Guard Tony Coan battles for ball
in opening minutes.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
The La Jolla High boys basketball team won in dramatic fashion Fri., Jan. 16, over the Vikings' crosstown archrival, Bishop's, in a non-league game played before loud student body cheering sections from each school.
After trailing by small margins most of the game, the Vikings' Reed Farley slammed a two-handed dunk home with 50.1 seconds remaining on the clock, putting La Jolla in the lead, 51-50. Soon after the dunk, he began writhing in pain on the court. Apparently, he sprained his ankle when he was pushed by teammate Ladd Castellano in a sort of "Attaboy" after the big play, and he landed on a teammate's foot. He had to be removed from the game.
The La Jolla student cheering section, all the while standing and situated right in front of the Vikings' basket, erupted at Farley's slam to a new decibel level.
With Reed holding his right leg and grimacing on the LJHS bench, his teammates battled the final 50 seconds and stopped a last-second effort by the Knights to secure the win.
Dan Farley, his father, texted the following morning in response to a question, "We (are) treating (it) as sprained right ankle. Right now he (is) icing and watching Duke game."
Following Farley's go-ahead bucket, Bishop's guard Eric Yu scored with 36 seconds left for a 52-51 lead. With 18.6 seconds on the clock, Castellano followed up a miss by Morgan Albers to give La Jolla the lead back, 53-52. That was the final margin.
Said Castellano, still pumped up after the game, of Farley's dunk, "That was literally the play of the game."
Vikings cheerleaders help pump it up in
raucous moments of fourth quarter
at Bishop's. (Photo by Ed Piper)
After the final buzzer sounded, the hundreds of La Jolla High students in the stands streamed down to the floor, posing a challenge for officials to keep them off the court surface, though they were well-behaved. Students formed a human tunnel on the baseline and sideline that all the Viking players except Farley walked through on two feet.
Then, with help and hopping, the 6'4" guard, a bag of ice taped to his right ankle, made his way through most of the human arch. Finally, students swarmed around the now-smiling Reed and lifted him on their shoulders in celebration.
The home scoreboard operator quickly shut off the scoreboard to delete the Vikings' winning score.
LJHS Coach Paul Baranowski told his players after a final huddle, "Don't show them (home fans) up by celebrating too much."
Castellano and Farley shared team-high scoring honors with 13 points each in a two-prong attack. Alex Pitrofsky pulled down eight rebounds, as did Castellano and Farley. Pitrofsky added two blocks.
On his basket for the win, Castellano said, "I saw Morgan drive baseline. He's (my defender) guarding me baseline. So I went in and laid it up."
The two teams were tied for the last time at 48-all with 4:42 left in the game. The Vikings led at the end of three quarters, 44-43, after trailing most of the time following a 15-14 lead late in the first quarter. They never trailed by more than five points in the scrappy, close-fought game.
Vikes' Eddie Parker drives baseline on Knights'
Eric Yu. (Photo by Ed Piper)
Free throw shooting was an Achilles heel for the red and black, making only 10 of 20.
Albers was particularly effective early. "I would see Reed was getting doubled. I would slip off the screen (and score)," he said. Morgan contributed seven points, hit three of four free throws, and grabbed four rebounds.
Said the Vikings' 6'2" wing of the win over their rivals, "We haven't beaten Bishop's a lot. On JV's, they beat us when I was a freshman."
The two student cheering sections, seated at opposite ends on the same sideline, buffered by a "demilitarized zone" of parents and other fans between them, swapped chants throughout the game. After a Bishop's player committed a violation, La Jolla students chanted in chorus, "You can't do that." Bishop's students threw it back at them after a Viking violation later in the game.
The inevitable "Daddy's money" came from the LJHS sector with 1:01 left in the game, as Knight forward Justin Woodley, fouled by Albers, struggled in missing both free throws with Bishop's in the lead, 50-49.
The toga-draped Bishop's students rode Farley hard with "Airball, airball" after he threw up a three that missed everything in the first quarter. The resounding chant from the crowd right next to the Vikings' first-half basket seemed to affect him as he missed one of two free throws for a 15-14 Vikings lead, again one of two free throws with LJHS behind, 17-16.
La Jolla High students finished the night with chants of "We own LJ" as they began to move down the sideline toward the exits.
The challenge Reed is facing now is that he is a known quantity and targeted by rival defenses, following a freshman year in which he was the new kid on the block. The Vikings' other main offensive threat is Castellano. These are the two on the team who can create their own shot. Baranowski has been making adjustments that try to open up options for Farley to score.
Most of the game, Farley brought the ball down court and set up the offense. Later, Castellano took some of those duties. Another configuration, used in the tournaments in December to good result, positions Farley on the right wing for high-flying pyrotechnics like his slam dunk.
Baranowski went with Pitrofsky as a big man for 21 minutes, Mark Rawdin logging 13. The 6'6" Pitrofsky scored off an inbounds play under the basket from Castellano early in the third quarter. A short time later, he took a feed from Farley to send the Vikings up 37-35, then followed that with a block under the Bishop's backboard at the other end.
Guard Zach Duffy, coming off the bench behind Tony Coan after starting several games, launched a three-pointer to tie at 33-all in the third stanza. Earlier, he recorded a block, continued his nice rebounding for a guard, and had an assist to Pitrofsky for a score.
5'6" sub Gaynor Blackmon showed a new aggressiveness in driving into the lane multiple times and was rewarded with free throw opportunities, though he wasn't able to capitalize.
Eddie Parker opened scoring in the ballgame when his defender became more concerned with what was going on in the rest of La Jolla's offense. The 6'2" guard slipped in on the baseline from the right wing and laid the ball up unmolested for an early and what turned out to be a rare 2-0 lead.
The Vikings play at Mission Bay Tues., Jan. 20, following the three-day weekend with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Monday. Mission Bay trounced UC by 40 points.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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