LJ BB: Potboiler

6-5 Charlie Gal works against 6-9 Jake



Gilliam, Jack and the beanstalk against

the giant. He did well enough

for the Vikings to win.

(Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Daniel McColl was deadpan.

"Which shot?" he asked.

He had just won the game against 6-9 Jake Gilliam and Torrey Pines, the number-three-ranked team in the county, and without the trace of a smile he was asking "which shot?".

He was told that "This was the biggest shot of your basketball career, not your sports career," since the 6-2 senior was honored on the All-City League First Team in football at linebacker only a short time ago. That award was actually a recognition of the 205-pounder's impact on both sides of the ball, as a bruising running back on offense in addition to his stops on defense.

Yet he continued to walk calmly along the baseline from La Jolla's team room toward the exit in Grossmont High's gym, acting on the outside as if nothing had happened.

The Vikings, a stellar ninth ranking in CIF coming in, had been looking forward to this matchup with the titan Falcons, always a formidable program. Reed Farley, earlier in the week, revealed as much.

La Jolla played Coach John Olive's talented and tall team last year in the same tourney, and though the Vikes played well, they still lost, as the script has often dictated.

After Coach Paul Baranowski's squad of nine battled Helix in the earlier Hilltop Invitational, yet lost, Farley said, "I don't believe in moral victories." He was referring to La Jolla's history of sometimes challenging better teams, yet often--usually?--falling short.

It makes for exciting games, filled with hope. But viewing those kinds of losses as some kind of victory can also reinforce the thinking that the home team really isn't that good.

McColl, anyway, is a veteran of the athletic wars, so he wasn't going to go running across the gym to celebrate his game-winning three-pointer with 10 seconds left.

As he got to the multiple doors leading in and out of the Foothiller gym, his father, John, chatted calmly with him. John wasn't quiet like his younger son, but he didn't shout and yell in adulation. Better to take the victory, though worth enjoying, in stride.

Other parents congratulated Daniel on his big shot.

He finally said, "It was my first four three attempts of the season." Not grammatical, but factual. That's ironic. He has always had a deft touch at the free throw line, which measures off at 15 feet from the basket.

So, to lob threes from behind the arc only takes a couple of feet more.

Finally, he acknowledged "the shot". "I'd been picking and popping (the whole game). I got the pass from Reed. That was the game plan." He was non-plussed. The reporter, seeing this was about all he was going to get from the night's hero, moved on.

"That was the play we drew up," said Baranowski, who had to be pretty pleased with his team after the upset. "He (McColl) was four-for-four from the three-point line. He had made three three's in a row.

"Reed was the focus of the defense (much of the game). He did a marvelous job of drawing the defense, then delivering the ball to Daniel."

Meanwhile, La Jolla parents were standing near the entry doors as the next game in the tournament started. A tourney atmosphere is like an ongoing festival. Families and friends of players on other teams come and go. Action on the floor continues, sometimes as the main event if teams of interest are playing, sometimes as the backdrop as people catch up on conversations and comment on athletes and games.

Farley, ever engaging and willing to talk, had a smile on his face. Earlier in the week, during an interview for another medium, had talked about his decision to stay and play at La Jolla High, his neighborhood public school, because his two older sisters had attended and starred in volleyball there.

Middle child Clare, who is midway through her senior year at MIT, stood and talked with mom Kara. She was the Vikings' captain, as her younger brother now is on the basketball team, for the volleyball team. Ryan, the eldest, who was not present, working in New York City, also served as Vike volleyball captain.

Reed talked about the significance of the win. It was a non-league, non-playoff game, and there isn't really a championship playoff in the format the Grossmont Invitational follows--that way, each team knows its schedule in advance, no scrambling to make arrangements for the next night as teams win and lose.

But still, to finally defeat the tall Torrey Piners meant something. Last year, La Jolla played well but lost. This finally broke the script.

Reed, in the earlier interview, talked about his desire ever since the ninth grade to help the Viking basketball team get better. Though gifted with individual skills, he has a bigger vision and desire: that his team wins. There is hollow glory in jumping high for dunks and scoring points when your team doesn't advance in the CIF playoffs.

"We came close last year (making it to the finals in CIF)," he reflected. "Hopefully, this year we can do it. I'm optimistic. We're getting better and better."

Two signs the Vikings are getting better: Charlie Gal made some rare outside jump shots, in addition to his gutsy inside work. And his counterpart in the front court, Daniel McColl, hit all four of his (rare) three-point shots.