Seven-foot junior Nate Garcia has proven a difficult matchup for pretty much every opponent that the Damien High basketball team has faced this season.
Thursday night was no different.
The 250-pounder missed three of his first four shots against Redondo High before finishing converting nine of his final 10, finishing with 22 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots in the Spartans’ 74-54 victory over the visiting Sea Hawks in the State Southern Regional D-I quarterfinal.
The victory puts Coach Mike LeDuc’s team (28-5) into a Saturday, 7 p.m., semifinal in Bellflower against host St. John Bosco (25-7). The Braves edged CIF Southern Section Division 1 runner-up Windward, 65-63, Thursday night at home.
In the other semifinal Saturday night, CIF SS D-1 champion Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (31-3) visits Santa Ana to take on Mater Dei (28-5).
In the Open Division semifinals, Saturday night, CIF SS champion Harvard-Westlake (30-3) plays host to San Diego Open winner Carlsbad (30-2) while CIF SS runner-up Roosevelt (30-3) is at home to Central Section runner-up Santa Maria St. Joseph (31-3).
Both are rematches of regular-season games that were 180 degrees apart in competitiveness.
Harvard-Westlake smacked the visiting Lancers, 83-44, in the San Diego County squad opener on Nov. 18.
But the first St. Joseph-Roosevelt clash was one of the season’s best games, with Roosevelt rallying from eight points down in the fourth quarter and finally pulling ahead and winning, 62-61, via a Brayden Burries pull-up 12-footer with five seconds to go in a Jan. 6 Take Flight Challenge game at Redondo Union High.
Thursday night at Damien, 6-3 sophomore Devin Wright scored on a follow shot that just beat the buzzer ending the first quarter to get the Sea Hawkins within 20-16.
But the Spartans scored the first 15 points – eight of those via Garcia layups –and the visitors were never closer than within 16 points the rest of the way.
And the formidable presence of Garcia (pictured, courtesy Greg Stein) impacted the dominance in every aspect at both ends of the floor.
“There is no one like him in Southern California right now,” Redondo Coach Reggie Morris Jr. said earlier in the day of the rapidly improving Garcia.
“And they do such a great job of getting him the ball and surrounding him with so many shooting threats.”
Those perimeter threats Morris spoke of, senior Xavier Clinton (19 points), junior Jacob Allen (13) and sophomore Eli Garner (14), combined for 46 points and seven 3s, while sophomore point guard Elijah Smith hit three layups with five assists and two steals.
And Damien’s defense was solid throughout, limiting a team to 30 fewer points than it scored Tuesday night (in an 84-59 win at San Diego Open runner-up Montgomery) and 10 less 3s than the 13 the Sea Hawks hit Tuesday.
The Sea Hawks (who lost in the CIF SS D-1 semifinals at champion Notre Dame, 67-60) ended their season 25-6 in Morris’ second year in his second coaching stint at the school.
Seniors Devin Ringer and Liam Smith scored 15 and eight points, respectively, for Redondo.
Junior Hudson Mayes and sophomore S.J. Madison – the co-anchors of a team that should challenge for a spot in the CIF SS Open division field a year from now – scored 11 and 10, respectively.
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