Redondo boys basketball coach Reggie Morris opened his post-game press conference Tuesday night with an unusual announcement.
“I’m not answering any questions about Billy tonight,” he told the scrum of reporters gathered outside the Redondo locker room. No one needed to ask who “Billy” was.
And when one reporter pressed ahead anyway, he repeated himself: “I’m not answering any questions about Billy tonight.”
Morris was determined not to give the media or Sea Hawk fans any explanation for why his 6-foot-9 sophomore sensation had quit the team and suddenly left the school last week in the middle of a high-expectations season.
Nor was he going to say how he felt about his former star playing for Prime Prep in Texas less than a week after he left Redondo, as first reported by the Easy Reader earlier this week.
So it was up to his team to answer the questions left in the wake of Preston’s stunning departure: how would they handle it? Who would lead them? Who would take over as “the man” in crunch time when they no longer had Preston’s imposing post presence to go to and play off of?
The Sea Hawks answered the first question first: they would handle it quite well, as they held off a tall, talented Inglewood team by a final score of 74-63 in their Bay League opener.
As for leadership and who is the man in crunch time, those questions appeared to have a two-headed answer. The leadership came from the smallest player on the team, 5-foot-2 Elijah Nesbit, who raced around the court making steals, directing fast breaks and even throwing in a couple of key three-pointers at critical times while notching 15 points and 10 assists.
But it was 6-foot-2 guard Leland Green who emerged as Redondo’s most talented player in the post-Preston era, a slashing, fearless baller who continually attacked the rim on his way to 26 points.
Throw in 17 points from Morgan Means, another talented guard at 6-foot-1, and 58 of the Sea Hawks 74 points came from that trio.
While Morris wasn’t answering any direct Billy Preston questions, his subsequent comments appeared to be an indirect reference to Preston’s departure.
“We’re going to be balanced the rest of the season,” Morris said. “We’re going to spread the ball around, everyone will have a chance to show what they can do, and we’re going to feed the hot hand.”
Even with Preston gone, Redondo still has incredible depth as Morris continually rotated nine players in and out to wear down Inglewood, which started three players 6-foot-7 or taller. But at first it looked like Inglewood’s height advantage would be decisive, as the Sentinels worked patiently to get the ball inside and registered four dunks while they raced out to an 11-6 lead.
At that point, Morris said, he had the Sea Hawks quit trapping the ball and instead instructed them to stay home in their man-to-man assignments.
“Anyone who fell asleep on defense was coming out of the game,” he said.
Sure enough, Inglewood only broke loose for one more dunk the entire game as Redondo slowly worked its way back and finally took a lead at 23-22 when Means drilled a trifecta early in the second quarter.
Nesbit then stole the ball and fed a streaking Green for a layup as he got fouled. He hit the foul shot and suddenly Redondo’s lead was up to 26-22. Nesbit pulled up for an 8-foot jumper, Green hit another power-drive layup, and finally Green splashed a three-pointer to beat the half-time buzzer and the Sea Hawks walked off with a 37-29 lead, a lead that they never relinquished in the second half.
The lead had blown up to 60-40 early in the fourth quarter when Terrell Gomez, Inglewood’s quick and talented 5-foot-9 junior point guard led a late comeback that shaved 10 points off the lead but never got it below 10 points the rest of the way.
And so game number one of the post Preston era was a hard earned victory, but expectations have been appropriately reduced from a state title to a Bay League title. Considering that Inglewood was touted as the most talented team in the Bay League now that Preston was gone, it had to be encouraging for Sea Hawk fans that there is life after Billy Preston.
Even if Reggie Morris didn’t want to talk about it.
Contact the writer: paulteetor@verizon.net
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