Regular Season End

The regular season came to an end last Thursday with Riki’s Redondo Union High School team securing a CIF-playoff berth and third place in the Bay League with a 43-32 victory over West Torrance. RUHS is 11-16 overall and 5-5 in league. Riki had a good game, scoring 12 points on 9-10 from the free throw line and one three-pointer. Her free throw percentage in the 14 games in 2009 is 84.9% on 62 of 73 attempts. Over 24 games, Riki is averaging 5.9 points per game.

Redondo, given its record and its placement in the highest CIF division (IAA), received a poor seeding (31 out of 32) and, as a result, will travel on Thursday, 2/19 to play Cajon (San Bernardino), the #2 seed in the division (Long Beach Poly is #1). Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m.

Cajon is led by two players of note, 6’ 3” Arkansas-bound Darshae Burnside and 5’8” Cal-bound Layshia Clarendon who, together provide more than half of Cajon’s points (averaging 18.3 and 19.2 respectively). Burnside is also averaging 15.5 rebounds per game and Clarendon gets 8.4 assists per game (an amazing number considering that she is also their leading scorer). A weak link may be free-throw shooting as the team only shoots 61% with only Clarendon shooting over 70% from the line. (source: maxpreps.com)

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Christine and I watched Cajon defeat another top-ranked program, Hanford, in San Diego over the summer. Because of Burnside and Clarendon, they are a handful inside and out. Among common opponents, Cajon defeated Keppel 52-40 on December 26. Keppel, which beat Redondo by 9 (after RUHS led at half) in early January, stayed in the game by holding Clarendon to only 8 points and committing only 11 turnovers (Keppel is almost all guards). Burnside, on the other hand, scored 22 with 19 rebounds. I imagine that if Redondo turns the ball over its usual 20+ times, it will be a long night.

The “good news” is that IF Redondo plays the game of its season and upsets Cajon, it will benefit from the #2 bracketing and play a lower seeded team (Schurr or LB Wilson) on Saturday.

Thanks for all the support!

Final Week of the Regular Season

Riki’s Redondo Union High School (RUHS) team enters the final week of the regular season with their postseason in serious question. An unexpected loss to Bay League opponent Peninsula on Tuesday (38-45) has dropped Redondo into a third place tie with the Panthers with three league games left. A third-place finish will probably mean a CIF playoff berth. A fourth-place finish will mark the end of the season.

Prior to the Peninsula loss, Redondo suffered losses to Bishop Amat (41-61, non-league) and Palos Verdes (34-41) on consecutive nights last weekend.

Redondo’s inexperience is paying a toll as the long season winds down. It is particularly frustrating for and demanding on Riki as she has been forced to play 30-31 minutes (out of 32) at point in the last two games. Playing point in particular, is draining both mentally and physically. Fortunately, Riki’s travel club experience has “toughened” her and her pre-season work with weights and conditioning has paid off, although she is playing through a contusion on her left arm and elbow suffered in the first quarter on Tuesday.

Riki continues to get to the foul line off of penetration and has made 14 of her last 16 attempts. Since the start of 2009 (10 games), Riki has shot 45-53 (84.9%) from the line. She also picked up another charge against Peninsula, adding to her RUHS single-season record of 13.

Redondo finishes the season with a home game on Friday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. vs. arch-rival Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach), an away game vs. powerful Inglewood (ranked 11th in the region by the LA Times) on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, 2/10, at home vs. Leuzinger (6 p.m.). The final game of the regular season is on the road on Thursday, Feb. 12 vs. West Torrance at 6 p.m. IF they make the playoffs, their first game will probably be on Sat. 2/21.

Thanks for all the support!