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Culver’s Jordan Williams shows good form Friday. Photos, George Laase.
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Wesley Dixon drives for a Centaurs’ basket.
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Kevin Beacham, center, lifts for a Centaurs’ basket.
Culver City High School’s boys basketball team opened Ocean League play last week by beating Morningside 77-57 before losing on Friday to Santa Monica, 62-53.
In beating Morningside (4-13) by 20, four Centaur starters scored in double figures. Chris Edwards led with a game high 23 points, while Isaac Girley put in 14, including nine of 10 free throws, and seven assists.. Both Armani Nicolis and Wesley Dixon had double-doubles. Nicolis scored 11 points and had 13 rebounds. Dixon made 12 points, 10 rebounds and had six steals.
For his efforts, Edwards was named Culver’s MaxPreps Player of the Game.
Santa Monica
Expecting a tough game from 10-7 Santa Monica, Centaurs Coach Adam Eskridge said that “Santa Monica is always a high energy team. They are scrappy. They will be diving on the floor. That’s their hallmark.
“The Vikings are not as big, as athletic or as deep as they were last year. But still, they are a very good basketball team and they will test us.
“I hope we can surprise them. We didn’t play very well at their pre-season tournament. The impression we left was that we were an up and down team. I hope we can sneak up on them and continue to play at the consistent level we have in our last four games.”
Santa Monica ran out to an early 12-5 lead in the first four minutes. Culver City came back with a 10-2 run to lead 15-14 at the end of the first quarter. At halftime, Culver City eked out a lead. Culver stretched it to seven, 40-33, by the end of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Santa Monica started playing with a sense of urgency when Nicolis, Culver's leading scorer and co-captain, picked up his fourth foul early. The Vikings saw an opening and seized it, tying the game at 42 with 6:07 left and again at 47 with 4:37 to go.
Culver’s offense started struggling, hampered by Nicolis’s foul trouble. Though falling behind, the Centaurs defense kept within striking distance. The Viking lead was five with two minutes to go. They began to foul, but the strategy backfired when Santa Monica hit 10 of the last 12 free throws to ice the game 62-53.
The two teams used similar styles.
Santa Monica Coach James Hecht said “the plays at the end of the game made the difference. We started rebounding better, blocking out and we took better quality shots. We hit our free throws when we needed.
“Hats off to Culver. We were fortunate to come away with a good win. Although there's a lot more basketball to be played, it's always better to start league off at 2-0 than 1-1.”
Disappointed by the loss, Wesley Dixon of the Centaurs commented on his resurgence on offense. “I have been working on my shooting these past few weeks,” he said. “I have gained back some confidence. I’m taking shots that I would have passed up before. If I can shoot more and make shots, the defense will have to spread the floor more. That will open it up for my teammates.”
Clearly upset at losing at home, Coach Eskridge said, “It came down to the fourth quarter. Obviously; we are not ready to win a game like this. We didn't make the defensive effort necessary down the stretch. We didn't shoot like we have the last few games. Santa Monica’s defense had a lot to do with that.”
“Even after graduating most of its starters from a year ago, Samo still is good. It’s about their program’s system, something I try to emulate. The quality of their shots in the fourth quarter, compared to ours, tells the tale.”
Coach Eskridge liked what he saw early. “Our defense was really good for three quarters,” he said. “They were switching, talking, we were active, getting deflections, disrupting Samo’s offensive flow. In the fourth quarter we let them get the ball in front of us. We were reaching. We seemed a step slow.”
Edwards led Culver with 17 points, Dixon had nine, Nicolis and Girley each seven.
Turning positive, Eskridge praised the play of David Handler. “David makes a big difference when he is in the lineup,” Eskridge said. “His defense is tremendous, and so, and the way he grinds it out on the boards.”
Eskridge looked ahead to this week’s game at Inglewood. “We still want to win league,” he said. “But, for sure, we want to have a top three finish so we get a better seed in the playoffs. Inglewood (9-9) is right in the mix.”
To view more action highlights of Culver High School's sports teams go to: http://georgel.smugmug.com/
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
