By Ed Piper
After Cathedral's Obinna Anyanwu swatted four of their shots early in the game, La Jolla's Vikings got a feeling of how it was going to be if they ventured near the basket within the big 6'7" center's reach.
By the end of the first quarter in the eerily quiet Catholic school gym for the late afternoon game, the Dons--winners of the recent Mount Carmel Christmas Tournament, with Anyanwu being named the MVP--had built a 22-12 lead.
Coach Paul Baranowski's squad was never that close again, except for the end of the third quarter, when the Lilliputians among the giants got within 10 again.
Cathedral, which just lost a three-point overtime game to top-ranked Mission Bay three days before, secured a 76-54 win Tues., Jan. 8.
With the Vikings descending to a 38-15 deficit late in the second quarter, point guard Behzad Hashemi was still able to show some of his stuff with back-to-back long-range three-pointers around the two-minute mark.
The smaller Vikes seemed to be a little back on their heels as they avoided Anyanwu inside and Dons guard Thomas Notarainni, another all-tournament choice at Mount Carmel, threatened them repeatedly from the outside.
La Jolla (1-1 Western League, 8-9 overall) whittled the lead to 14 with under a minute left in the second period. After Hashemi's pair of lasers, freshman forward Max Raulston, coming off the bench, scored on a drive. Then the 6'2" leaper, playing against taller opponents, hit the first free throw on a one-and-one with 41.5 left.
That flurry brought the Vikings within 38-24. The margin going into halftime was 17, 41-24, after an Anyanwu free throw.
In the third quarter, there were more struggles for the visitors, as the deficit increased to 19, before the Vikes' rally to close the quarter 10 down.
A technical foul on a frustrated Hashemi, who has been much more vocal this season, gave Dons guard Alex Wade two charity tosses, both of which he converted.
But then Christian Gamboa, experiencing a resurgence after some midseason doldrums, made a drive from the right baseline for a bucket and a 45-26 score with 5:35 on the clock.
In the early going, senior guard Jacob Duffy hit a jump shot to stem Cathedral's 8-0 streak to start the game. Behzad followed with his own jumper, 8-4, at the five-minute mark of the first quarter.
Hashemi, as the Vikings scrambled under the Cathedral attack, canned his first three from the right baseline.
After an Obinna layup, La Jolla's Jett Wilson, with his father filming him at courtside, drilled a rare three-pointer. Baranowski's charges only trailed 12-10, their closest margin of the whole night other than after the initial basket by the lengthy Anyanwu.
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