LJ b BB 62, UC 52



Vikings Reed Farley (left), Quinn Rawdin (back right),

and Nick Hammel (on floor, hidden) battle UC's

Alex Bruce for the ball in the first quarter.
(Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Tuesday, December 13, was La Jolla coach Paul Baranowski's 57th birthday. The day before was University City coach Terry Stonebraker's 62nd birthday.

One of them was going to go home unhappy, with their birthday spoiled.

Baranowski's team (5-1), with superior talent and a torrid second quarter, iced his birthday cake, 62-52, as La Jolla's students got one of only two glimpses of their squad at home during the month until league play starts after the turn of the year.

From the end of the first quarter, when they trailed UC by three points, through the second quarter, the Vikings outscored the visiting Centurions 28-5.

In taking what turned out to be an insurmountable halftime lead of 35-15, La Jolla bore the fruits of three straight three-pointers by Reed Farley, plus a spectacular two-hand slam by the senior guard to end the second quarter. That drew appreciative oohs and ahs from the home student section, who came out in modest numbers for a weekday night nonleague game despite a crush of assignments and projects due in the last week before winter break.

The undermanned Centurions (4-2) nearly gave their veteran coach a day-after party in the second half, cutting the lead to 10 by the end of the third quarter, and coming within eight points with five minutes to play in the game.

UC's balanced attack among seniors Kyle Strobbe and Sammy Larkin and junior Justin Anderson paid dividends in climbing back within reach. Anderson hit a three to start the final period, then a short time later he pounded in another three.

After the 6-2 guard hit yet another basket, the diminutive Larkin scored on an acrobatic layup with his left hand and the Centurions trailed by only 10, 49-39. Anderson then delivered another dagger, the lead cut to eight with 5:13 to play.

But the Vikings' Charlie Gal hit four buckets down the stretch and reserve guard Jacob Ohara scored on a layup and hit two free throws on a one-and-one to seal the game.

It was a night on which Baranowski reminisced on 36 years of coaching varsity basketball. "I started with a head varsity coaching job in Bisbee, Arizona, in 1983," said the La Jolla coach, in his fifth year as head coach here. "I went to Catalina High School in Tucson, then back to Bisbee again."

He then coached at St. Gregory in Tucson for 17 years, winning the Arizona state 1A small schools title in 2008-09.

Regarding how his predecessor at La Jolla, Kamal Assaf, got him to coach again, Baranowski said, "We came out here on a whim. We wanted to live here. I wasn't coaching. Kamal talked to me. The next thing I knew, we were watching film together. I knew was going to be snookered into something."

His son Jake was on the team, and later served as freshman coach under him.

During the Vikings' spurt in the second quarter to take a commanding lead, Ohara started the period with a fine three-point jumper from the right elbow. The slender junior guard then knifed threw UC's zone defense to score on a drive for a 16-11 advantage.

Quinn Rawdin hit a three on his patented set shot from the left top perimeter, forcing Stonebraker to call a timeout. Meanwhile, Farley, who has been cold shooting from outside, mixed in his pyrotechnics to the delight of the home crowd.

On one play with under six minutes left in the first half, Reed was dribbling at the point. He faked his defender so badly that the UC player fell on his behind, eliciting loud cheers from the La Jolla students, who were more than game with enjoying their team's star's moves.