Vikings alone at the top

Mike Sciacca, Independent

Round One, Marina.

In the main event of the first half of Sunset League boys basketball play

Friday night, two of the league’s best went toe-to-toe before a full

house, and it was the Marina Vikings who withstood every shot delivered

by visiting Los Alamitos to earn a key 77-66 victory.

In a game of spurts, it was Marina who looked the more polished team

Friday.

The Vikings took advantage of nearly every opportunity that came their

way, hitting the open shot, controlling the tempo of the game. Los

Alamitos appeared out of sync much of the night and missed five

consecutive free throws during a critical stage of the fourth quarter.

But, the difference, overall, was Marina’s ability to hit the three-point

shot.

The Vikings nailed 12 three-pointers.

That was the dagger that did in the Griffins, who didn’t hit a single

trey.

“I’m just really proud of our guys. The did a great job of running our

offense, kicking the ball out, and finishing things by hitting their

shots,” said Marina Coach Roger Holmes, whose squad won its 12th

consecutive game, fifth in league play without a loss, and also stretched

its unbeaten streak in Sunset play to 10 games dating to last season. “We

were able to knock down a couple of huge three point shots, and we fed

off that.”

It was a team victory in every sense for the Vikings, now 19-2 overall.

With starting guards Randy Masada battling flu-like symptoms before the

game and Ryan Redmond struggling on the floor, a third guard, floor

leader Beau Brown, had a tremendous night. Brown, who hit five

three-point shots and the winning basket as time expired in Wednesday’s

dramatic overtime win at Esperanza, opened both the first and second

quarter scoring for Marina with a three-point shot, and went on to finish

with 20 points.

Both Shane Leis and Justin Maranto did superb jobs filling in for Masada

and Redmond, with Leis hitting four three-point shots, and Maranto two

from that range.

Leis scored 12 points and Maranto, who fouled out with 2:22 left in the

game, added eight.

“Those two guys did a tremendous job,” Holmes said. “With both Randy and

Ryan struggling for different reasons, I thought Shane and Justin came in

to make a huge difference on the floor.”

There was no denying that to beat Marina, Los Alamitos had to contain

Viking senior forward Dustin Kaatz.

The Griffins couldn’t, as the 6-foot-5 Kaatz, battling a Los Al front

line that featured 6-9 center Jeff Grgas, 6-8 Ken Carter, and 6-7 Brian

Rakusin, went on to score 28 points - six better than his 22.4 average.

In fact, it was Kaatz’s free throw shooting, an amazing 19 of 20

performance that didn’t include a miss in his final 17 attempts, that

kept Marina in command.

“It was just another great performance by Dustin,” Holmes said. “He was

keyed on throughout, but that didn’t stop him.”

Both teams came up with big runs throughout the ballgame, Los Al staring

the tag-team event with an 8-0 run in the first quarter, and Marina

responded with a 10-0 spurt between the first and second quarters. In

fact, Marina outscored the Griffins, 21-4, to go from a 12-5 deficit into

a 26-16 lead with 5:35 to play in the second quarter.

Marina led 36-29 at the half, and appeared heading for a runaway midway

through the third period when the Vikings opened up a nine-point lead

(44-35) after Leis’ steal led to a Brown three-point basket. But Los Al

fired right back, with guard Ryan Keller scoring four points, including

two on a twisting layup, to ignite a 9-0 Griffins run to tie the score at

44-44 with 2:39 left in the quarter.

The final blow, however, belonged to Marina, which didn’t flinch at the

latest Los Al charge. Instead, Kaatz’s two free throws gave the Vikings

the lead right back, Leis hit from three-point range, Kaatz later would

hit his only three of the night, and later, he kicked out a pass to Leis

behind the arc, and his shot hit nothing but net and just like that, an

11-0 run put the Vikings on top, 55-44.

Chris DeLuca’s free throw with 3:59 remaining gave Marina its biggest

lead, 65-51, and the Griffins could get no closer than eight points the

rest of the way.

“There was plenty riding on this game for both teams, but there’s still

plenty of basketball left to be played,” Holmes said. “I think our guys

are playing with the right mental focus right now. They’re really playing

hard, and playing as a team. That’s what has made this season fun.”

Marina still has four league foes to go, starting next Friday at Edison,

before Round Two will be played out at Los Alamitos on Feb. 10.

There will be plenty riding on that showdown, too.