Memo to any team unlucky enough to face the Redondo boys basketball team in the CIF postseason tournament later this month: the Sea Hawk’s swarming, suffocating all-court press is breakable because they routinely commit two or three men to chasing the ball – but you better have a big man quick enough and skilled enough to make a decisive move to the hoop once the press is broken and the ball finds its way to your end of the court. If he hesitates for a second it will be his turn to be attacked by two or three hyper-aggressive players looking to stuff his shot back in his face.
On top of that you better have at least 10 players ready to play quality minutes to ward off the fatigue, confusion and bad decision making the 32-minutes-of-hell press can induce as the game grinds on.
Finally, you need at least a couple of board bangers ready to attack the glass relentlessly and make Redondo pay for its one weakness: a lack of height and post play now that 6-foot-9 Billy Preston is gone.
Unfortunately for Palos Verdes Peninsula, all three of those elements were missing Friday night at Redondo and the result was a 63-38 demolition of a team that was coming off a resounding road win at Mira Costa just three days earlier.
“We were totally dominated on the boards, where they got multiple second-chance shots,” said a frustrated Peninsula Coach Jim Quick. “And their press really bothered us. Hats off to them and their effort.”
Indeed, about the only thing that went wrong for Redondo were two missed dunk attempts by their best player, 6-foot-2 guard Leland Green. “They just popped out on me,” Green said after the game.
It was a strange lop-sided game, with Peninsula jumping out to a 5-0 lead behind a 12-foot baseline jumper by point guard Michael Oh and a deep three-pointer by the Panther’s best player, 6-foot-4 do-everything forward Mickey Babek.
Redondo finally restored order with a corner 3 by Green, a Morgan Means power drive, a Green 15-foot jumper and a corner 3 by 6-foot-1 guard Ryse Williams and suddenly the Sea Hawks were up by 10-5.
Peninsula had one more competitive run in them and got it back to 10-9 when 6-foot-4 forward Kurt Milch stole the ball and went all the way for a layup followed by a Babek 15-foot jumper. Babek then gave Peninsula its only lead of the game with a corner three that made it 12-10 Panthers.
That’s when Redondo Coach Reggie Morris began subbing players like a hockey coach, sending in three and four-man shifts at a time, to ensure the Sea Hawks pressured every pass, got to every loose ball and forced Peninsula to take hurried, off-balance shots.
Even Babek, who had looked so skilled and controlled against Mira Costa, was unable to stop the Sea Hawks from totally disrupting Peninsula’s offense. Quick originally had Babek as the primary ball-handler to bring the ball up the court, and the sight of him matched up with Redondo’s 5-foot-2 water bug guard Elijah Nesbit was a sight to behold. But most of the time Redondo was able to force the ball out of Babek’s hands, and soon the turnovers were flowing like beer at a Friday night kegger.
And the few times the Panthers were able to break Redondo’s press, skinny 6-foot-6 center Jason Burr was unable to capitalize, either turning the ball over, missing the shot or passing it back out to the perimeter. Once he went up for what looked like an easy layup only to have two Sea Hawk players converge on him and stuff his shot. Suddenly the fast break was going in the other direction for an easy bucket.
Cameron High, a 6-foot guard, hit two foul shots to tie it at 12-12, and Nesbit danced his way into the lane and scooped in a shot among the trees to give the Sea Hawks a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
From there Redondo blew the game open, as High hit a deep 3, Green followed up a miss with a stick-back, and Means hit a trifecta to make it 24-15 at the 2:48 mark. As fatigue began to set in for the Panther starters, Quick began making short-term substitutions but his three main guys – Babek, Milch and Burr – played almost the entire game.
When Means hit a trey to beat the halftime buzzer to make it 28-17 all the hope and faith seemed to go out of Peninsula’s side of the gym. In the second half Redondo proved that its second most potent weapon behind its press is its 10-deep depth. Besides sending in platoons of quick, athletic players willing to throw themselves into a defense-first game plan, there was yet another player stepping forward to lead the team in scoring in the post-Preston era. Green, Nesbit and 6-foot-5 Cameron Williams have all taken turns as the scoring leader following Preston’s shocking departure from the team last month.
This time it was Ryse Williams, a 6-foot-1 guard who hit every kind of shot imaginable – coast-to-coast fast break layups, 15-foot elbow jumpers, and stick-backs – on his way to 18 points. Means added 12 and Green chipped in with 10. Babek and Burr both finished with 10 points for Peninsula, but had little help from the rest of their over-whelmed teammates.
Peninsula fell to 12-12 overall and 3-5 in the Bay League, while Redondo maintained its stranglehold on first place in the Bay League with a 7-1 record and moved to 19-5 overall. The Sea Hawks will finish their regular season schedule next Thursday night by hosting Mira Costa, which will be looking for payback after the 27 point beat down it suffered at home last week.
Then comes the playoffs, when Redondo will eventually face a team that has the depth, the rebounding and the big-man finisher to give them a fair fight.
Contact: paulteetor@verizon.net
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