Lefty Quinn Rawdin spurred the Vikings with
two early three's to jump out to an 11-2 lead
they never relinquished. (Photos by Ed Piper)
La Jolla coach Paul Baranowski said before his team's first game in the Grossmont Basketball Invitational that he wanted to see "improvement in all facets of the game--in particular, in defensive effort."
The Vikings took him to his word and raced out to an early 11-2 lead against Hilltop, then eventually amplified that to 18 points, going up 33-15 late in the first half behind a pair of three-pointers by newly-confident Quinn Rawdin and a balanced attack.
La Jolla salted the tournament opener away, 77-57, as Nick Hammel shook off his cold shooting of late with a trio of baskets from beyond the arc and the Vikings fought off a third-quarter comeback by the struggling Lancers that had slimmed the lead to seven.
Rawdin, only a sophomore, was part of an adjusted starting lineup that also included forward Daniel McColl, the latter a no-brainer in view of the need to tighten up the starting front court's performance. The lefty Quinn, whose brother Mark played for the Vikings two years ago, sank back-to-back threes soon after being inserted midway through the first quarter.
His first, a set shot near the left baseline, made the score 14-7. The second lifted the Vikes to 17-9. La Jolla led 17-11 at the end of one quarter and 33-20 at the half.
Meanwhile, Hilltop's Dylan Trenga was warming up to what would be a 26-point night, including four threes. in a brilliant outside shooting exhibition. The production was nearly triple his 10-point-er-game average coming in. The senior also hit shots against La Jolla down the stretch.
The other weapon the Lancers had was Bailey Harvey, who scored a third of their points in the second half on leaping drives around the Viking defenders. Harvey ended up with 18 points.
Baranowski had called his team's sloppy win over Monte Vista a week before to close the Hilltop Tournament "the worst of the season". He wasn't happy with the effort shown, saying his players had come in "overconfident". Plus several members of the team were suffering the effects of a flu bug.
Senior Tony Coan zeroes in on Lancers'
Ricky Zamudio (10) in La Jolla's
effective team defense.
So, having heard their coach's message, the Vikings were quick out of the chute. Reed Farley opened scoring in the first period with a driving basket, then hit a three-pointer for 5-2. Rawdin followed with a drive from the left wing, and Eddie Palmer scored on a quick move to the basket, La Jolla leading 9-2.
Center Alex Pitrofsky had a block, fly-swatting the ball out of bounds to the ooh's and aah's of the La Jolla portion of the sparse crowd for the afternoon tournament game.
McColl, in his first start and coming off the flu, may have tried to do too much, as he was a little erratic in the early going. He fumbled a possession out of bounds. He looked a little out of synch, scoring only one basket on the night.
Baranowski rotated his players on the court early and often. Farley came out shooting, which is a switch, because he usually focuses on distributing the ball to involve his teammates in the offense at the beginning. Reed made the early three and some drives, but later he missed a dunk, being knocked to the baseboard of the wall on the foul--a little scary to watch. He got up unhurt. The 6'4" junior point guard finished with 16 points.
Hammel had 11 points, Palmer and Pitrofsky 10 each, Morgan Albers 9, and Rawdin 8.
"We know they're (the Lancers) are going to come out and scrap," the coach said pregame. "They've struggled, but we know they'll give us everything they got." Hilltop is now 0-5 early in the season.
La Jolla (5-1) faces power Torrey Pines (5-1) at 6 p.m. Sat., Dec. 20, in the second day of the invitational. Torrey Pines is ranked ninth in Division I. Senior guard Jackson Strong was named MVP as his team won the Horsman Invitational at West Hills last week.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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