Two victories have restored hope for the Santa Monica High boys basketball yeam after three surprising defeats drove them toward the lower rung of the Ocean League.
Following a home loss to Culver City, which had an 0-3 league record at the time, Coach James Hecht’s team came back with wins over Hawthorne and Morningside.
On Wednesday, January 28 Samohi defeated Hawthorne, 70-64 as Dante Bowie scored 14 points and Danilo Toskovic contrubuted 12.
Two nights later, Samohi handed Morningside its first league loss in six games, 56-44. Bowie again scored 14 points and center Kunnu Shofu had nine points, 12 rebounds, and eight blocked shots.
Samohi completed the week Satirday in a non-league 67-53 loss to El Camino High of Oceanside, which has a 19-3 record. The game was part of an Extravaganza at Fairfax High.
Samohi was strong early, but was outscored by 20 points in the second half.
Currently Morningside and Inglewood have 5-1 league records and Beverly Hills is at the bottom without a win. The other three teams, Hawthorne, Samohi, and Culver City are scrambling for a playoff berth.
Samohi is the defending league champion and the Vikings are accustomed to being in the playoffs every year.
“We have plenty of athletic talent but we get deflated when things go wrong,” said Hecht. “So we’re working on overcoming that.”
