After dropping its second Ocean League game to Beverly Hills High School on Feb. 7, thee Santa Monica High School boys’ basketball team rebounded to close the regular season with victories against Morningside and Hawthorne.
After dropping its second Ocean League game to Beverly Hills High School on Feb. 7, the Santa Monica High boys’ basketball team rebounded to close the regular season with victories against Morningside and Hawthorne.
Samohi (16-10, 8-2) closed out Morningside with a narrow 52-46 road win on Feb. 11. The Vikings then finished their Ocean League obligation by scrapping by Hawthorne with a 55-49 win. With those two wins, Samohi, which had a tough preseason schedule, ended Ocean League play statistically tied with Beverly Hills for first place.
However, by dropping both games to the Normans, Samohi picked up the second seed when it came to the CIF determining the playoff brackets. Samohi, the defending CIF-SS Division IAA champion, will play Montebello (16-10, 8-2), which finished second in the Almont League, in the first round of the postseason Friday.
Montebello travels to Santa Monica for the playoff game, which is scheduled to start at 7 pm.
In the two earlier games against Morningside and Hawthorne, Samohi won both contests easily, whipping the Monarchs and Cougars by a combined 45 points. The final matchups-both on the road- wouldn’t be as easy for the Vikings. Against Morningside, a team Samohi crushed 67-38 the first time around, the Vikings had to withstand a second-half surge by the Monarchs to come away with their 15th win of the season.
Samohi outscored the Monarchs 27-14 through the first two quarters of the ballgame, but then had to withstand a 32-25 flurry by Morningside (9-17, 4-6) in the third and fourth quarters to escape with the victory. Playing against Hawthorne (7-16, 1-9) would prove to be even tougher for the Vikings. There would be no large point separation in this game as the two teams stayed fairly even throughout the game points-wise.
Samohi managed to outscore the Cougars 15-11 in the first quarter, but the second and third quarters were equal footing for both squads. Samohi and Hawthorne scored identical quarters, each scoring 12 and 18 points in the periods, respectively. That meant that Samohi clung to just a four-point lead against the Ocean League’s last-place team going into the fourth quarter.
The final period would be just as rugged as the first three quarters. Samohi outscored Hawthorne 10-8 in the fourth quarter to claim its 16th victory of the season.
