The Culver City High School girls’ and boys’ varsity basketball teams have advanced to the Ocean League tournament championship games after they won their semi-final games last Monday night. The boys beat Leuzinger 59-58, and the girls beat Leuzinger girls 70-56. Both games were played at Culver City High School.
Now the girls will face Lawndale for the league championship on Wednesday, Feb.5, 5 p.m. at Lawndale and the boys will play Inglewood on Wednesday, Feb, 5, starting at 7 p.m. at Inglewood.
The Lady Centaurs will go into the title game with a record of 16-8 overall and 8-1 in Ocean League play. Lawndale girls are 20-7 overall and 9-0 in the Ocean League. The Culver City boys are 22-5 overall and 8-1 in the Ocean League. Inglewood is 24-6 and 9-0 in the Ocean League.
Win or lose, both of the Culver City teams will make the CIF Playoffs. “It feels good to be playing for a championship,” said Culver City girls head coach Julian Anderson last Monday night. “I like the resilience of this team and the way that they fight. I feel good about this team. This is what I expected. Right now, we are playing at a high level, we just have to keep it up.”
One of the main reasons the Lady Centaurs are peaking at the right time is because of the play of one of their best players, Londyn Jones. Jones has used four years of varsity experience to develop into a team leader.
“To be able to lead a team is always something that I always wanted to do,’ said Jones after their win over Leuzinger.
Jones added: “At the beginning of the season we were not playing that well together but now you can see that we are really coming together.”
Mistakes and turnovers against Leuzinger almost cost the boys team a trip to the league championship game.
“We made it harder than it had to be,” said Culver City boys head coach Ray Singleton after their win over Leuzinger. “I told one of the players that was turning the ball over to just relax and let the game come to you. In the end it worked out for us.”
A few weeks ago, Inglewood beat the Centaurs 70-64 at Inglewood and this time they lock horns for the league championship.
“We need to make sure we don’t get caught in the Inglewood atmosphere,” said Singleton. “They have a lot of star power in that gym, so we need play Culver City basketball and don’t worry about the crowd.”
Contact Culver City High School to find out the results of the championship games. In the next issue we will have a recap of the championship games and a preview of the CIF playoffs.
Photos by George Laase