The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009
The562’s coverage of Cabrillo Athletics is sponsored by the Cohn Family.
The Wilson Bruins went into Friday’s Moore League opener at Cabrillo ready for a battle. The two programs have played a number of close games in recent seasons, and this was no exception.
Fortunately for Wilson, they’re battle-tested, having played 11 games coming into Friday’s clash and playing their third game of the week on the Westside.
After a slow start offensively, the Bruins were able to get off and running late in the third quarter, racing to a 54-48 comeback win over the Jags.
“I love it, man. It’s just a gritty win,” said Wilson head coach James Boykin. “We’ve been in a lot of close games already this year, and each game that we’re in, we keep trying to learn from that, growing, and developing with these guys … On the road against Cabrillo is always tough. They’re well-coached, they’re gritty, they’re tough, their defense is good. I just didn’t want to get stuck in a half-court game. So for these guys to battle back being down and take this game is huge.”
Senior Matthew Searles scored a team-high 16 points to lead the way for the Bruins, followed by 14 from sophomore Nehemiah Parris, who scored a dozen points in the third quarter to help flip the script for the visitors.
Cabrillo led 14-7 after the opening quarter as senior guard MJ Reed got the Jags off to a strong start. He had a game-high 23 points, followed by 16 from sophomore Ului-He-Lotu Eteaki, who impressed in his Moore League varsity debut.
Wilson was able to keep things close despite their offensive struggles early, trailing 23-19 at intermission.
“In that first half, it was so tough to even get a clean shot, and then when we did get a clean shot, we weren’t hitting them,” Boykin said. “We talked about it before the game, just keep pushing the ball. Cabrillo has really good basketball players, but I just wanted to keep pushing and keep wearing those guys down. And you saw in that fourth quarter they started giving up some transition buckets, started getting layups, started getting downhill a little bit. And I think a lot of that had to do with our pace.”
Cabrillo stretched their advantage to double digits midway through the third quarter, going up 32-21, but Wilson’s focus on pushing the ball in transition helped spark their comeback. Searles and Parris were key in pushing the pace and getting the Bruins back to within a bucket after three quarters.
“At halftime, we were talking about how we’ve got to get the ball out in transition, because it’s really hard for teams to guard us in transition,” said Searles after the win. “We’re a really fast-paced team, and once we get out in transition, we could win any game, really. So we’re just not wanting to turn into a half-court game. We just really wanted to push the pace.”
A three-pointer by William Waldrop followed by a bucket from Searles quickly gave the Bruins a 42-39 lead in the fourth quarter and they wouldn’t trail the rest of the night.
Junior big man Andre Alvarez-Smith finished off a nice move in the paint, scoring through contact to give Wilson a 50-46 lead. On the ensuing free-throw attempt, Brooklyn Vega secured an offensive rebound and putback to give Wilson a six point lead and essentially secure the win.
“We were talking about it yesterday, we haven’t beaten Cabrillo at their house in two years,” Searles recalled. “And we knew this group was capable of doing it, so I feel like this really gives us a boost of energy.”
Wilson (9-3) will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to play Compton, while Cabrillo (2-5) will be at Lakewood on Tuesday.
