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There are no style points in the playoffs. The only thing that matters is surviving, and advancing. On Friday night in the Ron Palmer Pavilion, the Long Beach Poly boys’ basketball team did both–just barely. Poly didn’t score a field goal in the final three minutes of the game and missed five free throws down the stretch, but they managed to survive those obstacles as well as a questionable officiating call to just barely outlast visiting Murrieta Valley in a CIF-SS Division 2A quarterfinal win, 58-57.
“You get this far in the playoffs and everybody’s good, that’s a great team with a great coach,” said Poly coach Shelton Diggs. “I’ve been doing this for a while. Every playoff run you have there’s going to be a game like this, whatever round it is, one of those games where you just have to pull it out. We pulled it out and we’re moving on.”
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The first quarter started auspiciously for the Jackrabbits as they outscored their opponents 20-10, behind nine points from junior Austin Unegbu, who came out aggressive and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and also drove to the rim to convert an and-one.
“We know what people’s game plan is for us, and I’m going to play within our offense and be aggressive,” said Unegbu. “Our offense gives us open shots, it’s just our job to knock them down.”
Junior Jovani Ruff got it going in the first as well, with six points, all in the paint.
In the second quarter, the Nitehawks began chipping away at the double-digit Poly lead but never got closer than five points. Ruff made it a nine-point halftime advantage with a nice sidestep 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded, putting the Jackrabbits up 35-26 at the break.
In the third quarter, the Nitehawks were only able to shave one point off the lead as it was 47-39 Poly heading to the fourth quarter, after Poly withstood a barrage from Parker Steffen, the Nitehawks’ standout junior. Steffen scored 13 of his game-high 22 points in the third quarter, applying pressure to Poly, which the Jackrabbits held up under.
In the fourth, however, the NItehawks were able to get the lead down to five. Junior Giovanni Ofoegbu scored on a baseline drive for Poly with 3:21 left, putting them up 57-50 on what would end up being the Jackrabbits’ final field goal of the game. The Nitehakws scored, then got a field goal, then got a bucket to close the lead to 57-55 with 1:55 left in the game. Ruff made one of two free throws to grow the lead to three points, but that was the end of Poly’s scoring. The NItehawks got a layup to make it 58-57 with a minute left, and Poly left the door open as Ruff missed two free throws.
He made up for it with great individual defense on Steffen to force a pair of bad shots, but Poly couldn’t secure the rebound after a Steffen miss and it went out of bounds to the visitors. That set up a dramatic moment as the Nitehawks inbounded the ball from the baseline into the backcourt after failing to find an open option, with 14.5 seconds remaining. Poly post player Jonas Oware had a heads-up play seeing that the ball was out there, and sprinted ahead and ended up grabbing it away before the Nitehawks player could gain possession. A very swift whistle for a held ball tie-up ended up giving Murrieta Valley another shot at it. This time Steffen missed with three Poly defenders crowding him in the paint, with senior Mason Myers securing the rebound with 2.5 seconds to go. He ended up missing both free throws, giving the NItehawks one final possession with 1.5 seconds left–they were able to inbound to Steffen, but his desperation halfcourt three went well wide of the backboard.
“If he would’ve hit that shot I would’ve been sick,” said Ruff, who had a team-high 18 points. “We just had the will to win the game. We had to have it.”
Ofoegbu had 16 points in the game and was relieved to leave his home gym with a win.
“We got back to the locker room and were just thanking God that last shot didn’t go in,” he said. “That was crazy. If that had gone in I don’t know how I would have lived with myself. I’m just happy we won.”
The Jackrabbits will host Corona del Mar on Friday at 7pm with a trip to the championship on the line.
