LJ b BB: Pre-league

Reed Farley (arm outstretched) and Jacob Ohara (4)
nearly took the ball away on this play, a high lob

into the backcourt on a Carlsbad inbounds play.
But Farley was called for traveling when he
came down with the ball, then fell.
(Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

"When I'm with you
It doesn't matter where we are" 
                     Chicago, "Only the Beginning"

Hopefully, the fourth day of January was the beginning of something good for La Jolla's boys basketball team, after a glorious 10-1 December--though the results didn't look good on the surface.

It didn't matter that the thumping the Vikings took from Carlsbad was there, in that North County locale. What mattered was that, hopefully, from Coach Paul Baranowski's vantage point, they got a wake-up call for the Eastern League opener at home against Hoover coming only two nights later.

The Vikings didn't so much as sleepwalk through the nonleague encounter, played before a small crowd--though Carlsbad's tiny student section was supportive and more boisterous as the rout developed late in the contest.

Seventeen is a lot of points to lose by. The Lancers' final winning margin made clear it wasn't a close game that could have gone either way at the end.

But after nine days with no team workouts over the just-finished winter break, the La Jollans were probably doing some somnabulating in their bodies, which had to deal with the sudden shock of new activity after a week and a half without any.

Paul Thiel, McClain's father, said the family went to Seattle over the break once they found out there weren't any required workouts following the Grossmont tournament before Christmas.

The mother of Lancer Carter Plousha, down on the floor taking photos of the game, asked, "Is that common to take that much time off during the season?"

Whatever the readiness on the black-and-red side, new Carlsbad coach Sam Eshelman, coming into the program after a combined nine wins over the last two years, was alert, animated, and accompanied by three assistants who were jumping off the bench with him. (Only one coach is supposed to be standing on the sidelines during the game.)

Two students playing pink drums in the Carlsbad student section started out tentatively, just tap-tap-tapping as if they were afraid to disturb anyone.

The small contingent of students below them in the stands opposite the home bench were vocal from early on, as their players fought, dived on the floor, banged Charlie Gal and others repeatedly.

In the second half, Baranowski jumped off the bench, pointing to his point guard, Reed Farley, lying on the floor in the corner with a Lancer lying on top of him: "Foul, foul! That's a foul!" The referee nearest him said something as he moved away from Baranowski, upon which the veteran coach said, "You'll keep an eye on it?"

It was almost comical.

On another typical Farley aerial play, he headed down the lane as if to dunk. One Carlsbad player knicked him from behind, the other in front. The 6-4 Reed went flying off-balance, sliding to the concrete wall behind the La Jolla basket.

That wasn't comical.

He took several seconds lying down with his head on the gym floor. Finally, his coach called out to his teammates, "Help him up," whereupon Farley slowly got up.

When he goes high like he does, it can be dangerous. We're all hoping he doesn't get injured, remembering the bad sprain he suffered two years ago at the end of the win at Bishop's, which wiped out the Vikings' league season when Farley missed seven games.

That injury didn't even happen because of contact in the game. Fellow guard Eddie Parker pushed Reed, as in "Way to go", after a big dunk with 52 seconds left put La Jolla in command. Farley tripped and sustained a high-ankle sprain. No more of those, please.

The good wrapped up in this dismal defeat? One, the loss doesn't matter a great deal. Secondly, it helps La Jolla hopefully to a quick realization that they can't allow Hoover, their first league opponent Friday night, Jan. 6, to create the same "blizzard" effect Carlsbad did in blowing by them.