TORRANCE TRIBUNE March 9, 2017 Page 3 Police Briefs Fatal Traffic Collision on Van Ness On March 2 at approximately 11:32 a.m., officers from the Torrance Police Department responded to a major injury traffic collision in the 19600 block of Van Ness Avenue. On arrival, officers discovered that a 1998, International Delivery truck had collided with a bicyclist. The initial investigation indicates the truck was exiting a private driveway, preparing to make a northbound turn onto Van Ness when it collided with a bicyclist who was riding against traffic southbound on the west sidewalk. The bicyclist, a 72-year-old female, was treated by Torrance Fire Department personnel at the scene and transported to a local hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. The bicyclist was positively identified by investigators, but her name is being withheld pending notification to a next of kin. The driver of the vehicle, a 67-year-old male was not injured, and alcohol was not a factor in the collision. Van Ness Avenue was closed in both directions between 190th Street and Del Amo Boulevard for approximately two hours during the investigation. This collision is being investigated by the Torrance Police Department’s Traffic Division under the command of Captain Martin Vukotic, Commander of the Special Operations Bureau. Anyone with information regarding this collision is encouraged to contact the Torrance Police Department’s Traffic Division at (310) 618-5557. • Community Briefs Safety Rally at Torrance Refinery Up and Adam On February 18, Torrance Refinery held a Safety Rally involving more than 450 employees, contractors and 28 labor unions and their families to demonstrate support for the refinery—and to reinforce their collective commitment to safe and reliable operations. Photo by Marco Urfano. Torrance Police Department Partners in Policing Class Those who have wondered what it is like to be a police officer and want to learn more about the Torrance Police Department can sign up for the next Partners in Policing class, which starts on March 30 and ends June 15. Partners in Policing is a 12-week Community Awareness Program that educates community members by allowing them to “walk in the shoes of an officer” and experience hands-on exercises relating to the duties, services and responsibilities of policing. Participants will meet officers from SWAT, K-9 and Gangs, and interact with a variety of officers from other details within the department. Attendees must be 18 and older. Registration ends on March 16. Participants will meet at the Torrance Police Station on Thursday nights from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Each participant is required to be fingerprinted through Live Scan prior to participating in the class. Those who sign up will receive an email with instructions on how to get Live Scanned once registered for the class. To register, go to https://www.torranceca.gov/Survey/ TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=74K4o750l6lMG Providence Babies Receive Red Hats from Little Hats, Big Hearts More than 1,600 newborns in Los Angeles County received red hats this February as part of the American Heart Association’s new Little Hats, Big Hearts program, sponsored by Union Bank. The hats were specially knitted or crocheted by volunteers from LA and around the country. Torrance’s Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center was one of 10 Los Angeles hospitals that participated in the program. Little Hats, Big Hearts is in more than 400 hospitals in 40 states across the country. The program, which began in Chicago in 2014 and launched in Los Angeles this year celebrates healthy babies and parents while raising awareness of heart disease--the number one killer of Americans--and congenital heart defects, the most common type of birth defect in the country which affects at least 40,000 babies each year. Those interested in donating hats for 2018 can visit www.heart.org/littlehatsbighearts for information, including yarn specifics and sample patterns. Baby boy Merrick Shamsid-Deen is one of the first babies to receive a red hat from the American Heart Association’s Little Hats, Big Hearts program. He is shown in the picture with his dad Najeeb at Providence Little Company of Mary. Photo Provided by Heart.org. “Can You Hear Me” Call Scam Warning The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to hang up if they receive a call from a “Can You Hear Me” scam, where the caller asks that question or suggests they are having trouble with the their headset. The plot is to get the consumer to say “Yes,” which can then be recorded and used later to make it sound like the consumer authorized a major purchase. Authorities advise people who receive the call and question to say nothing and hang up. • Warriors Basketball Beats Blair, Makes History By Adam Serrao After a long and arduous journey, the West High boys’ basketball team has finally made history. With a 65-54 victory over the Blair Vikings last Friday night at Azusa Pacific University, the Warriors have brought home a CIF championship trophy to the city of Torrance for the first time ever. A huge second quarter led by an offensive explosion from sophomore guard Alex Mishaw ultimately sealed Blair’s fate as West watched the clock tick down to all zeroes before celebrating a Southern Section Division 4AA title. The game began as a back-and-forth slugfest between two extremely skilled players. The Warriors had trouble pulling away early, thanks in large part to the play of Blair’s Dezmond Washington. Washington scored the first six points of the game for the Vikings and had 14 of the team’s 17 total first half points. While Blair had one player doing all of the work, though, West decided to use a team approach. Ricky Turner scored the first four points of the second quarter for the Warriors to get the team started on what turned out to be their highest scoring quarter of the game. Noah Carroll chipped in with 12 points of his own on the night, while teammates Justin Hight and Nicholas Snyder scored six each. The real star of the night, though, was Alex Mishaw. “Mishaw is a hell of a player,” Blair head coach Alon Margalit said after the game. “We knew that coming in and he really stepped his game up. That was a championship performance. He made plays.” Comments like those from an opposing coach can only mean that Mishaw had one incredible game. In fact, he did, scoring a game-high 30 points while adding nine rebounds to become far and away the best player of the night on the court. It wasn’t just the amount of points that Mishaw scored, but it was when he scored them. Mishaw opened the night with the first six points of the game for West before finishing off the first quarter with a total of eight to give the Warriors an early 14-10 lead. He wasn’t done there. The second quarter turned out to be Mishaw’s best and was the time when the Warriors really pulled away and gained what turned out to be an insurmountable lead. In the latter stages of the quarter, Mishaw strung together 13 points to bring West to what was its biggest lead of the game at 33-16. A 16-point lead at the half had the Warriors as focused as ever on finishing out the final two quarters of the game in order to make history. “I was talking to a buddy of mine and he said that somebody usually has an out-of-body experience that is either really good or really bad,” West head coach Neal Perlmutter explained after the game. “Alex had some sort of out-of-body experience that just carried us. He was getting to the rim and our goal was to not take jump shots because we knew we had an advantage inside. Alex got to the rim again and again.” Mishaw’s aggressiveness is what sparked his teammates to an all-around great performance and a 65-point output on the night. For Blair, it was Washington’s aggressiveness that got him into early foul trouble and saw his team sputter early on. Washington picked up three fouls in the early going for the Vikings and that stunted his team’s production, specifically in the second quarter. Combined with West’s lockdown, man-to-man defense, Blair was only able to accumulate seven points in the quarter as Mishaw and the Warriors ran away with things. Washington finished the game with 26 points and a valiant effort. No other Vikings player scored in double digits, though, on what was clearly a night to be remembered for West High. Blair outscored West in the second half, but the lead that the Warriors got out to in the first two quarters was simply too much to overcome. Part of the great second half output by the Vikings was their last-ditch effort to get back into the game and part of it was West easing up, watching seconds tick off of the clock. Mishaw had 21 of his 30 points in the first half as the Warriors showed that they were prepared and that no moment was too big for the team. “It feels amazing,” Mishaw said of the championship victory once all was said and done. “To be honest, it was expected. We were working hard to get a championship.” The Warriors certainly worked hard all season long and brought the first CIF basketball championship back to West High by winning their final five games. In the end, all that really matters is winning the last game that you play. The Warriors have now done that--and behind a team that plays unselfish basketball on both sides of the court, West High has earned its first-ever boys’ basketball CIF championship trophy. – Asixlion@earthlink.net • DEADLINES OBITUARIES: Monday at noon. CALENDAR ITEMS: Monday at noon. PEOPLE ITEMS: Monday at noon. CLASSIFIEDS: Tuesday at noon. LEGAL NOTICES: Wednesday at 11:00 am. REAL ESTATE ADS: Monday at noon. AD CANCELLATIONS: Prior Thursday. LATE CANCELLATIONS WILL BE CHARGED 50% OF AD
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