Washington, Clark slip past host Las Vegas in semifinal

On a night when his teammates were struggling to score, Kentrell Washington refused to let Clark's boys basketball team lose.

Washington had 23 points and 13 rebounds on Wednesday to help the Chargers to a 66-61 win over host Las Vegas in the Platinum Division semifinals of the Las Vegas Prep Championship.

"He carried us tonight and kind of willed us to a win," Clark coach Chad Beeten said.

Clark plays Serra (Calif.) in the Platinum championship game at 1:30 p.m. today. Serra advanced with a 72-57 victory over Valley in the other semifinal.

Washington, a Western transfer, is in his first week back with the team after nursing a badly sprained ankle early in the season.

Even with the team struggling on offense and with two starters in foul trouble, the Chargers led 31-23 at halftime.

But the Wildcats rallied, taking the lead on a 3-pointer by Olynsso Pratt that made it 41-40 with 10:19 to play.

Las Vegas pushed the lead to as much as seven at 48-41, but Washington keyed the comeback.

Washington rebounded a missed 3-pointer by Bryan McGriff, and his stick-back cut Clark's deficit to 48-47. Washington then came up with a steal and layup to put the Chargers up 49-48 with 6:08 to play, and they didn't trail again.

"We needed that from him today," Beeten said. "If he doesn't step up and do that, we don't win that game. It's been a long time since he's been with us. We were like, 'Wow, now we know how good he can make us.' "

Washington's performance was especially important with the team's two leading scorers struggling.

McGriff, the team's go-to player, picked up his second foul with 13:38 to go in the first half and sat on the bench for the rest of the half.

He finished with seven points.

"He just couldn't get it going tonight for whatever reason," Beeten said.

Second-leading scorer Sir Washington avoided foul trouble but wasn't able to get shots to fall. He finished with eight points on 3-for-12 shooting and was just 2-for-6 from the foul line.

Diontae Jones had a big second half for the Chargers after sitting much of the first half with two fouls. He scored 10 of his 12 points after halftime and also grabbed nine rebounds.

Hasaan Henderson had 13 points and nine rebounds to lead Las Vegas. Phil Dunigan added 12 points, and Aziz Leeks had 11 rebounds for the Wildcats.

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587.