Vikings looking for revenge, finals berth against Panthers
SAMOHI — Viking forward Akil Gainer added the exclamation point to a come-from-behind-victory over Long Beach Poly here Friday night, taking a lob pass from teammate Bryan Louff and slamming it home to propel the varsity basketball team into the CIF Southern Section Division A- 11 semifinals. The Vikings, 20-9, seeded 14th in the playoffs, will face the second-ranked Long Beach Jordan Panthers tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Milliken High School in Long Beach.
With Friday’s game tied, 48-48, and a little more than a minute to play, Louff picked the pocket of a Long Beach guard, raced down court and tossed the ball up to the 6-foot, 3-inch Gainer for a thundering two-handed jam that brought the capacity crowd at Samohi’s North Gym to their feet, Samohi coach James Hecht said.
“That was a huge momentum swing for us,” Hecht said. “The energy in the gym was like I’ve never seen before in any high school game. The crowd played a huge part in this victory.”
“The energy in the gym was like I’ve never seen before in any high school game.” — JAMES HECHT Samohi coach
After heading into the half tied at 23-23, the Vikings came out flat in the third quarter and soon found themselves down by six points.
“We had been down in situations like that before and we knew that we had a lot of basketball left to play and that we had to just make a stand and climb back in one possession at a time,” Hecht said.
Following Gainer’s late dunk, the visiting Jackrabbits took the ball down court and launched a shot that banged off the rim. Vikings center Will Freedman grabbed the rebound and was fouled, converted his two free throws to put the Vikings ahead by four.
“You can never relax and hopefully your players don’t relax because anything can happen at the three-point line,” Hecht said of the late lead.
After inbounding the ball, the Jackrabbits had just enough time to loft a three-point shot that rang true, but was too little too late as the Vikings celebrated a 53-52 victory — and their first semifinal appearance in more than a decade.
The game against Jordan is a highly-anticipated rematch, as the Panthers beat Samohi in the fourth game of the season. The Vikings are ready for revenge.
“It would be sweet,” said point guard Terrance Boozer during a practice last week. “They caught us early in the season when we weren’t playing our best ball. Now we’re a total different team. We are really starting to play as a unit. It’s going to be a tough game.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 28, 2006. Read the original PDF.