Time seemed to stand still for the Redondo boys basketball team and its gym full of screaming fans Friday night as Roosevelt’s best player, Jemarl Baker, pump-faked his defender out of the way, squared his shoulders and launched a 30-foot shot that would win the game if it went in.
Arcing high, high and higher into the breathless air, the shot looked good all the way until it barely missed, grazing the left side of the rim and bouncing away harmlessly as Redondo head coach Reggie Morris, normally cool and calm on the sideline, wiped the sweat off his brow and gratefully accepted the 56-54 first round playoff win knowing that sometimes it is indeed better to be lucky than good.
The Sea Hawks were lucky – and definitely not very good — as the five seniors that form the core of the team started their last playoff run with a very shaky victory.
“Win good or win bad, you at least get to stay and play another game,” Morris said after he had collected his emotions and told his team how lucky they were to survive and advance in the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs. “But it’s not how we wanted to start and get our momentum going in the playoffs.”
The strange part was that the Bay League champions utterly dominated the first quarter. They appeared poised to run away with an easy victory as they yielded only five points and used their usual swarming full-court press to continually turn the ball over, resulting in numerous fast breaks that gave them a 15-5 edge heading into the second quarter.
But that’s exactly when Redondo’s weaknesses were exposed. First of all, they don’t have a single dead-eye shooter that can reliably get shooting space and stick tough shots. Morgan Means can hit an occasional three-pointer, and so can Ryse Williams and Leland Green and even 5-foot-2 sparkplug Elijah Nesbit. But the reality is that most of their offense is generated by their 32-minutes-of-hell defense producing turnovers and fast breaks.
Roosevelt, co-champions of the Big VIII League, appeared to be a mirror image of Redondo: an undersized team with a stacked roster of superior athletes willing to press and run all game long but without much outside shooting. The result was a fast and furious game that turned into a dog fight in the second quarter.
But this time it was Redondo turning the ball over continually, as the normally reliable point guard Nesbit repeatedly tried to do too much, either driving into traffic and getting the ball stripped, driving to the hoop only to get rejected, or throwing a too-ambitious pass that was fumbled by a teammate.
Morris repeatedly pulled Nesbit out of the game to urge him to get more under control, and he admitted later that it had been a long time since he had seen Nesbit turn the ball over so much.
“Not since he was a lot younger,” he said. “He’ll have to play better in the next game.”
Roosevelt, led by Baker, who has a scholarship to Cal next year, and powerful 6-foot-6 junior Matt Mitchell, dominated the second quarter to level the score 24-24 at halftime.
Redondo tried to grab control back at the start of the third with a Green power drive all the way to the hoop followed by a nifty pass from Nesbit to a driving Means that made it 28-24.
The Mustangs fought back to within 28-27, but Redondo pulled ahead again on a ferocious Cameron Williams dunk followed by a Ryse Williams baseline drive around two defenders plus a foul shot that made it 33-27 Redondo.
But by now the two evenly matched teams were locked in a death struggle and Roosevelt tied it at 36-36. Wesley Gilbert, the 6-foot-8 senior center who transferred in from a Sacramento high school, powered in a lay-up, then missed but was fouled on a spin move that could have been called a charge. Roosevelt’s coach was assessed a tech for leaping out onto the court to complain, but Gilbert missed both foul shots and Ryse Williams then missed another two foul shots.
Going 0-for-4 on free throws at that point in a tight game was a missed golden opportunity to take control once and for all. Instead the two teams fought desperately all the way to the end, with Green and Ryse Williams hitting key three pointers in the final minutes and Mitchell missing two foul shots with five seconds left that could have given the Mustangs a one-point lead.
With four seconds left Green could only hit one of two foul shots, giving the Sea Hawks a 56-54 lead. That set the stage for the Mustangs to call time out and set up a play that freed up Baker for an NBA-range three-pointer that left both sides of the packed gym hoping and praying — for opposite results.
On this night, at least, Redondo’s prayers were answered and Roosevelt’s weren’t.
“He got a real good look,” Morris said. “It just so happened that he missed.”
Only Ryse Williams with 15 points and Green with 12 finished in double digits. Mitchell led the Mustangs with 12 points and Baker finished with 10. The white-knuckle win set the stage for Tuesday night’s home matchup with Sierra Canyon in the second round of the Open Division, a game that figures to be a much tougher challenge.
“They’re ranked in the top ten of the country,” Morris said. “We’re going to have to play a lot better.”
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