Patient Grant Slows Velasquez, Defeats Burroughs

Grant High played a game of keep away in the second half to hand Burroughs its first loss, 63-50, Wednesday night in a nonleague contest at Burroughs.

The Lancers, a well-conditioned unit under the watchful eye and shrill voice of Coach Howard Levine, repeatedly moved the ball around the perimeter in search of the high-percentage shot.

After seven, eight, sometimes nine passes (Grant fans gleefully tallied them in unison), the Lancers would cash in with a basket. Senior forward Setro Terzian, whose 13 points all came in the second half, most often made the deposit.

“I chewed them out at halftime for not being patient enough,” said Levine, whose team improved to 3-0. “We thought if we could move the ball patiently enough, we’d get some pretty decent shots.”

Added Terzian: “And make them tired.”

Grant’s best keep-away tactic, however, was denying Burroughs senior center Ray Velasquez a good shot in the second half. Burroughs (3-1) led, 24-23, at halftime on the strength of 13 points by Velasquez.

Grant, however, held Velasquez to only five points in the second half, when the Lancers outscored the Indians, 40-26. Velasquez, a 6-foot-4, 260-pound transfer from Hoover, had scored 75 points in three games and was the most valuable player of the Burbank-Hoover tournament.

“In the second half, I wasn’t shooting at all,” said Velasquez, who was two for eight from the field in the second half. “It was the worst shooting game I had all year. I wasn’t forcing anything--they just wouldn’t drop.”

“They did a good job on him,” Burroughs Coach Ira Sollod said. “They were a little better than I expected. But I think it was more ourselves taking us out of our game. We had two or three guys out of sync.”

Grant closed both the first and third quarters with 9-0 runs and led, 51-32, after three quarters.

The Lancers led, 13-7, after one quarter as sixth-man Billy May, who tied Velasquez with a game-high 18 points, and Keith Weinstein, who finished with 16 points, each made three-point shots.

Meanwhile, Burroughs weathered a shooting spell colder than an Alaskan frontal system, missing 12 consecutive shots from the field before Velasquez made one to pull the Indians to within 18-10.

Then Burroughs got hot. Senior guard Marnie Calderon, who made 50 of 100 three-point shots last season, and Velasquez connected on consecutive three-point shots.

Velasquez, who scored nine points in the second quarter, added consecutive short jump shots and Burroughs went to the locker room with a one-point lead.