The Vikings' Reed Farley slams
with a minute left in tournament
win over Mission Hills.
win over Mission Hills.
(Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)
By Ed Piper, Jr.
La Jolla's basketball team ran its season record to 7-1 on the strength of a solid 62-49 win over Mission Hills on the opening day of the Grossmont Invitational at O'Farrell Charter School in southeast San Diego.
The clouds began clearing Friday afternoon, Dec. 16, after a 12-hour siege of rain, rare enough in these parts for the past five years, just in time for Coach Paul Baranowski's octet--reserve guard Francisco Ramos was sidelined reportedly due to a medical procedure--to break out to a 15-6 lead in the first quarter.
What the Vikings would do without 6-5 Charlie Gal gobbling up minutes in the front court and attacking the basket on the baseline is almost unthinkable. The big junior, sharing high-scoring duties with teammate Reed Farley, opened the game by scoring the first two baskets.
Gal, who has mostly confined himself to operating from the boxes underneath the basket on offense for the first eight games, hit a 12-foot jumper to beat the first quarter buzzer, handing La Jolla a 19-10 lead against a Grizzly squad that just could not shoot the ball.
The Vikings expanded the advantage to 29-16 late in the half, as Baranowski employed McClain Thiel for significant minutes, as well as inserting Garrett Brown, who had hit a nice jumper from the right baseline earlier.
Even when Mission Hills worked furiously to come back in the second half, Coach Curtis Hofmeister's present edition could not buy a basket inside or from the perimeter. The North County squad will be markedly better in January, when 6-10 transfer Warren Washington, who sat on the bench in civilian clothes Friday, becomes eligible.
In fact, Mission Hills is kind of the sign of the future, with four transfers from other schools, all of whom could end up being starters during the league schedule. After the turn of the year, CIF will discuss abandoning the present 30-day sit-out period for student athletes who transfer due to "athletic reasons". This will make high school sports like the wild West in the near future.
Asked the previous night about his players' fast starts some nights, slow starts other nights, Baranowski commented, "They're still trying to learn to play together." He added, "They're teenage boys." He said it with feeling, though, as he cares about his players.
La Jolla's lead, up to 13 points in the second quarter, was whittled down to a mere seven in the third quarter at 34-27.
But then Farley, who had already hit a couple of threes in the game, stepped up to the free throw line in the set offense to make a jumper with the shot clock running out to close the third quarter, 46-32. Earlier in the period, Mission Hills had used a press to good effect.
However, La Jolla's Quinn Rawdin twice drove to the basket for layups to beat the pressure. Gal repeatedly fought on the offensive boards, being fouled and making one of two free throws.
And senior Nick Hammel, showing new freshness the past two games after a sluggish start transitioning from football, scored on a drive. The 6-2 guard's field goal made it 40-27.
The Grizzlies, hardly able to hit a single basket from outside in the fourth quarter, did cause La Jolla headaches in the last two minutes by forcing a trio of five-second violations inbounding the ball.
Said Farley of those freeze-ups, "Some (of the calls) seemed a little quick. We need to be more intelligent.
"Sometimes we play like five (individual) guys trying to shoot the ball. We need to play together."
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