In a showdown between five-star recruits and sons of former NBA players, Tajh Ariza’s Westchester Comets claimed victory over Alijah Arenas’ Chatsworth Chancellors by a score of 65-55 in the Los Angeles City Section Open Division Final Friday evening.

Two fourth-quarter technical fouls within 90 seconds of each other sunk the Chancellors, who had just pulled themselves back into the game on the back of Arenas’ 14-point quarter. He and Ariza led their teams in scoring with 33 and 21 points, respectively.

“We were getting some good looks, just didn’t put the ball in the basket,” said Chancellors head coach Sam Harris. “We got some good stuff early and just tried to continue on.We had a rough third quarter. Shots didn’t go in, we turned the ball over a couple times, had a few missed rebounds and obviously finishing the game the way we did, we just can’t do that stuff.”

Arenas’ eight points kept the Chancellors in the game during the first quarter, which ended 15-12, as he found the bottom of the net on all of his first four field goal attempts. Westchester kept Chatsworth at arms length throughout the half until CJ Gore converted an and-one opportunity to knot the contest at 28 late in the second quarter.

After a slow start to the third quarter, during which neither team scored in the first two minutes, the Comets came out hot following a timeout, going on an 13-2 run to blow the game wide open. Chatsworth reduced the deficit to single digits, but still trailed 43-34 heading into the final quarter.

“We were just making mistakes,” said Harris. “We weren’t getting in our sets fast enough. Then we turned the ball over early, we missed some shots, they got some rebounds and some leakouts so we gave up some easy buckets in transition. Just from the beginning of the third quarter we didn’t capitalize on everything that we needed to.”

After a three from Khaeden Asher-Grady restored the Comets’ 11-point lead, the Chancellors switched on, reducing the gap to five with 3:17 left. Both teams scored on their following possessions, however Chatsworth were charged with two quick technical fouls. The first came for hanging on the rim and then another came following an altercation in front of the Chancellors’ bench. Ariza would drain all four free throws.

“That hurt so bad because not only did they get four points from that, but we lost possession of the ball both times,” said Harris. “So we had a good stop down here with 28 seconds or so left on the shot clock and instead of being able to get down on defense again, they get two free throws and the ball, so that hurt us. Especially on the ‘hanging on the rim’ tech.”

Westchester saw their lead out to the end, capping it off with an exclamation point dunk as time expired.

“[It’s] an opportunity to motivate them, easily,” said Harris. “We were in the same situation last year, we lost in the semifinals and we made a push for state. Hopefully we can replicate that and come out on top.”

Both teams await their match-ups for Southern California Regional playoffs next week, which will be announced Sunday afternoon.