The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial
The Long Beach Poly boys’ basketball team (10-7, 2-0) is riding a six-game winning streak and claimed last week’s St. Francis Holiday Hoopfest Tournament championship after a pair of thrilling wins over St. Francis and Westlake.
Poly’s star junior Jovani Ruff was named Tournament MVP while juniors Austin Unegbu and Giovanni Ofoegbu were named All-Tournament.
“It was a good week, guys are buying into what we’re teaching, the team is buying into their roles, and we’re starting to play really well defensively,” said Poly coach Shelton Diggs. “We have a lot of ways we can get better, but the team is starting to gel.”
The Jackrabbits blew out Rio Mesa (93-55) and El Camino (66-44) to get to the semifinals, where they faced 13-3 St. Francis. The Jackrabbits defeated the Golden Knights 58-54 in overtime behind a great defensive effort. Ruff scored 34 points in the win as Unegbu added 14 points.
In the championship game against Westlake, Poly prevailed 77-66, holding a 14-3 opponent well below their season average. Unegbu scored 24 points to lead Poly, with Ruff scoring 22, Ofoegbu scoring 15 points, and Jonas Oware adding 10 points.
“Those were two really good games and opponents and we were able to put it all together,” said Diggs. “It’s good to see them pulling together. They’re competing on defense, they’re playing really, really hard.”
The win streak comes after an 86-70 loss to Los Alamitos that left Poly coaches, players, and parents visibly frustrated. Since that game, Poly is 6-0 and have held opponents to 61 or fewer points in five of six games. The Jackrabbits will face Serra at Redondo Union at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and then return to Moore League play next week, hosting Jordan in a battle of undefeated league teams on Monday, then visiting Cabrillo Wednesday and hosting Millikan Friday.
