Nick Hammel jumps for LJ
in Reed Farley's place--
and wins the tip.
(Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)
By Ed Piper, Jr.
La Jolla's first game in the post-Reed Farley era was the kind of basketball game you would pay to see on a Friday night, it was so entertaining.
For one, the tilt continued into the Vikings' first overtime of the season, after numerous exciting games during the tournaments in December and the same in league play in January.
Many of those were fun to watch because of the 6'4" leaper's dunks and acrobatic plays.
But Friday night, Feb. 3, the lowly Hoover Cardinals (0-6) made things exciting in their comeback attempt to win their first Eastern League game after five losses.
Led by a trio of inconsistent but striving players, Coach Wilder Felusme's squad--his first name describes the progress of events in the final quarter and overtime--tied for the first time in the game with 1:32 left in the fourth period after being down nine points as late as the beginning of that stanza.
Forward Charlie Gal, the Vikings' remaining big producer, looked aggressive and uninhibited by the high ankle sprain that sidelined him for two weeks in his first game back.
But the 6'5" junior fouled out with 2:44 left in overtime, lending even more meaning to the phrase "nervous time" as Coach Paul Baranowski employed a lineup that included 5'7" reserve Francisco Ramos, likewise back for the first time--in his case, after nearly two months of inactivity.
The Cardinals took the lead 49-48 for the first time on the night on junior James Malveaux's free throw resulting from Gal's fifth personal, and the volume in the historic Hoover gym--set on a campus where many heroics have taken place over the years--increased markedly. A sharp and big home pep band, making up most of the Cards' rooting base, was pumping out "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" during timeouts.
The burly Malveaux and Jalnn Harrington, both juniors, and senior captain Mark Johnson all had key moments for the "Wilder Bunch".
The Vikings' free-throwing, after Quinn Rawdin's pair to open the overtime, went south from there, adding to the nail-biting teeth on edge on the La Jolla side in the City Heights din. La Jolla's sins from the charity line included senior Nick Hammel missing four in a row in the last 11.5 seconds, and Jacob Ohara (twice), Rawdin, and Daniel McColl, besides Hammel, missing one of two over the final 1:27.
That only made La Jolla's final 53-51 win harder, while delighting the home contingent, as the Vikings struggled to a three-point edge with 18.8 left, which still could have been overcome by a lucky Hoover three and-one.
In defense of the La Jolla (4-2) cagers, who played with their four-year leader Farley on the bench on crutches, Ohara returned to making his arching layups and displayed an outside shot, McColl pounded the boards again without complaint, and Ramos looked quick and likewise hit a jumper. Hammel, a veteran of the sports wars in basketball and football, is pretty steady and reliable. Rawdin canned a pair of threes, a good sign for him.
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