PLAYA DEL REY, Ca. – Be it a case of “championship hangover”, erratic shooting or tough defense by its opponent, the St. Bernard High boys’ basketball team got off to anything but a quality start to the Vikings’ State Regional D-I opener Tuesday night.
The Vikings scored only four points in the first five minutes of action and had rung up just 13 points by intermission.
But they step on the gas once the third quarter starter and, ultimately, pulled away down the stretch to knock off a Long Beach Poly, 52-40.
The win moved the Vikings (23-6), the division’s No. 4 seed, into a Thursday night home quarterfinal with 28-4 Village Christian, the CIF SS 2AA champion (beating L.B. Poly in the final Friday night) that knocked off No. 5 seed San Ysidro in San Diego Tuesday night.
The Vikings and Crusaders met on Dec. 3 in the semifinals of the Trevor Ariza Classic at Westchester, with St. Bernard prevailing in overtime, 63-60.
Facing a Jackrabbits’ team, led by seniors Christian Watson and Gabe Cummings and freshman Jovani Ruff, the Vikings hit just one of 11 shots from the field in the first quarter and weren’t a whole lot better (four of 13) over the next eight minutes.
They were fortunate to trail by just three points – 16-13 – at intermission, largely because their quick-handed defenders and some sloppy passing and decision making by the visitors led to 10 turnovers in the first half.
“I could tell in practice (Monday) that the guys were still thinking about the win at JSerra (Friday night in the Division 1 CIF SS title game),” said Vikings’ co-Head Coach (with Jason Porter) Tony Bland.
His suspicions were confirmed by way of his team’s first-half offensive ineptitude.
“We didn’t do a lot of screaming or yelling (at halftime),” Bland said afterward. “The guys knew what we were doing wrong and what we needed to regroup.”
And that they did.
Junior guard Tyler Rolison, who missed five of his six first-half shots, played with his usual head-of-steam in the second half, sprinting into the lane for four consecutive layups to start the third quarter.
And 6-foot-5 sophomore Kendyl Sanders (pictured) – who had a layup and 3-pointer off the bench in the second quarter – crushed it under the glass at both ends of the floor in the second half.
Sanders’ father, 6-9 Yamen Sanders, was a two-year starter at USC in the early 90s under George Raveling, who called him “maybe the best rebounder I coached at USC”.
And Sanders – who has grown a couple of inches in less than a year – showed Tuesday night he’s taking after pops.
He finished with a game-high 13 rebounds – nine in the second half – to go with 13 points.
He’s just tapping into his immense pool of “upside” and should be on any college programs’ list of the best of the 2024 prospects in the west.
Rolison added nine points in the fourth quarter – including five of six free throws – to finish with a game-high 19 while the 6-5 Watson, among the best of the unsigned seniors in the west, closed his Poly career with 18 points despite missing five of eight free throws.
Leave a Reply