Sierra Canyon’s Amari Bailey expresses sorrow at death of Kentucky’s Terrence Clarke

Amari Bailey, Sierra Canyon’s standout junior guard headed for UCLA, had waited more than a year to play in his first high school basketball game. Then came news Thursday night that a good friend he had seen only days before, McDonald’s All-American and NBA draft candidate Terrence Clarke of Kentucky, had died in a nearby automobile accident.

“It’s just hard coming out here,” Bailey said after Sierra Canyon’s 103-80 win over Culver City in Chatsworth.

Kentucky officials confirmed Clarke’s death. He was 19.

According to a spokesman for LAPD media relations, at 2:08 p.m., a car traveling south on Winnetka Blvd. collided with a car making a left turn onto Nordhoff in the West San Fernando Valley. The victim was transported to a local hospital and died, according to the LAPD press spokesman.

Clarke, a native of Boston, was in Los Angeles preparing for the NBA draft with former Sierra Canyon player BJ Boston, whom he played with at Kentucky.

“It’s a loss for us because he’s family to a lot of our guys,” Sierra Canyon coach Andre Chevalier said.

Bailey said, “The basketball community is hurt. I’m hurt. It’s another fallen soldier gone too soon. I’m going out there to live every day and represent every day the way he would do for me if I were in that situation. Prayers and love to his family. I was just with him a couple days ago, so hearing about it, it was hard for me to come out and play. I know he would do that for me. I know he’s looking down on me and protecting me and all our brothers.”