Another Hair-Raising Stretch Run Ends With Village Christian Win

A few more of these kind of games, and Village Christian Coach Brian Gibson is going to lose all his hair.

He already has shaved most of it off to keep a promise he made to his team after they beat L.A. Baptist last week.

The rest might fall out from the stress of close games such as the one Tuesday night.

Chad Hanson made a layup with two seconds left in overtime to give the Crusaders an 81-79 nonleague upset of host Montclair Prep, the top-ranked Division V team in the Southern Section.

It was the third last-second victory this season for Village Christian (14-4).

“Once they’re over, they’re great,” an exhausted Gibson said of the narrow decisions. “These games teach us what we have to do to be champions.”

The other last-minute victories came Friday against L.A. Baptist, when David Gustafson made the winning layup with 13 seconds remaining, and Dec. 12 in the championship game of the Fillmore tournament, when Jason Orso hit two free throws with one second to play.

Hanson, a sophomore, can add his name to the list of Crusader heroes.

With the scored tied at 79, Village Christian had the ball and was setting up for the last shot.

Hanson was dribbling near midcourt when he realized, with the help of the Crusader bench, that only seven seconds were on the clock, so he took off toward the basket.

“I was just driving down to see if anyone was open,” Hanson said. “Then I saw Charlie (Kim) set a pick, so I drove and just tapped it off the glass.”

After the basket, Village Christian fans stormed the court, only to have the officials send them back to their seats. After the officials put two seconds back on the clock, a desperation half-court shot by Montclair Prep smacked off the backboard.

The Mounties (12-6) blew a 66-62 lead with 1 minute 32 seconds to play in regulation.

Village Christian’s Josh Kendrick hit a three-point shot with 1:21 to play to start the rally. Billy Oliver then gave Village Christian a 67-66 lead by making two free throws with 56 seconds left.

Montclair Prep retook the lead with 45 seconds to play on a jump shot by freshman Jerome Joseph, who scored 19 of his 20 points after halftime.

After both teams missed the front ends of one-and-ones, Village Christian sent the game to overtime when Oliver made one of two free throws with two seconds to play.

What’s more, the Crusaders came back without the services of leading scorer Dave Fennell, who fouled out with 5:51 to play and the game tied at 54.

Fennell, the school’s all-time scoring leader, still led Village Christian with 25 points and five assists.

The Mounties lost despite an excellent performance by freshman guard Akil Anderson, who scored a season-high 27 points and had five steals.

At 4-0 in Alpha League play, Village Christian is leading the race to win the first league title since Montclair Prep--which won or shared the title the past six years--was ousted from the league.

“It shows us that even if Montclair Prep was in the league,” Gibson said, “we would still deserve to be league champs.”