SACRAMENTO — Trent Perry never stops smiling on the court — except when he switches to tears of joy celebrating a second straight state Open Division championship with his Harvard-Westlake teammates.
It was a delirious moment of ecstasy on Saturday night at Golden 1 Center as the Wolverines fought off a fierce challenge from Richmond Salesian to win 50-45.
As he has done throughout three state playoff games, Perry came through in the final moments to deliver victory. He had a steal in the final minute, made a shot with 1:17 left for the lead, made another shot with 26 seconds left for a three-point lead, then made two free throws with 9.2 seconds remaining to clinch the victory. He finished with 17 points in a performance that left little doubt he’s California’s player of the year for the 2023-24 season.
“It’s my last game,” Perry said. “It’s my last game with special teammates. I just wanted to win. It was a team effort getting those stops. I left it all on the floor.”
The Wolverines (33-3) forced two turnovers in the final minute in decisive defensive stops.
“They’re a great team,” Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo said of Salesian. “They gave us everything we could handle and more.”
Elias Obenyah scored 14 points for Salesian (31-2), whose only losses this season were to state Division I champion St. John Bosco and Harvard-Westlake.
Robert Hinton was close to perfect shooting the ball for the Wolverines. He made seven of eight shots and finished with 19 points. He’s off to Harvard and Perry is going to USC. They had one last hug on the bench while waiting for their awards.
“He’s been spectacular,” Hinton said of Perry, who had games of 28 and 42 points to get the Wolverines to the final. “We put so much trust in him. He’s a big-time player.”
Perry did all of his last-minute heroics with four fouls. A big moment came in the fourth quarter when he was called for a foul. The official reversed his call and gave it to Josh Engelberg. That kept Perry available to deliver at the end.
“He exemplifies winning,” Rebibo said.
Harvard-Westlake scored the final 11 points of the second quarter to take a 21-11 lead. But Salesian cut its deficit to 31-27 at halftime with drives to the basket. Two fouls at the end of the quarter on Perry sent him to the bench and slowed the Wolverines’ momentum.
In the end, the Wolverines used their experience and defensive toughness to pull out the victory. They showed that a team with zero transfers can still find a way to win the toughest division in California by developing players from freshman through senior season.
Monterey 74, Chatsworth 66: Playing at an NBA arena and with his famous father, former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas sitting courtside and offering encouragement, 16-year-old sophomore Alijah Arenas of Chatsworth turned in the second-greatest scoring performance in state basketball history next to the 64-point effort by Tracy Murray of Glendora in 1989.
Arenas finished with 44 points, a Division IV record. He made 17 of 32 shots.
“I’m very grateful,” Arenas said. “I wish I could have left here with a win.”
The Chancellors (20-15) started slowly and could never catch up to a Monterey team that received balanced scoring. Kavon Collins finished with 22 points, Joshua Roth scored 19 and Ryan Roth had 18 for Monterey (25-6).
Chatsworth received a strong game from 6-foot-8 center Taj Unuakhalu, who had 19 rebounds and nine blocked shots. He’ll be back on the volleyball court starting Monday.
“This was tough for us,” interim coach Sam Harris said. “We started off slow. They blitzed us a little bit. We regrouped. We came out sluggish. We let them get comfortable.”
Arenas had 16 points at halftime and scored 15 in the third quarter. He didn’t receive much scoring help other than from freshman TJ Phillips making a trio of three-pointers in the first half. He suffered an ankle injury and was limping in the second half.
The 6-foot-6 Arenas, who came in averaging 33 points, was very emotional after the game. It remains to be seen if he’ll be back for a third year at Chatsworth. His father said last year he was committed to two years, then would examine the future. He’ll be playing for the Compton Magic this spring and summer.
Oakland Tech 79, Bakersfield Centennial 55: Ardarius Grayson finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds and Caleb Rollins had 20 points off the bench to lead Oakland Tech to its first state title. Rippen Gill had 22 points for Centennial.
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