What a difference one foul – and one fouled-out player — can make.
The Redondo boys basketball team survived the final two and a half minutes of regulation without 5-foot-3 point guard Elijah Nesbit, its smallest player with the team’s biggest heart. But it couldn’t survive another five minutes of overtime without his lightning-quick defensive pressure, rock-solid ball handling, fearless penetration and pin-point passing regularly producing open shots for grateful teammates.
The result: a heart breaking 66-63 loss to Crespi in Saturday’s Southern Section Division 1 regional final at the Pyramid in Long Beach that easily could have been – indeed, should have been – the launching pad for a trip up north and a chance for another state championship to bookend the one its four seniors helped win three years ago to put a cherry atop Head Coach Reggie Morris’ first season.
Crespi now moves on to the state D1 final in Sacramento. Redondo? Well, who knows what will happen to them, as Morris loses five of his top six players to graduation and is now facing a strict ban on out-of-district waivers for players he might want to bring in. Morris insisted to the Easy Reader several weeks ago that the rumors he would leave after this season had no basis in fact. “I love it here,” Morris said. “This is my home.”
But without an infusion of fresh talent, only junior sharp-shooter Ryse Williams, reserve guard Jailen Moore and freshman sensation Lucas Hobbs – who missed the playoffs with an injury – offer any hope for next season after four years during which Redondo resided at the penthouse pinnacle of SoCal basketball.
It was a rollercoaster of a game as Redondo couldn’t hit a shot at the beginning or at the end. In between, however, the Sea Hawks dominated an out-manned Crespi team that featured only one player – USC bound De’Anthony Melton – who could have cracked Redondo’s starting five.
The ultra-quick, strong and aggressive 6-foot-4 Melton led the Celtics to a quick 10-2 lead right out of the gate, and it looked like a repeat of the game two weeks ago when Crespi destroyed Redondo by 18 points in the Consolation Final of the Open Division. But that game was essentially meaningless, as the only thing at stake was which of the two teams would get the first seed in the Division 1 state championship and which would get the second seed.
This time the stakes were astronomically higher: win and advance to the championship game, or lose and go home to face dashed expectations. The Redondo seniors responded to the huge opening deficit with a 30-13 run that gave them a 32-23 halftime lead and an unmistakable feeling as they walked off that they had this thing under control.
The early comeback began with a 10 foot baseline jumper by Ryse Williams, followed by a Cameron Williams rebound and kickout to Morgan Means for a three-pointer, then another Means trifecta, and a Cameron Williams stick back that tied the game at 12-12.
After a Crespi timeout, Redondo surged to a 23-17 lead on consecutive steals by Leland Green and Ryse Williams, both resulting in coast-to-coast buckets. Green, Redondo’s best and most athletic player, continued to lead the charge back with a corner trifecta and two foul shots following a signature power drive and swooping finish that led to a foul.
But the defensive intensity and extra effort that produced a slew of Crespi turnovers and Redondo fast-breaks disappeared after halftime. Redondo relaxed its relentless full-court pressure just a bit, and Crespi stopped making the kind of crazy cross-court passes and rushed, panicked decisions that fueled the first-half Redondo comeback.
Crespi opened the second half with a 10-1 run that tied the score at 33-33 and set the stage for a fight to the death in which neither team could establish any kind of significant lead or mental and emotional dominance.
Reserve center Wesley Gilbert was critical in the third quarter, banging the boards for several stick-backs, in particular one third-chance effort that gave the Hawks a 40-38 lead. But the score was knotted at 42-42 entering the fourth period as Melton, who finished with a game-high 21 points, got just enough support from Brandon Williams and Taj Regans to keep Crespi in the game.
Williams, a 5-foot-11 sophomore guard, hit a trey to open the fourth and give Crespi 45-42 lead. But Means hit two free throws, Gilbert hit two and then Ryse Williams nailed two more to give Redondo a little breathing room and a 48-45 lead.
Green looked like he had a breakaway dunk lined up, but Melton ran him down and swatted it away. On the next possession Green was called for a charge while attacking the basket, and when Melton found Billy Oxley in the corner for a deep three Crespi had crawled back to a 50-48 lead.
Nesbit tied it at 50-50 with an elbow jumper, and then tied it again at 52-52 with a 15-foot baseline jumper. At this point the game had a similar feel to Tuesday night’s 63-62 thriller over Narbonne: Redondo had just enough cohesion and a good sense of each player’s well-defined role to overcome a talented, determined opponent.
But after hitting that last baseline jumper a ball-hawking Nesbit collided with Taj Regans and fouled out of the game with his fifth foul. Suddenly the Hawks’ carefully calibrated chemistry was thrown off-kilter. Means, the team’s best shooter, was now forced into the point guard role and the Hawk’s offense was reduced to Means dribbling around and around the perimeter, unable to find an opening for his sweet jumper or to find a teammate in good shooting position. Green, who is best at attacking the basket, was also thrown off without Nesbit to get him the ball in the right spots. And Ryse Williams, the team’s second best shooter, was unable to find his favorite open shots in the corner.
Things looked up for the Hawks when Green flew in for an offensive rebound, got hammered, threw it in the hoop from an impossible angle and then hit the foul shot for a 56-54 lead with 1:09 left. A half minute later Melton calmly swished two foul shots to tie it at 56-56, and Redondo dodged a bullet after Williams blocked Means’ shot in the lane. Melton ran the ball down and threw it down-court to Williams, who missed a relatively easy, wide-open reverse layup just before the buzzer sounded.
The Redondo fans breathed a huge sigh of relief at the potential game-winner that didn’t go in, but that didn’t change the altered dynamics of the game: without Nesbit Redondo’s offense had lost its bus driver. For all of Means’ brilliance as a shooter he simply didn’t have the point guard skills to organize the offense, penetrate and find the open shooters. Worst of all, he didn’t have himself to pass to for open three point attempts. As the overtime period continued Redondo’s dysfunction and frustration mounted in equal measure.
Melton opened the overtime with a 10-foot pull-up jumper, Williams added a free throw and suddenly Crespi had a lead it would never lose. Redondo pulled within one point several times, but when Means raced down court and drilled a trifecta to shave it down to 64-63 there was only 1.5 seconds left. Regans hit two foul shots for the final 3-point margin and a devastated Sea Hawk team and hundreds of its fans were forced to face the reality that for the third straight season there would be no repeat of the 2013 state championship that had so energized the school and indeed the entire Redondo community, which threw a ticker-tape parade to celebrate.
“I’m proud of my players and proud of our team,” Morris said afterwards, surrounded at the press conference by a clearly distraught Green (15 points), Means (11 points) and Ryse Williams (13 points), who was still wiping away tears. “They’re tough guys, and they did the best they could.”
But in the endgame, without Nesbit, their best wasn’t quite good enough.
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