Coach Marcelo’s half time tough love propels Sea Hawks to So. Cal CIF finals
by Paul Teetor When Redondo girls basketball coach Marcelo Enriquez walked into the locker room during halftime of Saturday night’s CIF SoCal Regional Division 3 semifinal game against Oak Park he knew he had to do something he doesn’t like to do: jump all over his underachieving team. It wasn’t just that Redondo was second-seeded and heavily favored over 11th seeded Oak Park. And it wasn’t just that they were playing on their home court and should have been far ahead instead of three points behind at 21-18. Nor was it just that Oak Park was playing like they were the second-seeded team while Redondo was playing like the 11th seeded team. Or even that the Sea Hawks were led by superstar junior center 6-foot-4 Ella Zimmerman while Oak Park relied on 5-foot-6 freshman point guard Delaney White to generate most of their offense. Zimmerman had done her job by scoring 8 of the team’s 18 first-half points. The problem was her teammates were deferring to her too much. They tried so hard to force the ball inside to her that she was swarmed by three or four defenders every time she caught a pass. Often the ball would get knocked loose, Oak Park would pick it up, and before you could blink…
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