Redondo Union boys hoops squad withstands Ridgeview comeback to advance to CIF southern regional
Redondo Union’s Isaiah Tyler drives. Photo
The Redondo boys basketball team – and the home crowd that had settled in for a comfortable first-round playoff blowout – watched in helpless horror Wednesday night as a 25-point lead over Ridgeview slowly but surely melted down to a barely-there 2-point lead near the end of the fourth quarter.
With the Ridgeview side of the Sea Hawks gym howling at full volume as their beloved Wolf Pack showed the heart of a champion, Justin McCall drove hard to the hoop, drew a foul from two lunging Hawks, and calmly knocked down two foul shots to cut the lead down to 79-77.
That’s when the Hawk’s 6-foot-2 senior guard Jailen Moore, who has emerged as Redondo’s second best player over the last month, made two huge plays to stem the tide. First he silenced the wave of noise coming from the Wolf Pack fans by drilling a cold-blooded three-pointer from the left side to pump the lead back up to five at 82-77.
“We had lost almost all our lead and our team needed a play at that point, so I just took the shot when it came open,” Moore said moments after the game ended. “Coach gives me the green light to take those shots.”
Indeed, Redondo Interim Head Coach Vic Martin, who was emotional and demonstrative when the Sea Hawks were building up their giant lead, grew increasingly calm the more the lead disappeared. “I didn’t want the kids to panic,” Martin said. “So I had to show them that I still believed in them.”
But Jordan Roberts, Ridgeview’s 6-foot-6 silky-smooth do-everything senior who scored a game-high 35 points and is headed to play for Long Beach State next year, immediately answered with a power drive that sliced the lead back down to three at 82-79.
With Redondo’s star shooter Ryse Williams misfiring after a torrid first half in which he scored 20 points, Moore again stepped out of Williams’ shadow and saved his team from a monumental collapse while displaying his full repertoire that includes much more than just his reliable three-point shot.
This time he faked a three-pointer, stepped around his defender and zipped along the baseline till he got to the hoop, where he spun it in and got fouled in the process. He sank the foul shot for an old-fashioned three point play that restored the lead to 85-79 and was the beginning of the end for Ridgeview.
“Once my defender came out and bit on the pump fake, I saw a path to the basket and I took it,” Moore said. “I just wanted us to get our lead back.”
By now Ridgeview, which won the Division 2 Central Section title last week, had finally recovered from the long drive down from Bakersfield and was not about to give up. Roberts hit one foul shot to keep the Wolf Pack within striking distance at 85-80 with a minute still left. Time enough for one more surge.
But once again a Sea Hawk supporting player stepped out of the chorus line to nail down the win. This time it was super-sub Jace Bass, the lightning-quick slasher who normally uses his speed to knock out opponents. He pulled up for a trifecta from the right corner that hit nothing but nylon, grew the lead to 88-80, and allowed the white-knuckled home crowd to finally relax a bit as they realized disaster had been averted.
As the final horn sounded the scoreboard read Redondo 93, Ridgeview 81. But that 12 point final margin was mis-leading in two respects. First, it didn’t reflect Redondo’s early total domination as it ran out to a 31-6 lead when Williams swished a stare-down three pointer at the first quarter buzzer. And second, it didn’t reflect just how scary-close Ridgeview’s late comeback had been: if not for Moore and Bass stepping up at crucial moments, this game easily could have gone the other way and ended Redondo’s season on the sourest of notes.
But Coach Martin said he wasn’t at all disappointed that his players had almost blown such a huge lead.
“It’s high school basketball,” Martin said. “These things happen. They’re teenagers playing as hard as they can. Sometimes they make mistakes, but they learn from them and get better.”
Besides, Martin added, a win is a win. “I’ll take this kind of win any day of the week,” he said.
Williams, red-hot early and ice-cold late, still finished with 30 points. Moore had 18 points, Bass had 14 and 6-foot-9 center Quinn Collins had a quiet 8 points but a loud 13 rebounds and three blocks.
Now Redondo advances to the second round of the southern regional, where on Saturday it will face Corona Centennial at Corona.
“This time it’s our turn to make a long drive for an away game,” Martin said. “I just hope we play as hard and as competitively as Ridgeview did tonight.”
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