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By Loren Kopff
Sports Editor | Follow X
March 9, 2026
The fate of Gahr High’s CIF State Division III Regional second round game with Shalhevet High began on the first play of its first round game earlier last week and the dominos kept falling last Thursday against the eighth-seeded Firehawks. The top-seeded Gladiators were nearly non-existent in the second half, talking 14 shots and connecting on just four of them.
To make matters worse, junior Jaylen Maxwell went down with an injury late in the first half, the team collected 23 rebounds and had no answers for the sharp shooting of Sam Jacobson and Yakov Liberman in a 50-37 loss. Gahr ends the season at 22-11.
On the first possession of Gahr’s game with Narbonne High two days earlier, senior Austin Woon went down with a mild knee sprain. Then with 1:47 left in the first half against Shalhevet, Maxwell went down hard and did not return in the second half. He was being attended to at the end of Gahr’s bench as his head was being checked, especially his chin.
“The whole game, we struggled with our execution,” said Gahr head coach Marcus Girley. “Obviously, losing Woon; that’s a big piece, then you lose Jaylen Maxwell and now your two heads of your snake are down, and guys are now in unfamiliar positions. They’ve had the minutes, but in different spots. We just didn’t do a great job of executing.
“I thought the guy kind of came a little late; kind of undercut [Jaylen], and once you’re in air, it’s dangerous and you don’t have a choice of landing,” he later said “You’re just hoping for the best and I think he hit his face pretty hard on the initial contact. Normally you want to at least hit your shoulder, but your head is the first one to hit, chances are you’re going to be in a bad situation. I’m just hoping he’s okay.”
With all that going on, plus trying to defend against the 6’5” Jacobson, who scored all 10 of his team’s points in the first quarter, and Liberman, who scored nine points in the second quarter, Gahr was only down by a point at the half. The largest lead for the Gladiators was five points, which came on a three-pointer from senior Makhi Montgomery 24 seconds before Maxwell went down. The lead changed hands five times in the half, the last on a basket from Liberman at the buzzer which gave Shalhevet, a private school in Los Angeles with an enrollment around 250, the lead for good at 26-25.
All night long, the Gladiators were flustered by the defense of the Firehawks, managing 21 shots in the first half as sophomore Bryce Titus scored 10 points on 50 percent shooting and nine points from Montgomery, who came off the bench and missed one of his four shots.
Liberman began the second half with a three-pointer and that was followed by a basket by Jacobson a minute later. Shalhevet added five more points until sophomore Xavier Brown ended the 10-0 run with his only basket of the game, sparking a 7-0 run by the hosts. But that’s as close as the Gladiators would get as they were two of seven from the field over the final 9:57 of the game.
“Obviously, they play a high level of defense,” said Girley. “I thought we played pretty good defense. Normally when you hold a team to 50 [points], you did a pretty good defensive job. But if you get five shots at the rim in the fourth quarter, it doesn’t matter. I thought both teams did battle defensively. But our spacing, our execution…I think it was more of a mental drain than a physical drain and we just kind of broke down and forgot what we’re good at.”
It was the 21st time in 33 games Gahr has allowed 55 points or fewer, but the 37 points scored were a season-low and just the sixth time the Gladiators failed to score 50 points. Titus scored a team-high 14 points and had two assists while Montgomery added 13 points and eight rebounds, Gahr was able to get only 23 rebounds, two coming from the offensive end.
Meanwhile, Jacobson led everyone with 23 points while Liberman added a dozen points. Four other players combined for the other 15 points as the Firehawks would fall to fifth-seeded Colony High 48-45 last Saturday.
“A guy like that in high school are few, because how many guys are going to be that strong and weigh that much,” questioned Girley. “They run with four guards and run with shooters, so you have to pick your poison when you go double and try to dig it out the post. He did a pretty good job of picking his spots.”
The Gladiators won over 20 games for the fifth time since the 1999-2000 season and were hoping to get to the semifinals of the regionals for the first time since 2011. They still figure to be in a good place next season as four players from a team of 12 will graduate, including a pair of starters. The bench consisted of five sophomores and a junior.
“That’s the biggest thing,” said Girley. “Obviously, this was a down year for us in everybody’s opinion. I’m thankful that opinions don’t play basketball; players play. I told the kids once you get this far, you can no longer lean on your youth. That’s no longer an excuse. You’re here, take advantage of it [because] these moments are too far and between. I thought we played hard and tried to embrace the moment. We just got a little bit overwhelmed, and that happens.”
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