Just about everything seemed in place for Hanford West High School as it hosted its first California Interscholastic Federation Southern California playoff game Tuesday night against Gahr (Cerritos).

Shiny new Central Section Division III championship banner behind the baseline? Check.

T-shirts proclaiming the championship at the gate? Check.

Cheerleaders, pep band and fans whipped into a frenzy after the Staples Center-like player introductions? Check.

Offense?

Unfortunately for the Huskies, it was held in check.

A 19-for-53 night from the floor was all the speedy Gladiators needed to get past the Huskies on the night, as Hanford West's season came to an end with a 74-54 loss.

Hanford West ends the season with a 20-12 mark, while Gahr (19-15) will face Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood), a 70-47 winner over Ridgeview (Bakersfield), on Thursday.

Both teams entered the game on hot streaks, Hanford winning six straight in claiming the Central Section title, while Gahr had won six of its last eight before lossing Saturday in the Southern Section Division III-A title game.

"We haven't been scoring a lot of points during this run. We've been averaging around 54-55 points a game," said Hanford West coach Tim Caudillo. "We knew we had to hold them to a low score to win tonight."

Against the speedy and athletic visitors from Los Angeles County, though, there wasn't much chance of that happening.

The Gladiators, in a zone defense almost the entire evening, held the Huskies to one shot on most possessions, and turned those turnovers and defensive rebounds into quick points more often than not.

Hanford West kept up with Garh for a half, trailing by just three, 32-29, at halftime, and tying it at 34 with 6:09 left in the third quarter on a Rodney Webster hoop.

Gahr's Devin Potts answered with one of his seven 3-point shots of the night to ignite an 11-2 run that put the Gladiators up by 10, 45-35, with 4:02 left in the third quarter.

"We kept our composure and played better defense," said Gahr coach Bob Becker. "We stayed between the basket and the two kids we considered their scorers."

Gahr, which was 25-of-44 from the field on the night, widened the lead to 17 points with 37 seconds left in the quarter.

A free throw by Webster and buzzer-beater by Warren Moon for his only field goal of the night made it a 14-point game at the end of the third quarter.

The Gladiators silenced the nearly-full house at the Events Center, however, with a 9-0 run over the first two minutes of the final period to take a 23-point lead, 66-43.

"They're the most athletic team we've seen all year," Caudillo said.

Gahr's Potts led all scorers with 29 points, Cameron Bell had 17 and Devin Golston added 12.

Webster's remarkable playoff run came to an end with 16 points for Hanford West. Eric Smith added 11.

(March 11, 2009)