Redondo Union’s boys basketball teams advances in CIF playoffs with win over St. John Bosco
Isaiah Jackson drives to the hoop over a Bosco defender. Photo
A Saturday night fever hotter than the mid-summer-like weather broke out in the Redondo gym this weekend but the patient survived and the Redondo boys basketball team is moving on in the State Division 1 Regionals — barely.
After blowing all of a 13-point lead the Sea Hawks twice fell behind by a point in the last minutes before storming back to take a thrilling, exhilarating, everybody-in-the-house-was-standing classic playoff game 80-77 over St. John Bosco Saturday night.
“It was just a weird game,” said a relieved Redondo coach Reggie Morris. “You have to tip your hat to St. John Bosco. They gave it all they had.”
With former Sea Hawk star Billy Preston doing his big-man thing in Big D, Redondo doesn’t have a single great player. But it has eight very good players, any one of whom can step forward on any given night. This time it was Ryse Williams, a 6-foot-1 sophomore guard, who rang up 29 points, followed closely by junior sharp-shooter Morgan Means, the hero of last Tuesday’s playoff win over Dorsey. This time Means finished with 19 points, including the key shot of the game, a trifecta that erased Bosco’s 72-71 lead and put Redondo back on top 74-72.
Jackson dunks. Photo
Means also made one of the key plays of the game when Bosco had clawed back to within 76-74 with 15 seconds left. With all five Bosco players swarming him and putting pressure on the in-bounds pass, Means had the guts to throw a length-of-the-court strike to a streaking Leland Green, who outleaped a Bosco defender for the ball, got fouled and hit both foul shots to give the Sea Hawks a little breathing room at 78-74.
The start of the game was ominous indeed for Redondo. Its first shot was blocked, the second was an air ball, and its third shot was blocked again. It was clear that Bosco, led by its star, 6-foot-9 junior Vance Jackson, was not going to fold, as so many other teams have, in the face of the Sea Hawks’ relentless pressure defense and fast-paced dribble-drive offense.
Both teams battled to a first quarter standoff, with Redondo clinging to a one-point lead at 18-17 entering the second quarter. But there was one troubling sign for the Sea Hawks: while 6-foot-5 Isaiah Jackson and 6-foot-4 Cameron Williams were doing a good job of double-teaming Vance Jackson every time he got the ball and controlling his inside-outside game, Bosco’s second star, 6-foot-2 guard Rodney Henderson, was hitting almost every shot he took – and he was taking a lot of shots.
But the Sea Hawks controlled the second quarter, and when Green threw up a driving runner that missed everything, he spun in the air, grabbed his own air ball and banked it in to beat the buzzer, giving Redondo a 42-31 lead and apparent control of the game.
The lead grew to 13 at 51-38 midway through the third period when Bosco threw the ball away and Isaiah Jackson scooped it up on the dead run to race in for a breakaway dunk that brought the home crowd to its feet. It reached 13 again when Green hit a foul shot to give the Hawks a 57-44 lead. And that’s when Henderson, who finished with a game-high 36 points, began to go nuts.
First Henderson hit two trifectas at the end of the third period to narrow the lead to 57-50.
Then he hit another 3 to start the fourth quarter, which was immediately answered by a Means 3, which was immediately answered by ANOTHER Henderson 3.
Cameron High drives. Photo
“The kid was hitting shot after shot on us,” Morris said. “A few were uncontested, but most of them we had someone in his face and he still hit them.”
Means hit another 3, which of course was immediately followed by another Henderson 3 – this time from deep NBA range — to cut the lead to 60-56. Now the gym was rocking on both sides as the Bosco side came alive after briefly losing hope.
Bosco finally got the lead at 68-67 when Henderson drained two foul shots. Elijah Nesbit, Redondo’s 5-foot-2 point guard with the heart of a giant, calmly hit two foul shots of his own grab the lead back at 69-68. On the next Bosco possession the Sea Hawk press produced a turnover and Nesbit had clear sailing to the hoop. But incredibly he missed the bunny with no one near him. Redondo got the ball back, but Green forced a rare bad shot from 20 feet and the Hawks came up empty on what should have been a gimme two points.
Jesus Zesati hit two foul shots to give Bosco its last lead at 72-71, a lead that quickly disappeared when Means drilled a deep trifecta for a 74-72 lead. Bosco came down court and moved the ball around the perimeter on its most important possession of the game, looking for a good shot. But instead of finding Henderson, who had been smoking-hot in the second half, the opportunity went to Jackson, who jacked up a 3-ball that never had a chance.
“I’m not surprised they went to Jackson instead of Henderson,” Morris said. “He’s their guy, and you have to ride it out when you have a star like that.”
Redondo doesn’t have a star like that, but it does have eight guys who can win a game for you. Tuesday night they will find out if they have yet another hero when they travel all the way to Corona Centennial for a regional semifinal.
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