Injured Carter sits as Garces falls at home
| Wednesday, Mar 11 2009 02:47 AM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 12:59 PM
Images
Garces' Randall Jackson, left, and Christian Gapper, right, battle Lawndale-Leuzinger's Dequincy Bradshaw for a rebound underneath the Rams' basket.
Ram Chris Dixon goes up to score against two Leuzinger defenders, in first half playoff game at Garces High.
The Garces boys basketball team didn’t play Danzig’s rock ballad “Mother” before its home game Tuesday night. The Rams didn’t do their usual floor-sliding, get-pumped-up routine. And, oh yeah, Stephon Carter didn’t suit up.
This one had a different feel from the get-go.
Lawndale-Leuzinger, the No. 6 seed in the Southern Cal half of the Division II CIF State Basketball Championships, took advantage, overwhelming a shorthanded Garces team 108-73 to advance to the SoCal semifinals.
Carter sat in a sweater vest and tie on the bench with a big cast on the left hand he broke in last week’s Central Section semifinals. He played in the championship — and scored 33 points to help the Rams down Liberty — but didn’t Tuesday after his hand swelled to the size of “a watermelon,” Garces coach Gino Lacava said.
“We know that it would have been a different game had Stephon played,” Leuzinger coach Reggie Morris said. “Their guys, it was a lot to ask them to do."
Thirty-something games into the season, you’re a team of habit.
“... We don’t come in here and brag on that. We know it would have been a different game.”
Carter went even further.
“I actually think we would have won,” Carter said. “The first half, we were playing with them. I think if I was in the game, we could have actually won.”
Delon Wright scored 20 points to lead five double-figure scorers for hyper-paced Leuzinger (26-6), which advances to play No. 2 Rialto-Eisenhower in the SoCal semifinals.
The Olympians pressed with all five players from the get-go, and quickly jumped to an 18-7 lead. Garces (22-8), though, led by Ryan Bush, Chris Dixon and Randall Jackson in Carter’s absence, used a 12-0 run late in the first quarter to tie the game at 23.
That would be the only time the game was tied.
“We just didn’t have the legs,” Lacava said. “We think we could have at least ran with that squad if we were at full strength. But Leuzinger had more than we could handle tonight.”
Leuzinger quickly had the lead back to double digits and then went on a 14-0 run to extend the advantage to 53-30. The Olympians led by as many as 38 in the second half.
“We went out hard,” said senior Josh Shambaugh, who scored 11 first-quarter points. “We were going to go down swinging, but with one fewer guy, we wore ourselves out by halftime. We were all sitting in there at halftime saying it felt like we’d played the whole game already.”
Bush ended up with 22 points, Dixon had 13 with 13 rebounds and Jackson had 12 points for Garces.
“We always look at this game every year just as an icing game,” Lacava said. “If you’re lucky enough to win it, maybe Thursday’s game gets bigger and Saturday, but we put no pressure on this game whatsoever.”
