After his team’s 60-46 win over the host Corona Santiago Sharks, Poly’s head coach Carl Buggs said he thought his team this year was the deepest he’s had in the last four seasons—a scary thought considering they’ve won state titles the last three years in a row.  But consider the first half of the second quarter: with two starters resting, Buggs played Ariya Crook-Williams at the point (a sophomore), Brittany and Ashley Wilson (juniors), the recently-recovered Sheila Boykin (a sophomore), and Thaddesia Southall (a junior).  Against a tough opponent in a rowdy gym, they scored nine straight points—largely due to the dominant play of Boykin, who had nine points on 4/4 shooting in limited minutes—while giving Monique Oliver a rest.  Then Oliver came back in and scored Poly’s final four points of the half, giving them a 34-19 lead at intermission.  In all, Buggs utilized 11 players in a close game, and got 19 points from his bench.

Poly jumped out to a quick lead early, starting 10-0 as they both outmuscled and outran the diminutive Sharks.  Santiago is a drive-and-kick team to the fullest, and in the first half they got plenty of open looks, but didn’t convert many points from the perimeter as they shot poorly, leading to a 21-11 Poly lead after eight minutes.  In the second, the story was the same as Poly went to the bench to expand their lead.  The ‘Rabbits dominated the boards (11 rebounds in the first quarter, and only allowing two offensive boards to the Sharks in the first half), and seemed poised to make the game officially “uncompetitive” in the third quarter.

Not so much.  The Sharks won the third quarter 18-11, as Poly turned the ball over seven times, and the Sharks started dropping those outside bombs, with Jasmine Lister leading the way.  Lister played out of her mind, scoring 23 points and taking the game over for stretches—she and twin sister Cinnamon combined for 13 of their team’s 18 in the third.  Early in the fourth, Santiago’s Cebrina Johnson fouled out—their tallest starting player at 5’8″, that created plenty of opportunities for Poly’s bigs, who put in nine points in the final period.  But the Sharks, especially the Listers, continued to shoot the lights out of their spacious gym, and they made it a game—with under two left in the third they were down just six, and they remained within spitting distance of Poly for most of the fourth, until sound free-throw shooting eventually sealed the game for the top-seeded’ Rabbits.

After the game Oliver, who led the way with 18 points and 11 boards, was pleased with the win.  “It feels good—we had a lot of turnovers, but we’re happy with a win.”  After explaining that she prefers playing teams with bigger players so she can test herself, Oliver said, “We’re always looking for more challenges—we want to step up and go to state.”

Buggs discussed his team’s performance during a long bus ride home from the I.E.  “I wasn’t happy with our containment—we didn’t pressure well in one-on-one situations, which gave them opportunities on the perimeter.”  He also went into more detail on his team’s depth, which has brought advantages as well as challenges for him as a coach.  “One of the things we’ve had to deal with is that we’ve never really had our whole team together the entire season.  Ariya [Crook-Williams] had a concussion very early in the season, Sheila [Boykin, who transferred from Lynwood] had knee surgery in July, Kelli [Thompson] broke her wrist, and she’s out, and TaNitra [Byrd, who transferred from Hawaii] was new to us early in the season, so we had to figure out where she fit in.  So even in the quarterfinals, I’m still looking at new combinations, still trying out new lineups to see what works best.” 

Besides Oliver’s double-double, other leaders for Poly were Brittany Wilson, with ten points and seven rebounds, and Thaddesia Southall, with seven points, eleven rebounds, five assists, and seven blocks—the ‘Rabbits used their size to notch ten total.  Poly now advances to the semifinals, where they’ll face a very tough Troy team.  Poly hosts the game because of a coin flip, but because it’s the semis it has to be at a neutral location—so, they’ll host Troy at Cabrillo High School, this Saturday, at 7pm.  We’ll see you there.

It was a big gym…

…but they got a lot of fans out.

The nearly-unstoppable Jasmine Lister, who had 23 points for the Sharks.

Monique Oliver exploited her height advantage to the tune of 18 points and 11 boards.