January 19, 2017 Page 5 Inglewood Begins League Play with Big Win By Adam Serrao Keeping up in the Bay League standings is certainly no easy thing to do. Just ask head coach Pat Roy and an Inglewood Sentinels basketball team that finished in second place last season after a miraculous 22-9 record. One would think a record as accomplished as that would be good enough for a league championship. Divisional losses to both Redondo and Peninsula dashed those hopes, though. Roy and the Sentinels are back this year, looking to accomplish what they fell just shy of achieving one season ago. After a 59-50 victory last Tuesday night at Palos Verdes over the 12-5 Sea Kings, it looks like Roy and his Sentinels are back--this time with a Bay League championship on their minds. Notching a victory against any Bay League team is no easy feat, but a win against a Palos Verdes squad that had won six in a row coming into the matchup was a task that loomed even larger than originally perceived. Roy and his squad were up to the task, holding the Sea Kings to their lowest point output in their last nine contests. The defense didn’t look so hot in the first half, though. Palos Verdes came out of the gates on fire, outscoring Inglewood in both the first and second quarters to jump out to an early 25-21 lead heading into the half. “They did a really good job coming out and executing early,” Roy explained. “We knew they were a good team coming into this game, but they hit open shots and executed well and did everything right.” Despite their opponents doing everything right, the Sentinels hung in the game and never quit. The Sea Kings widened their lead in the third quarter, staying hot from the field behind Toni Marinkovic. Marinkovic came alive in the quarter with seven points to give his team a boost and what felt like an insurmountable eight-point lead heading into the fourth quarter with all of the game’s momentum on Palos Verdes’ side. That’s when Inglewood decided that it had enough. Behind Miles James and Kyrstopher Smith, the Sentinels exploded on offense in the final quarter of the game while keeping a lackadaisical Palos Verdes team at bay on defense as well. James and Smith combined for 20 points in the quarter, which was one point shy of what the entire team scored in the first half combined. “We came out soft,” James explained. “We had to mentally get back to our game. We came to win and we just had to pull it out.” James pulled out a powerful slam dunk with less than five minutes remaining in the game that not only put his team in the lead, but gave the Inglewood sideline all of the momentum. Inglewood may have only led by three points, but it was clear that after a 25-point quarter and an 11-point switch on the scoreboard that the Sentinels would win the game. A stingy defense held a powerful Sea Kings offense to only eight points in the final quarter. A nine-point victory gave the Sentinels their third win in their last four games and gave the team a brilliant start to the league play portion of the season. Inglewood will move on to face another tough team in Mira Costa this Friday night while Palos Verdes stays on top of the hill for a rivalry game at Peninsula. Hawthorne High It has been a long and trying road for the Hawthorne Cougars since their last victory in a high school basketball game. After losing their last eight games of the season last year, the Cougars came out and dropped their first 10 in a row this year. The pain and misery finally came to an end, however, with a 73-41 victory over Big Pine in one of the team’s last games of the month of December. If that wasn’t good enough, Hawthorne decided to provide an encore performance. A 46-44 victory over Wiseburn- Da Vinci got the team its second win in three games and finally had the Cougars rolling. Unfortunately for Hawthorne, all of the celebration was rather short-lived once league play rolled around. The Cougars ran into a much superior opponent from Beverly Hills and were made victims to a horrible loss once again. A total of six first half points had Hawthorne down by 39 at the break. The Cougars eventually took a 72-17 loss, but will look to experience success once again as the league play season moves on and their rivals from El Segundo come to town. Lawndale High The Lawndale Cardinals have been riding a rollercoaster of a season, taking the ups with downs while trying to survive in an Ocean League that can sink you if your team experiences any dip in play. Unfortunately for head coach Dave Miller, his team experienced that dip in play in the first league game against the perennially strong Santa Monica Vikings. The Vikings, who had lost three games in a row heading into their Ocean League opener, were clearly out to get back on track. A huge first half put the Cardinals behind early, and 84 points eventually proved to be too much for Miller and company to overcome. Last year’s Ocean League and CIF champions easily disposed of Lawndale with an 84-72 win. Lawndale has now lost three games in a row and four of its last five, including its first league game. The team will look to bolster its chances