It was anyone’s ball game on Saturday between Compton and Lincoln, as they tussled for the SoCal Division 2 crown and the right to represent SoCal in the state title game next weekend—but a monster 27-point third quarter (including a 16-6 start) was enough to give the Hornets the edge, as they went on to win 60-52.
Both teams looked awkward and sloppy at the beginning of the game, as the first two plays were turnovers. It was tightly officiated, further adding to the time it took for the Tarbabes and Hornets to settle in. It was just 11-10 Compton after the first quarter, and it seemed that the SoCal crown was hanging in the balance, waiting for someone to seize it. Compton put together a 6-0 run to take a 19-14 lead, and then a 7-0 run to close the half, giving them a 28-22 lead at the break. That last run was Compton’s finest basketball of the game, with Allan Guei, Anthony January, and Cliff Sims all hitting buckets, the whole team running the floor, and playing great pressure defense.
It seemed as the teams came out for the second half that big Mo was wearing Tarbabe blue. But—and this is a problem that’s plagued this team this year—the lead made Compton a little complacent. “Sometimes when we have a lead like that, we relax,” admitted Guei after the game.
The Hornets pounced, running an incredibly disruptive press to help them score 16 points in just over three minutes, as a stunned Tarbabes team struggled to get their feet under them. Coach Tony Thomas didn’t call a timeout until the score was 38-34, the Tarbabes’ lead erased and then some. “I wanted to let them play out of it,” Thomas said after the game. “I like to save my timeouts, and the run was about intensity, not execution…they just played harder than us.”
At the end of the disastrous third, the Tarbabes had an 11-point hole to climb out of, and while January, Sims, and Guei battled valiantly (with all of their team’s points in the fourth), they fell short. Sims moved from the post to the wing and knocked down two threes, and the Tarbabes had closed to within five points at 57-52 when the first of two huge miscues held them down. Anthony January made a great play to get a steal at midcourt and was streaking towards the basket, a chance to pull his team within three points with 1:43 left—but he went for the dunk, and bricked it, giving Lincoln the ball back. Later, Lincoln had the ball in hand with a minute to go and a six-point advantage. Thomas and his assistants (from the opposite end of the court) tried to get their team to foul, but couldn’t make themselves heard, and the shot clock ran down to six seconds left before Shelton Black finally grabbed a Hornets player.
“That was valuable time that we needed,” said Thomas.
Still, despite the disappointment of getting so far without a ring, it was a great season for the Tarbabes. “We got here,” said Thomas, who has seven player returning. “A lot of teams never get here.”
“After DeMar [DeRozan, an NBA rookie-of-the-year candidate with Toronto] graduated, the talk around town was we weren’t any good,” said Sims after the game. “So we wanted to prove we could win without him.”
Sims finished with a team-leading 18 points; Guei had 12 and January had 11, and 16 boards. Melvin Lewis put in solid work with five points and seven boards in 15 minutes of relief work. The Hornets were led by Victor Dean with 19 points, and Norman Powell with 15 points and nine boards. The Hornets also blocked 10 shots.