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!