Boys BB: CIF path

T.J. bombs from long

range over Connor

McCroskey.



8:30 p.m., Tues., Feb. 24, LJHS Big Gym
My boys are out, with La Jolla being eliminated 52-43 by Bishop's in the first round of the CIF playoffs. Who do I want to go watch in the second round? Foothills Christian? T.J. Leaf is said to be the best player in the county.

5:30 p.m., Fri., Feb. 27, before driving to East County
But how do I make it palatable reading for an LJHS audience? Via the Bishop's angle? Not likely. Make it a travelogue. Story-telling.

6:13 p.m., stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 94 East, cars not moving
A quarter of greater San Diego residents must live out here, or at least be commuting home at this hour from San Diego. Red lights everywhere. Hoped to talk to Foothills coach Brad Leaf before the game, but now it looks like I'll have to settle for just getting to the game.  Several trucks in traffic. Question: Are there more trucks per capita in East County than in other areas of San Diego County?

6:27 p.m. Breakthrough. Turned out it was an accident (a badly gnarled car still waiting to be towed by the roadside). We're zooming now. Where is Cuyamaca College? I've never been there.

6:35 p.m. Cuyamaca gym. Almost no one here. It's going to be a small crowd?

Nick Levine, Bishop's coach: "We've played them twice before. We want to play good defense and make them shoot over us. Easier said than done. Are you going to write something for the La Jolla paper?" No, for my blog.

Brad Leaf, Foothills coach, spoken to at the free throw line as he watches his players, including his 6'9" son T.J., warm up. A little startled that a reporter would walk out onto the court with 13 minutes left before game time to ask him questions. What are you going to focus on? "Get the ball inside." How is everyone's mental outlook? "Good. Everybody's ready." You played professional basketball in Israel, and that's when T.J. was born? "Yes. That was a lot of years." Good luck.

Phi Slamma Jamma by Leaf as

Bishop's can only look on.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

7:00 p.m. Prayer led by a Foothills Christian staff member. 7:01. The National Anthem doesn't play on the sound system. "Recite the Pledge of Allegiance." The crowd, mostly for Foothills, now in the hundreds, recites the pledge.

6:46 left in the first quarter. T.J., towering over his opponents, follows a missed shot to bank a shot in. 2-0 Foothills. It looks too easy. Knights forwards Justin Woodley and Sahil Sheth, both 6-footers, look like dwarves. Foothills' starting lineup, besides Leaf, is 6'6", 6'5", and so forth.

Half-court pressure forces Bishop's to turn the ball over. 6:12 first quarter: Leaf, at the free throw line, deftly passes to 6'4" Omajae Smith underneath for a 4-0 lead.

5:48. Nikko Paranada, the only Foothills starter under 6 feet, scores on a layup off a steal. 6-0. Another Bishop's turnover follows. Leaf, though 6'9", is setting up outside the three-point arc at two o'clock as you look from the baseline. Wow. Like a giant guard? I thought he'd be positioned under the basket. (I haven't seen him play since summer league a year and a half ago against La Jolla at Alliant University after his freshman year. He was Sunset League Player of the Year as a ninth-grader.) He's averaging 27 points a game. Surely he gets most of those near the basket, if he's that tall?

Bishop's looks like it could get blown out early. But guard Connor McCroskey, who looks tiny next to the Foothills guards, hits a three, 6-3.

Another pass underneath and another easy basket, 8-3. Another turnover forced. Reporter writes in notebook: "Scary. FH is awfully good." Instead of the normal passing around the horn you see in high school, Foothills passes over their opponents, across court, and sometimes repeatedly. The Foothills players look so relaxed, poised. The visitors look harried, like little kids reaching up but the older kids are holding things out of their reach.

T.J. now positioned at the left box, underneath the basket. He passes to teammates--not a ball hog--and pounds two follow shots to finally score, now 10-5. Lob to T.J. doesn't work. Bishop's Stefan Thomson bombs a three, 10-8. Bishop's doesn't give up. The first quarter ends 12-8.

Luis Salgado (24) scores and

gets the foul call against

Sahil Sheth in third quarter.

"We're the mighty Knights and we can't be stopped," the Foothills cheerleaders chant between quarters. (Both teams' mascot is the Knight, which eliminates that option for identifying the teams in a sports story.)

7:15:30 p.m. The second quarter starts. No rain outside, though forecast for all weekend. The entire Bishop's bench, including Levine, erupts, pointing fingers, when two players get tangled together. No foul called.

14-8, Foothills lead, on a steal and layup by Omajae. Do they ever turn the ball over? Leaf doesn't need to be a one-man show with this talent around him. Foothills has been ranked number one or two in San Diego most of the season. It is said that the Coastal League, which both teams play in, is the best in the county. Foothills' fans, mostly families mixed together in the stands unlike the LJHS mini-"Show" in which students stand together in one section, cheer like this is what they're used to seeing.

17-8 on 6'4" guard Luis Salgado's jumper.

20-11 on Leaf's long three-pointer from two o'clock. He has nice form with his lanky body. He doesn't put much arc on his shot. More like a line drive. But good rotation. Reporter writes in notebook, between taking photos: "This is ridiculous what you have to defend against."

Another T.J. line-drive three, 23-14, 5:00 on the clock. This time from 10 o'clock behind the arc. "He can shoot." The early bulge goes to 25-14, the first time Foothills has led Bishop's by double figures. T.J., who is human, doesn't sprint downcourt on defense, his one shortcoming I can spot. Omajae called for a technical for unsportsmanlike conduct with 2:30 left.

Woodley, Sheth passing up shots or being harassed when they do shoot. It's a tall forest in there.

T.J. draws a double- or triple-team, then passes to the open man. Definitely an aware and good passer. The first half ends 35-21, with Foothills pulling away after Bishop's closing the gap to 27-21 on one of the technical free throws by senior Eric Yu, playing his final high school game alongside McCroskey.

In the second half, Paranada (which means "for nothing") shoots jumpers and scores on layups consistently. T.J., at one point, gets removed from the game by his dad and chewed out--"We were just getting our communication straightened out" on a defensive alignment, the son says--then is quickly reinserted.

The big boy has two slam dunks, one on a putback, the other an authoritative move to the basket. The crowd loves the show. Leaf also scores off a pass on an inbounds play. He backs Sahil in, then turns to shoot. He does that from the left box. He shows he can do similar from the right box, in addition to his outside shooting. He's not the only one slam-dunking--Omajae does it easily, too.

At 48-27, the win secure: "They're playing against their own standard, not against Bishop's." The shorter Knights are game but overmatched. 74-52 the final. It takes one hour, five minutes for Foothills to dispatch their second round opponents.

T.J.: "We started off slow. We knew what we wanted to do. Nikko is huge. He doesn't make turnovers. That's the biggest thing." Appears very comfortable in a quick on-court interview immediately following the win.

Bishop's Yu, who helped beat the Vikes three days earlier: "We shared the ball well. In the first half we stayed aggressive and didn't get intimidated." Regarding playing his last game with his backcourt mate McCroskey: "It was a lot of fun playing against him on club teams. He didn't play last year." Finally: "I'm really proud of our team this year. We weren't the biggest, but we played hard."


Copyright 2015 Ed Piper