The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The Long Beach Poly boys’ and girls’ basketball teams both won their Moore League finales at Cabrillo yesterday, wrapping up undefeated 12-0 league championships.
Poly boys def. Cabrillo 66-53
Long Beach Poly defeated an upset-hungry Jags team to wrap up a 12-0 title. It’s Poly’s second straight championship and 14th in the last 15 years. Within that dominant run, an undefeated league title is still special–the last two times Poly did it were in 2021-22 and 2018-19.
“This is one of the more dominant league teams I’ve had in a while,” said Poly coach Shelton Diggs. “I’m happy with it. We played some tough teams early in the season and took some Ls early, but it gave the guys something to hold them accountable to for the entire year and they just dominated.”
The Jackrabbits got 24 points from Jovani Ruff, who is now entering the playoffs 33 points away from the all-time career scoring record for Long Beach prep hoopers.
The Jackrabbits are currently looking like a Division 1 team, but that won’t be certain until the CIF-SS brackets are released on Saturday.
“We want to play the best here, but there’s nothing we can do about it either way so we’re going to wait for the brackets,” said Diggs.
For the Jaguars, they’ve clinched a guaranteed playoff berth for the second year in a row, a big accomplishment for the Westside program and a testament to the hard work that coach Chris Spencer and his senior leaders have put in. The Jags got 14 points from Mason Johnson and 13 from Lincoln Dean in the loss.
“We want to get better every year, last year we made it in the play-in, this year we got it with one less game,” said Spencer. “It shows we’re taking steps in the right way. We wanted to win this game not just be in this game, but I’m proud of the way we’ve competed this year.”
Poly girls def. Cabrillo
The Jackrabbits claimed their 19th consecutive Moore League championship, with yet another dominant Moore League win. They also went 12-0 in league this year, extending their Moore League consecutive wins streak to 211 games, just eight shy of the all-time state record per Cal-Hi Sports.
Longtime head coach Carl Buggs acknowledged that this year was a little different than the previous Poly undefeated campaigns. Transfers meant Poly only returned three varsity players this year–while Lakewood returned a two-time Moore League Player of the Year and were fresh off a CIF-SS runner-up playoffs.
“This was by far the most challenging one,” said Buggs. “IIf you told me at the beginning of the year we’d be 12-0 in league I’d be like, ‘Huh? Okay.’ Being real on that one. Because I had no idea what we had coming together with 11 first-year players. This is one of the most rewarding league championships we’ve had.”
Buggs emphasized how much fun it was coaching this year’s team, led by Joy Anderson, Nevaeh Lemons, and Helena Vu.
“They’re just very unselfish, when one girl hasn’t scored in tonight’s games they’re finding her, getting her the ball and then everyone’s cheering,” he said. “They’re unselfish.”
Buggs said his team is still looking for more depth in its production heading into next week’s playoffs, and also said he hasn’t yet thought about whether he’ll be back next year to try and set the state record for league wins in a row.
“I’m just totally enjoying this one right here,” ‘he said. “I’m not thinking beyond tomorrow. Beyond Saturday (when the CIF-SS brackets will come out), and getting prepped for that.”
