It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t easy, but Poly is in the semifinals thanks to a win they can be proud of—despite struggling offensively all game, the Jackrabbits reached deep and exploded for a 25-point fourth quarter to surge ahead of the host Los Osos Grizzlies. Alexis Moore’s three-pointer with 1.8 seconds on the clock gave them the last push they needed to win, 61-58. The Jackrabbits are now essentially guaranteed a berth in the CIF State Tournament, and will host Etiwanda this Friday in a CIF semifinal, for the right to play for a ring.
“Weird” barely describes the first half of the game, which saw an 8-point possession, among other things. Poly was turnover happy in the first two quarters, but still led 14-10 after one quarter, largely because Los Osos couldn’t hit anything inside the three-point line. The Grizzlies started an astounding 1-13 from two-point range, and 5-10 from beyond the arc. The Rabbits led 18-16 when the first pivotal play came down—Shelton Boykin was whistled for fouling Kendall Williams, the Grizzlies’ best player, on a three-point attempt. The contact the ref blew the whistle for happened after the release, when Williams appeared to fall on landing. Boykin protested the call so vociferously that the ref whistled him for a technical foul, then blew another one on the Poly bench. That gave Williams five free throws, which he sank—then he took the inbounds pass and drained a three.
All of a sudden, the Grizlies were up, 24-18.
They led all the way until Poly took the lead back, in the final minute of the game. A number of things held them close enough to strike—Robert Nixon, Jr deserves a lot of the credit. In addition to excellent defensive play on Williams (who scored 18 points in the first half and just six in the second), he had five straight points for Poly late in the third quarter. More remarkable, that string of scoring came after he left the game to have a bandage put on his head, after a hard foul left him a little bloody. “I was a little fuzzy” from the blow he admitted after the game. Nixon ended up leading the Rabbits with 16 points.
Despite Nixon and some excellent foul shooting, Poly still trailed 42-36 headed into the fourth quarter. At that point, Alexis Moore was 0-9, and telling himself he needed to stay confident. “My dad, my coaches tell me to keep shooting,” he said. “So I did.” Moore ignited, scoring all 13 of his points in the final frame, hitting floaters, runners, a turnaround, and the final basket of the game. After Poly clawed their way back into it, Moore and Williams went possession for possession down the stretch, both trying to will their team to victory. After a Moore bucket made it 56-56, Roshcon Prince made an unbelievable play, intercepting a pass Williams had intended for a teammate, gathering the ball as he ran, and slamming home a two-handed dunk to take the lead, 58-56.
“I knew he was going to pass it,” said Prince, a freshman. “Once he let it go, it just seemed like it was floating there, in slow motion.”
The Grizzlies did get a bucket to tie it from Khalil Kelly, so with 16 seconds on the clock, it was Poly’s ball, tied 58-58.
Coach Sharrief Metoyer didn’t call a timeout, wanting to prevent the Grizzlies from getting their defense set. So Ryan Anderson inbounded to Alex Carmon, who ran the ball upcourt and then dumped it to Moore, who took the ball nonchalantly as time ran down. The play Metoyer called in was “Top,” a double-screen at the top of the three-point arc mean to allow Moore to drive and create for someone else, or to take the shot if he saw it. Moore saw his space, rejected the screen, lifted, and shot a dagger through the hearts of the Los Osos fans, giving Poly a 61-58 lead with 1.8 seconds on the clock. The Grizzlies lost the inbound pass, which was scooped up by Anderson and flung towards the ceiling as Poly finally closed the lid on the nailbiter.
The starting five finished with 59 of Poly’s 61 points, the lone score off the bench coming from Boykin. Four of the five starters finished in double-digits, Anderson finishing with nine points and 13 boards.
“I just told them, we need to get stops,” said Metoyer. “At the end, under pressure, we made a huge stop. This is a tough environment, but they’ve been doing this all year—that’s our makeup.”
Makeup or no, the Poly faithful are certainly hoping the Rabbits can find a way to put the next game to rest with a little less heart-thumping. Poly will host Etiwanda at 7pm on Friday; the game will be played at Millikan or LBCC, according to Metoyer, since semifinal games can’t be hosted in the home team’s gym.