Cole Hein (5) of La Jolla takes
flight as he drives baseline against
the bigger boys from Christian
Fri., Jan. 9.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
By Ed Piper
When La Jolla's Eastern League opener started, it looked like Christian High was going to run away with the game and hide.
The Patriots, before a large crowd with the stands pulled out on one side of the Big Gym, built leads of 10-0 and 18-4 in the first quarter before the Vikings knew what hit them.
Behind Messrs. Zebel, Williams, and Lee, Coach Will Cunningham's bunch--he the former Cathedral Catholic coach--went on a 22-7 run, capped by Zebel's two-hand backwards slam off a steal near the end of the first stanza.
With cheerleading squads from both schools active at both ends of the stands, La Jolla found itself trailing 38-22 at halftime.
Coach Paul Baranowski and crew tried to regroup over the break. Starting the third quarter, guard Cole Hein hit his first two shots, the first a three-pointer. That enabled the hosts to close within 10.
But then Christian, led by Julian Lebel, a 6'5" swingman playing in a Brody Sessa-type role, handling the ball and providing a presence inside, steadily pulled away. (Brody covered him on defense part of the time.) His teammates who had an impact were Alex Williams and Anthony Lee.
The Pats moved to a 23-point lead at the end of three quarters, and the advantage reached 26 before La Jolla hit a few buckets to close out a tough start to the league schedule.
No comments:
Post a Comment