LJ b BB 66, LJCD 75

By Ed Piper

A tourney title accompanied by trophy presentations at midcourt in early December has given way to narrow losses and a silent La Jolla High gym after games in the latter part of "tournament month".

The Vikings were doing enough things to win, as they marched to the Hilltop Invitational championship December 1-8 and were rewarded with one player (Jacob Ohara) being named tournament MVP and another all-tournament (Behzad Hashemi).

In the most recent turn of events, Ryan "Cyborg" Langborg and his Country Day mates pulled away from Nick Hulquist, Charlie Gal, and gang to secure a 75-66 win in the Grossmont Winter Classic Thurs., Dec. 21 on the Vikings' home court.

Langborg, a 6'4" shooting guard who helped lead the Torreys to a CIF title over Gal, Quinn Rawdin, and LJHS two years ago when he was a freshman, sliced and diced La Jolla for 25 points, including three treys.

Latter December this year has proved to be unforgiving for the young men who play on Westbourne. A big loss to top-ranked Foothills Christian last weekend wasn't improbable. But other narrow defeats in the Grossmont tourney--and hosted by Coach Paul Baranowski and his program as an alternate tournament site--to Westview and now Country Day have now been sandwiched around a dispiriting overtime loss to rival Bishop's by four points.

Hulquist led La Jolla with 19 points, including an acrobatic drive and basket, with Hashemi tossing in 15 and Gal 14.

Truth be told, earlier in the month the Vikings also benefitted from a favorable draw, not having to face Canyon Crest, among others, in the Hilltop tourney. They did draw Helix, a strong team, but did recover from that speed bump to win the rest of their games. Canyon Crest is their next opponent in the Grossmont tourney, Fri., Dec. 22, at 7:30 p.m.

The red and black are now playing better teams, and though they're staying around, they aren't "squeezing the ball", as Baranowski exhorts his troops to do on loose balls. In other words, holding on to gain victory.

The eighth-ranked Torreys built an early 10-point lead in the second quarter largely on the strength of Langborg's pair of threes and 16 first-half points overall.

The Torreys led 39-34 at halftime. The public and private schools then swapped leads during the third period and early fourth. They were tied at 60-60 with six minutes left before Country Day pulled away behind Langborg's six-of-six free throws and Raymond Lu's five points.

"We still run some of the same things," said Langborg, referring to the CIF title game win in March 2016. Country Day won that on a third-quarter burst that put the Vikings away, despite Reed Farley's heroics. In the Division 3 contest, played at Jenny Craig Pavilion, the Vikings led by 10 points at the half, then succumbed to a furious Torrey push that bypassed them and left them eight points in arrears at the end of the third quarter, never to recover.

"We really moved well off the ball. It opened up the lanes for us to score," said Langborg after the tourney win. "We adapted through the game. We had our big man (6'9" Jason Taylor) back early in the game, (then repositioned him later)."

Viking guard Jacob Duffy, coming off the bench, had two key shots. With the clock running out at the end of the third quarter, the 5'10" junior hit a set shot from beyond the arc to knot the score at 56-56 as the buzzer sounded.

A short time later, early in the fourth quarter, the rivals tied again, Duffy sank a field goal with the shot clock at one second to put his team ahead, 60-58. After Taylor followed with a bucket from point-blank range at the other end, the Vikings never led again.

LJCD coach Ryan Meier and his crew had obviously done their homework on Ohara, whom the Torreys kept from running wild, as he has done on several occasions. Country Day held the Hilltop MVP scoreless.