There was only one good thing to say after the Redondo boys basketball team absorbed an 88-70 demolition at the hands of Damien Tuesday night.
“We have at least one more game, in the state tournament,” senior guard Jailen Moore said moments after the discouraging home loss in the semifinals of the CIF Open Division Consolation bracket. “But we can’t play like we played tonight, because from here on in it’s one and done. It’s either win or go home. So we’ve got to play better.”
Damien now advances to the finals of the Consolation bracket while Redondo waits to see where it is seeded in the CIF State Division 1 tournament, which starts next week. It is likely but not certain that Redondo will be seeded high enough to host its first round game.
“That’s what we’re hoping for,” Interim Head Coach Vic Martin said.
Damien’s strategy coming into this game was obvious from the opening tip: double and even triple-team Redondo star Ryse Williams every time he touched the ball and dare the rest of the Sea Hawks to step up and fill the scoring void.
Of course, that’s been the strategy of most teams Redondo played this year, and they still achieved a 25-6 record and secured a fifth straight Bay League title. On most nights someone else – Moore, 6-foot-9 center Quinn Collins, or one of the super-subs, Jace Bass or Zekiah Lovett – got hot and took some of the pressure off Williams, the 6-foot-3 sharpshooter headed to Loyola Marymount next year.
But on this night no one stepped up on a consistent basis, the ball wasn’t moving around the perimeter the way it usually does, and Williams started out missing the elbow jumpers, corner threes and baseline drives that he usually excels at.
“He was missing some chippies that he typically makes all the time,” Martin said.
It started out ugly for Redondo and never really got better. Damien raced out to an 8-1 lead behind 6-foot-2 guard Cameron Shelton, who transferred to Damien from the Chino Hills squad that featured the three Ball brothers – Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo — went 35-0 and won a state Open Division championship last season.
Moore hit a three-pointer that made it 8-4 and momentarily stopped the bleeding, but Damien kept up its full court defensive pressure and fast-break offense to push the lead to 12-4. Super-quick Jace Bass came off the bench to convert a coast-to-coast drive, Moore hit a 15-foot elbow jumper and 6-foot-3 power forward Isiah Tyler converted two free throws to pull Redondo within 14-10. The lead quickly ballooned to 20-10 on a power dunk by Damien’s 6-foot-9 jumping jack center Justin Hemsley, but again Moore answered with a trifecta and Thomas Ecklund converted a steal by Williams into a layup at the other end to make it 20-15.
But by now it was obvious Redondo was climbing uphill against a bigger, quicker and better shooting team, and Damien led 26-19 at the end of the first quarter. It just kept getting worse, with Williams doing two things he hardly ever does: forcing shots and turning the ball over.
“He was getting frustrated,” Martin said. “I tried to cool him down, but he plays so hard and feels so much pressure to lead this team that it was getting to him.”
At 6:08 of the second quarter Williams rose to pass the ball while being hounded by two defenders. But he threw it right to Shelton, who happily took it all the way to the bucket to make the score 33-19 and signal to the disappointed home crowd that the Sea Hawks would not be following the script they’ve been adhering to for the last two weeks by upsetting, taller, higher-ranked teams on the their way to the Consolation Semi-finals.
Redondo fought hard all the way to the end, and even had an early-fourth quarter mini-rally when Collins blocked several shots at one end and converted on a couple of lay-ups and stick-backs at the other end. But it was too little too late, and the Sea Hawks now await their seeding in the Division 1 state tournament.
“We never made them feel uncomfortable tonight,” Martin said. “They got their shots where and when they wanted them. We can’t let that happen next week or our season will be over in a hurry.”
Moore led the Sea Hawks with 15 points, Williams had a very quiet 12, Tyler, who fought hard around the basket, finished with 11 points, and Collins had six points to go along with 12 rebounds and four blocks.
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