The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial
With a league championship on the line and a packed gym full of rowdy fans, Monday night’s clash between host Long Beach Poly and the visiting Lakewood boys’ basketball team felt like a title fight. That was fitting, because it was. The Lancers came in undefeated and looking to clinch a share of their first Moore League championship since Pat Rembert was leading the way in 2004-05. The Jackrabbits needed a win to force a first-place tie at the beginning of the last week of the regular season.
Both teams played tough in the clutch, but in the end it was Jovani Ruff’s 33 points for Poly that made the difference in a 69-62 victory for the Jackrabbits.
Fittingly, the two teams are now tied atop the Moore League standings with one loss apiece having split their two games 1-1, with Lakewood winning the first by six points and Poly winning the second by seven.
“It was a really good night, I’ve personally never played in front of a crowd like that not even in EYBL,” said Ruff. “I hope our crowd keeps popping out and having fun out there, they definitely motivate us to get going.”
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As fun as the crowd and the atmosphere was, Ruff said he and his teammates were more motivated by the standings.
“We just realized that if we don’t win this game, we’re not going to win Moore League, we didn’t want to go out like that on our home floor,” he said.
The game opened the same way the first meeting between the two did, with a poised Lakewood team running their offense and getting good looks, jumping out to a 9-4 lead. Poly got big buckets early from sophomore Jonas Oware, who finished with 12 points in an aggressive offensive game. That helped Poly pull back and take a 15-11 lead, ultimately leading 17-15 after the first quarter.
But just like in their first meeting, Lakewood had an answer for every Poly run. Keaton Lewis hit a big bucket as part of a 9-0 Lancers run to start the second quarter, putting them on top. Poly’s only offense for most of the second was via Ruff, but an Austin Unegbu buzzer-beating 3-pointer before halftime cut the Lakewood lead to 30-28.
“Give Lakewood a lot of credit, they’re a good team and they move the ball well, they don’t take a lot of bad shots,” said Poly coach Shelton Diggs. “The shots they do take are shots they can make. They kept it tough and physical, you gotta give them a lot of credit. They’re a solid team. Butwe were able to tough it out, some things we’ve struggled with in the past we were able to tough it out and get tough buckets.”
Ruff, Giovanni Ofoegbu and Oware keyed an 11-0 run for Poly in the third that saw them playing lockdown defense and jumping out to a 46-36 lead. Diggs called a timeout at that point knowing his team has a tendency to relax when it gets a big lead. It didn’t matter–Lewis hit a 3-pointer out of the timeout to kick off a 9-0 Lancer run to end the quarter, cutting the Poly lead to 48-45 entering the fourth.
Another massive Lewis triple tied the game at 50 with 7:21 left, but Ruff immediately responded with a drive to the hoop. Raphael Johnson hit back-to-back baskets to tie the game at 54 with 4:47 left, but Poly once again immediately responded with an and-one by Ruff that put them in the lead for good. Lakewood closed it to 61-60 on a basket by Lewis but Unegbu got to the cup for a layup, Poly got a stop, and then Ruff and Unegbu knocked down free throws to close it out.
Ruff’s 33 points were backed up by 16 from Ofoegbu and 12 from Oware, but his aggressiveness was what was most impressive, demanding the ball and creating down the stretch, passing when doubled and getting to the cup when guarded one-on-one.
“Sometimes it’s me, I like to move it and swing the ball,” said Diggs. “It gets to a point in the last three minutes where it’s give him the ball, get a high pick and let him get to the basket. That’s not what I normally do–but when you get a guy like Jovani or we did the same with Peyton (Watson), sometimes you’ve just got to trust that they’re going to make the right play.”
Lakewood had balanced scoring in the game, as coach Duane Cooper’s team continues to impress. Johnson had 17 points, Kecedric Dockery had 10, and Lewis had 12. Eight Lancers scored in the game.
Despite the setback against Poly, the Lancers are still poised to make history during a season where they’ve played great team basketball. They’re 20-7 and 10-1 in the Moore League with a road game at Jordan on Thursday the only thing standing between them and a share of their first league title in nearly two decades.
The road is tougher for Poly, as the Jackrabbits are 18-8 and 9-1 in the Moore League, needing two more wins to officially take their share of the title. They host third-place Cabrillo on Tuesday evening at 7pm and then travel to Millikan on Thursday.
