Cathedral Catholic narrowly defeated Lincoln Tues., Feb. 17, while La Jolla was upsetting Mission Bay. The Dons look destined to finish as runner-up to St. Augustine for the Western League boys basketball title, splitting their two games with the Saints in league play. St. Augustine has only lost one game, Cathedral two in league play.
"Cathedral presents some unique problems," said Viking coach Paul Baranowski, looking ahead to his team's regular-season finale on Senior Night at home Fri., Feb. 20. "Number one, they all shoot the ball well. Two, they're long.
"They're capable of turning it over just on their length."
The coach said La Jolla will have to replicate its performance of low turnovers against the Buccaneers, eight, versus their usual of 16 or so. The Vikings played almost error-free ball in the first quarter, when they were playing over their heads and jumped out to an early 11-2 lead. Mission Bay actually outscored the Vikings in the second and fourth quarters. Still, La Jolla stayed within themselves and their pattern offense.
"We're going to have to be extremely patient. We're going to have to see some extra emotion," he said. With Senior Night, there will be a big crowd. There is a doubleheader, with the girls varsity playing first at 6 p.m. So emotional introductions of all seniors from the boys basketball team, girls basketball team, and cheer squad will take quite a bit of time and ratchet up the sentiments.
La Jolla witnessed this last week at University City, when UC introduced all its seniors from the three squads plus dancers. The ceremony was lengthy, so LJHS's boys basketball team retired to their team room and returned to the floor after the ceremony for a re-warmup of 10 minutes before tipoff. They won that contest. That's a good portent.
Baranowski was asked if he will start all seniors. "I honestly haven't decided," Baranowski said. "I want to honor the seniors. I also want to do what's best for the team overall."
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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