-8 center Brady Mertes in the second half, generally responded.

“I told them, ‘Nobody shoots until Brady touches the ball,’ ” Chatsworth Coach Sandy Greentree said. “You know how it is. Sometimes they actually listened.”

El Camino Real, conversely, didn’t heed the orders of its coach, tossing up a series of long-range attempts. El Camino Real’s shot selection, was, well . . .

“Ridiculous,” Coach Neils Ludlow said. “We never ran our offense.”

So, Mertes banged inside for 21 points to lead host Chatsworth to a 72-66 victory in a Northwest Valley Conference opener Wednesday.

Mertes, who did not start because he violated an unspecified team rule this week, wasted no time in getting into the flow after entering with 1 minute 23 seconds to play in the first quarter.

“I think if they had gotten me the ball the whole game, I could have scored 50,” Mertes said.

Fifty wasn’t far off the length of some of El Camino Real’s shots. The Conquistadores made a frigid four of 22 attempts from three-point range. Casting off from the perimeter after opening the second half with a two-point lead, El Camino Real (9-4, 0-1 in league play) failed convert a field goal until 3:33 remained in the quarter. By then, Chatsworth led, 45-35.

“We got into that fire-away (mode),” Ludlow said. “Everybody here wants to be a three-point shooter.”

Chatsworth (7-8, 1-0) led by as many as 14 in the fourth quarter before the Conquistadores regrouped. After a Mertes dunk gave Chatsworth a 61-49 lead with 3:42 left, El Camino Real turned a basket by Markee Brown (23 points) and two backcourt turnovers into six quick points to move within 61-55 with 2:52 remaining.

Brown and Kenyth Henry defrosted long enough to drill three-pointers down the stretch to keep El Camino Real close. Henry’s came with 55 seconds left to cut the lead to 67-63, and after Philbert Hernandez missed a free throw, El Camino Real point guard Sam Sarpong scored on a layup to trim the lead to two.

After Mertes made the first of two free throws with 32 seconds left, Henry rebounded the miss, brought the ball down an open floor and plowed into Hernandez.

Even though both players went down in a heap, no foul was called, and Chatsworth’s Marcel Wilson corralled the loose ball. Wilson, who scored a career-high 22 points, was fouled and made two free throws with 24 seconds left for a 70-65 lead.