in this year’s Ocean League race when it takes on its rival from Beverly Hills this Friday night. • Swinney, Tigers Get Their Revenge on ‘Bama By Adam Serrao After four hours and eight minutes of competitive college football, the Clemson Tigers finally got their revenge on Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide. A sellout crowd in Tampa Bay, Florida arrived and paid steep prices to witness a National Championship rematch between Saban’s Crimson Tide and Dabo Swinney’s Tigers. Fans in attendance certainly got their money’s worth after witnessing what was one of the most exciting title games in the history of the sport. College football enthusiasts across the nation rooted against Saban and a perennially dominant Alabama team and in the end got what they wanted. Saban and the Tide wound up crashing to shore as the Tigers pounced and clawed their way to a 35-31 win over Alabama in the College Football National Championship presented by AT&T. Though there is no doubting that Nick Saban is one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, it undoubtedly feels good to everyone who is not an Alabama fan that he wound up on the wrong side of history for a change. Saban was looking for his fifth title in the last eight seasons with the Tide. Clemson’s win at least did its part to add some variety to a championship stage that has recently been dominated by Alabama. Instead of Saban getting more attention, now the focus has shifted to Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, as it should after his outstanding performance. Watson’s two-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow with one second remaining in the game capped a wild come-from-behind victory for the Tigers. Watson was 36 of 56 on the night for 420 yards and three scores in his last college game before the quarterback enters the NFL draft. If that’s not a great way to go out, then nothing is. The win sealed Clemson’s first national title since the 1981 season. It also snapped Alabama’s 26-game winning streak and served as retribution for the Tigers’ 45-40 loss at the hands of the Tide one year ago. “Eight years ago, we set out to put Clemson back on top,” Swinney said of his team after the game. “We came up a little short last year, but today on top of the mountain the Clemson flag is flying.” That flag is flying because of the comeback victory led by Watson that didn’t see Clemson take its first lead of the game until the day after the game started. The over-four-hour contest went past midnight in Florida before the Tigers finally won on the last play of the game. “I couldn’t hear the crowd,” Watson said of the last play that ultimately won the game. “I was just at peace.” Despite being down by three points with just over two minutes left in the game, Watson remained poised. Like any great quarterback would do, he milked the rest of the clock--and with his last-second touchdown pass to Renfrow, led his team to victory. As Watson had images of former Texas quarterback Vince Young and his last-second touchdown pass that beat the USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl, all that the quarterback could say about his performance down the stretch was that “[he] was calm.” Watson wasn’t the only one making ridiculous plays out there on the field either. Starting wide receiver Mike Williams played an integral part in Clemson’s comeback and victory. Watson and Williams connected to start things off in a fourth quarter that saw the Tigers outscore Alabama 21-7. The duo’s fouryard touchdown hookup cut into the Crimson Tide’s lead and made the score 24-21. After another Clemson touchdown to finally give the team its first lead of the night, Alabama starting quarterback Jalen Hurts broke free from the pocket and ran the ball 30 yards for a touchdown to regain the lead at 31-28. Williams came up clutch again and again for the Tigers, though, specifically on the team’s last possession to keep his team’s drive alive on the way to what was ultimately the gamewinning touchdown. The big pro-ready wide receiver climbed the ladder multiple times to high-point the ball and simply outmuscle Alabama’s defense for multiple miraculous catches. Without the receiver’s contribution, it’s safe to say that Clemson may not have won the game. Before its loss to Swinney and Clemson, ‘Bama was 4-0 in national championship games under Saban. It was 96-0 when entering the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead, as it had in this year’s championship game, and 106-6 in games it led at the half. In addition to Watson and Williams, Renfrow came up big with 10 catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner. Clemson’s offensive explosion destroyed Alabama’s defense that has been so mighty all season long. A true team effort combined with 28 second-half points finally brought the mighty Crimson Tide to its knees. It was the first time in the school’s history that Clemson had beaten a number one team. It certainly couldn’t have come at a better time for Swinney and his Tigers. – asixlion@earthlink.net
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