Forward Charlie Gal makes a strong
move to the basket against Monarchs'
Bo Rankins in first half.
(Photos by Ed Piper)
La Jolla played sloppy ball, getting right into the mud with their Monte Vista foes in the teams' final game of the Hilltop Invitational Basketball Tournament Fri., Dec. 11. In one stretch in the second quarter, it looked like the referees had swallowed their whistles and weren't going to call any fouls.
At one point later in the rough-and-tumble 61-48 win by the Vikings, Monarch guard Tre Owens complained to the officials about the contact. A referee responded, "The pushing is pretty equal on both sides." End of case.
It's not a bad state of affairs when you win a close game and can complain that you played poorly. That was La Jolla (4-1), garnering its fourth win in five games.
When told the opinion that his team a year ago wouldn't have won this game, La Jolla coach Paul Baranowski responded, "It was a horrible game. The team played badly. Any one of the players will tell you that they played poorly."
"They came in over-confident," the 30-plus-year coach continued. "They're 17 years old. If we had played Mission Bay, we would have gotten beat by 50 points."
The doomsday assessment didn't totally hold water for everyone present. Despite several players still recovering from the flu--which kept two players home Wednesday--the team once again showed enough resilience to weather their errors to victory.
Baranowski said his captain, Reed Farley, really felt badly about his own play. "Reed holds himself to a high standard," he said. Yet the 6'4" point guard drilled a three early, and came back and canned another one as La Jolla surged to an 18-8 lead late in the first quarter.
If that's the star's worst game, let's have more.
Center Alex Pitrofsky was working hard, with effect, as the Vikings led the athletic Monarchs 21-12 at the end of the period. With La Jolla up by 13 early in the second quarter, Al had a putback, an inside bucket from the left block, then another putback.
Sharpshooter Quinn Rawdin is
still developing his shot
and confidence.
He looked like he had more freedom without Parker's 6'8" Tim Harrison around to harass him, as in the Vikings' lone loss so far Wednesday night.
Flu-ridden Daniel McColl, who failed to make the trip to Chula Vista two days before, resumed right where he left off by scoring with his back to the basket after being inserted midway through the second quarter.
With Monte Vista's Bo's--Bohanon Rankins and Terry Bone--giving them fits, the Vikings saw their lead dwindle to 31-30 at halftime, in fact falling behind 30-29 moments earlier for the first time since being down 6-2 early in the game.
* * *
The Vikings' improvement over last year is visible in the development of key players: Farley, a junior now in his third year on the varsity, has that much more proficiency. Eddie Parker, a senior, is reliable handling the ball, though he has stepped back the last couple of games in point production. Pitrofsky has a year of experience under his belt.
Farley and Parker, making up the veteran backcourt, are the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid of Baranowski's marauders.
Though he is out right now with a high ankle sprain, forcing him out of the last two games in the Hilltop tournament, Nick Hammel plays an important role in being savvy with the ball and presenting an outside threat, though, hopefully, his percentage will go up as he gets more comfortable at this level. He is still making up for lost time in preseason workouts because he was in football.
Veteran Morgan Albers adds to the mix, as does McColl, who also missed team workouts in October while on the football team with Hammel. Put Tony Coan in that group, too.
At this point, Quinn Rawdin is young and raw. He clanked a few outside shots against Monte Vista, and as more than one observer has said, "The game is moving a little too fast for him right now." His contribution will come more in the future.
Charlie Gal, we don't really know at this point what his contribution is going to be. He was in the starting lineup, but we didn't see him down the stretch.
La Jolla has a week to finish school before the two-week Christmas break, recover from the mass outbreak of the flu shared among several players, and get ready for the Grossmont tournament beginning Fri., Dec. 18, in which they'll play five games in six days.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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