City basketball roundup: Hamilton wins Open Division girls’ title
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Sherland Chensam has helmed the Hamilton girls’ basketball team for 10 seasons.
She’d been down this road before. Hamilton had lost twice in the City Section Open Division finals — in 2020 and 2021 to Palisades — since she took over as head coach and fell in the semifinals to Westchester last year.
But Saturday evening at Pasadena City College was different. The back-and-forth contest represented a culminating moment, not only for the Yankees’ longtime coach — claiming the City Section Open Division girls’ basketball title by knocking off archrival Westchester 63-52 — but for the girls’ basketball program.
Hamilton had yet to claim a title in the City Section’s top division, and now the Yankees had done so with their 19th consecutive victory.
“I’ve been up this hill two times already,” Chensam said. “What do they say? ‘Third time’s a charm?’ Charm came through.”
Senior guard Jade Fort scored 25 points, leading all scorers. Chensam said the victory — Hamilton’s first City Section championship since winning the Division 2 title in 2018 — was a testament to her team’s physicality and energy.
Westchester (22-7) kept the game close and entered halftime tied at 30. But when push came to shove Saturday, Hamilton (26-2) generated a fourth-quarter run that placed the game out of reach.
Hamilton seniors Elsa Miller and Kinidi Curl scored back-to-back layups, leading to Fort sinking a three-pointer to provide the Yankees a 52-42 lead with just more than five minutes left.
“Once we come with the energy, the whole atmosphere changed,” Chensam said. “And that’s what we did in the fourth quarter.”
Fort, who entered the game averaging 22.1 points, caused fits for Westchester in the fourth quarter and scored eight points. Hamilton ended the game on a 23-12 run. She said that the rivalry atmosphere mentally pushed her and her team to victory on Saturday.
“It means everything,” Fort said.
Poly wins Division I boys’ title
The Parrots needed the best from the Wyatt family to claim their first City Section title since 1999.
Down as many as eight points in the third quarter to Grant — a team it beat by more than 17 points twice in the regular season — senior guard JD Wyatt’s 27-point performance was the difference-maker Saturday evening at Pasadena City College. The Parrots stormed back to win the City Section Division I boys’ basketball title 50-49, forcing a turnover with 4.5 seconds left to end Grant’s upset bid.
Coach Joe Wyatt, formerly an El Camino Real head coach, was dismissed by the Royals in 2022. Bringing his son JD with him to Poly last year, the father/son duo tore through the East Valley League this season with an unblemished league record. Now they’re champions.
“He’s the world to me, to be honest,” said JD Wyatt, who used to cheer from the stands for his dad’s ECR teams. “My dad, he really went through a lot. Him getting let go. That messed me up, that messed my friends up, messed my whole family up. Getting this [victory] means a lot, it really means a lot.”
Grant (17-14) battled back from an eight-point deficit in the second quarter to eventually lead for the majority of the game. Senior guard/forward Ronald Merrill led the Lancers with 18 points, nailing a buzzer-beater three-pointer to provide Grant a 36-29 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
But Poly (23-9) used a 21-point fourth quarter — helped by senior guard Quian Khawaja’s 14-point second half — and a clutch Wyatt three-pointer to take a late 44-42 lead en route to its first City Section title since winning the Invitational Division 26 years ago.
“I’m excited because these kids, they stay together, they hang out, they’re always that tight-knit group,” Joe Wyatt said. “And so them winning this, it’s a joy.”
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