The Hoover Highlanders defeated the Stanford Hawks 82\u201358 on Saturday morning to win the Long Beach Division I Middle School Boys Basketball Championship, capping an emotional title run inside a packed gym.<\/p>\n
Both teams entered the matchup eager to seize the championship, with Hoover carrying the weight of recent disappointment. The Highlanders had reached the title game in each of the previous two seasons, only to come up short.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to say we expected to be here,\u201d Hoover coach Crabtree said, \u201cbut we\u2019ve been in the championship the last two years and lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanford opened the game with crisp execution, using strong ball movement and communication to build an early 7\u20132 lead. Easy baskets at the rim set the tone for the Hawks\u2019 fast start, but the momentum quickly shifted as Hoover found its rhythm behind guards King Harris and Major Gaines.<\/p>\n
Harris and Gaines sparked the Highlanders on both ends of the floor, settling the game and swinging control back to Hoover. Stanford answered behind the playmaking of Jamin Harper and the perimeter shooting of Yoni Waxman, but the second quarter belonged almost entirely to Harris.<\/p>\n
Harris erupted offensively, scoring at all three levels and overwhelming Stanford\u2019s defense. He finished with 41 points, accounting for half of Hoover\u2019s scoring, with a large portion coming during the second quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best players, not just in Long Beach, but in the country,\u201d Crabtree said.<\/p>\n
Hoover carried a 42\u201330 lead into halftime and continued to assert its dominance in the second half. Harper led Stanford with 29 points and attacked relentlessly out of the break, but the Hawks struggled to contain Hoover\u2019s backcourt tandem as the lead continued to grow.<\/p>\n
Gaines complemented Harris\u2019 scoring, while Troy Seals provided a strong interior presence. Seals controlled the glass, protected the rim with key blocks and facilitated the offense by finding open teammates.<\/p>\n
Hoover pushed its advantage to 20 points by the end of the third quarter, effectively putting the game out of reach. Both teams began turning to their benches midway through the fourth, and the Highlanders led by as many as 24 points before the final horn.<\/p>\n
Despite the lopsided score, the game ended with mutual respect between the two programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cStanford is a great team,\u201d Crabtree said. \u201cThey play great team basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the victory, Hoover secured its first Division I middle school championship after two consecutive runner-up finishes, while both teams further cemented their reputations as premier programs in Long Beach basketball<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hoover Highlanders defeated the Stanford Hawks 82\u201358 on Saturday morning to win the Long Beach Division I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-96597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}