Owen Porter (2) puts a hand up against
Bucs star Justin Moore in first quarter.
(Photo by Ed Piper0
Right after the Vikings took a 3-0 lead on their first possession, Mission Bay's 6'9" Armstrong Ojunkwu put up a shot underneath at the other end of the floor. It was important, because it was in the early going and the Bucs had so manhandled La Jolla in their previous meeting.
6'6" Alex Pitrofsky, not so tiny himself, contested the 220-pound Ojunkwu's shot, and Ojunkwu missed.
It made you think Pitrofsky could have an effect on the game. We can stand 6'6", but if we're relatively new to the game and haven't played that many good players, we can easily look at the other guy and think he's a tall tree compared to me--too tall for me to go up against.
Increasingly, you see signs that Alex thinks he belongs as this league schedule progresses. He followed up a miss to score shortly after his contest inside with Armstrong. Ojunkwu successfully scored over Pitro the next time.
But Alex didn't fold up shop and quit. He is young in the game, but he is willing to take the ball up inside. It might get blocked, but it also might not. A couple of minutes later he took a feed from Owen Porter and laid the ball up. The Vikings led 16-7.
A strength La Jolla has is that with Pitrofsky also comes Mark Rawdin, who is 6'5". He has shown a lot of improvement this year in his work around the basket. Fittingly, he scored the next basket for 18-7 with 2:40 still left in the first quarter. La Jolla was enjoying a nine-point lead over their former tormentors, who beat them by 19 points at Mission Bay two weeks previously.
Then the 6'9" Ojunkwu made himself known again by scoring over Rawdin. It was a seesaw quarter like that.
Ojunkwu finished with 15 points.
Only three players scored more than three points for the Bucs. Justin Moore, their star, pocketed 22 to lead all scorers.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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