Montebello 2, Keppel 0
The rematch Friday night between the top two boys basketball teams in the Almont League ended much as their first meeting did: a W for Montebello and an L for Mark Keppel.
My dad, Mel, and his wife, Dianne, made the trip down from Portland to see their grandson play—and Max gave them a show worthy of the $7 admission. In the hostile confines of a packed Montebello gym, he scored three times, all on dazzling layups, while tangling up his opponents on defense, diving for loose balls, and dishing to his teammates on the fast break. His ferocity ignited a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter, but the Oilers proved too much, beating back every rally and finishing with a 76-61 drubbing of the Aztecs.
We tried to cheer Max with a post-game meal of shabu-shabu at Shin-Sen-Gumi, which seemed to help. The best news is that Keppel, at 6 and 2 with two games left to play, has a lock on second place in the Almont League, which should mean a decent seeding in the CIF Southern Section Division 2A playoffs when the brackets are announced next Sunday.
Photo: Kelvin Chen