LJ b BB 73, Kearny 63

The Vikings' Nick Hulquist hits one of a pair of
free throws on the way to 16 points in a
torrid second half to help lead
La Jolla to a 73-63 win at Kearny.
(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

In the story of Samson, Delilah reveals his secret and his enemies cut his fulsome hair, rendering him weak.

In La Jolla's 73-63 win at Kearny Tues., Jan. 23, Nick Hulquist reversed things. Having trimmed three inches from his bushy hair, the junior proceeded to shoot and drive home 16 points for the Vikings in the second half and help save the day against a bothersome Komet team.

"We tend to play down to the competition," said the 6'4" guard after a treacherous matchup with the only winless team in the Western League.

He was right: With senior DeAndre Andrews bombing from outside and Brenton Bell driving inside, Kearny (now 0-6 in league, 4-18 overall) rallied from a 12-2 La Jolla start to lead 46-45 early in the third quarter.

It looked like the Vikings (2-4, 9-10) would run away with things at the beginning, with fleet Jacob Ohara beating the Komets' defense back and taking feeds from point guard Behzad Hashemi for a quick three baskets in the first minute.

Lefty Quinn Rawdin added his own layup in transition, then Hashemi, who would fire at will during the evening, canned his first of five three-pointers. 11-2, Vikings.

La Jolla still led 22-16 at the end of one quarter, but then proceeded to be outscored 22-19 in the second by a Kearny team that saw an opening in the Vikings' sloppiness and gained some confidence after looking like the Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight--or do much of anything else.

After ending the third quarter almost even, with the visitors leading 57-56, the Vikings then won the fourth period, 16-7, and the game.

In the closing quarter, Charlie Gal battled for two baskets and Hulquist a pair of his own.

Gal, the 6'6" senior, had a putback of an Ohara missed layup for a 59-56 La Jolla lead with five and a half minutes left. Hulquist sank two free throws after he was fouled on a trademark drive on the left side of the basket.

The junior swingman then pulled up to make a 10-footer, again from the left side at an angle. A reporter wrote "on fire" in his notebook.

Gal scored on another putback a short time later, this time after a Behzad miss. That gave the Vikings a nine-point lead.

The closest Kearny got after that was six points, at 69-63. Hashemi made two free throws on a one-and-one with 54 seconds left. He came back and did it again 11 seconds later, as the Komets were forced to foul to stop the clock.

A Viking led scoring in each of the first three quarters: Ohara with 10 points in the first quarter, Gal the same in the second quarter, and Hulquist ditto in the third.

Hashemi finished with 21 points, Hulquist 17, Ohara 15, and Gal 14 in one of the more balanced team scoring efforts of the season.

For the Komets, who, as their coach Foad "Todd" Ahwazi said, would not give up despite adversity, Andrews scored 20 points and Bell 19.