Losing to Beverly Hills and Morningside last week, the Culver City Centaurs dropped to 2-4 in the Ocean League and 11-11 overall, compromising their CIF playoff hopes.
The Centaurs leading scorers were not stepping up, the team’s rebounding was off and players failed to finish plays. Beverly Hills and Santa Monica are tied for first at 5-1. Inglewood is in second place with a record of 4-2 and Culver City and Morningside are tied for third place.
Culver City lost two games last week by a combined total of eight points, 60-56 to Beverly Hills and 68-64 to Morningside.
“I told the team that some nights are just not your night,” coach Adam Eskridge said after the loss to Morningside. “We missed a ton of shots and free throws that we normally make. We played hard, but we did not bring our brains to the game tonight.”
Eskridge is still waiting for his team to climb to the next level.
“We are getting closer to being a really good team but we need to understand what it takes to win,” Eskridge said. “We need to follow the game plan, but you have to give Morningside credit. They had a lot of energy tonight.”
The Centaurs are in need of their four scorers to step up.
On Friday against Morningside Armani Nicolis had 16 points, Chris Edwards scored 13 and Isaac Girley had 13, but Wesley Dixon scored only six points.
Culver City’s star player Nicolis had an off night against Morningside, but he still scored 16 points.
Edwards, Girley and Wesley must score in double figures if the Centaurs expect to win close games.
The Centaurs are also having trouble rebounding during the last few minutes of a close game.
“The game winning basket was off an offensive rebound,” said Eskridge. “We don’t finish plays and contest shots and we don’t rebound well after the shot.”
Eskridge also wants his team to play complete games.
“Against Beverly Hills we played great for thirty minutes and gave the game away in the last two minutes,” Eskridge said. “Tonight, with two minutes to go, we made the same mistakes we made on Wednesday.”
Nicolis had eight rebounds, and five steals in the loss to the Normans. Dixon had four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Edwards contributed four rebounds, three assists, and four steals.
The Centaurs will host Inglewood on Friday and Hawthorne on Tuesday.