Moving into the most important part of their season, the Culver City High School boys varsity basketball team is 10-8 overall and 1-1 in the Ocean League and must beat Inglewood and Hawthorne this week to stay close to Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, who are both 2-0.
The Centaurs traveled to Inglewood on Wednesday and play Hawthorne on Friday, 7:30 p.m. Scores for the game against Inglewood were not available at press time.
Culver City has trouble protecting its home court and its 62-53 home loss to Santa Monica last Friday night put a big dent in the Centaurs Ocean League title aspirations.
“We are not ready to win a game like this,” said coach Adam Eskridge after the loss to Santa Monica. “Santa Monica is a very good team and they graduated a lot of players, and they are still a good team. I want our program to get to that level.”
Santa Monica is the 94th ranked team in the state of California.
The Centaurs out played the Vikings for three quarters, but it was the fourth that changed Culver City’s fortune.
“We came alive in the fourth quarter and played with energy and enthusiasm,” Santa Monica coach James Hecht said. “Culver City is a tough match up when they bring in four guards and spread the court.”
Missed shots and foul trouble was the main reason for Culver City’s loss to Santa Monica.
“We had a terrible night shooting the ball,” Eskridge said. “Santa Monica’s defense had a lot to do with our shooting problems. We are not making that extra effort.”
Culver City’s best player, Armani Nicolis, got in early foul trouble making other players step up, such as center David Handler who played one of his best games of the season. However, with the many missed outside shots by players like Chris Edwards, David Girley and the rest of the team, the scoring efforts came up short.
“David (Handler) was unbelievable in the second half,” said Eskridge.
Other missed opportunities stemmed from not taking open shots, such as Aaron Edison who was open all night, but passed the ball instead of taking open shots.
“We did not execute,” Edison said. “Our leading scorers need to lead and talk and run our plays, and I need to step up and do my job.”
The Centaurs meet visiting Beverly Hills, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m. and have a road game against Hawthorne, Friday, Jan. 31, 7:30 p.m.