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!