Samohi Basketball Teams Win in Culver City

On Wednesday night, the boys basketball team followed up against league co-leader Inglewood with more of the same. The team edged Culver City, 59-58, on the latter squad's home turf.

Culver City (18-4 overall, 5-2 in league), which sits atop the Ocean League, beat the Vikings (9-13, 3-4) by eight points in the teams' previous meeting.

“We just needed that one key win,” Santa Monica senior guard said. “Now we’re playing a lot harder. We take more charges and dive for more loose balls.”

Santa Monica used that intensity to pull away in the second quarter with an 18-1 run, preventing Culver City from making a field goal until the final two minutes of the half when Keilan Horton drained back-to-back three-pointers.

The Centaurs fought back, however, closing to within one point on Aamahd Walker's three-pointer with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Samohi couldn’t hit its free throws in the final minutes, but Culver City missed a jumper to win the game. The Vikings pulled off their second straight victory over one of the league’s top teams.

“This has been what we’ve done all season,” Culver City coach Jonathan Chapman said. “We play three good quarters and one not-so-good quarter, and we try to outweigh the not-so-good quarter with the three good quarters. Tonight, that didn’t happen.”

Horton led all scorers with 18, including nine in the fourth quarter. and  each had 12 for the Vikings.

Santa Monica would have to win all of its remaining games to have a shot at a playoff berth, but the last two wins are a boost to the team's confidence, Coach said.

“This is a resilient group,” Hecht said. “There’s no quit in them. We’re fighting for our lives. This is a team on a mission.”

The Santa Monica girls basketball team also appeared to be on a mission, defeating Culver City, 53-30.

In the first meeting, Culver City (13-11, 5-2) lit up the Vikings (17-6, 5-2) from outside, hitting 11 three-point shots. Coach made sure that wouldn’t happen this time, vowing to take away the outside shot and use his team’s height to its advantage.

To drive the point home, he broke out practice plans from 2006 to figure out what his previous teams did on defense that his 2010-11 team wasn’t doing.

It worked. The Centaurs didn’t have a field goal in the second quarter and made only two in the first half. Seven of the Centaurs' 13 first-half points came at the free throw line.

“We didn’t match their intensity,” Culver City Coach Julian Anderson said. “They were hungry. We were not."

Though Culver City did hit three three-pointers early on, all by guard Jade Neal, Santa Monica stifled the Centaurs' shooters for the rest of the game and used its aggressive defense to create offensive opportunities.

“From the way we started the game, we knew we were going to win,” Santa Monica senior guard said. “We were playing better defense all-around. We just came out with a lot of intensity.”

Faulk led the team with 16, getting most of her opportunities from offensive rebounds. Neal led Culver City with 14.

Culver City and Santa Monica are now tied for second place in the Ocean League, one game behind Inglewood.