From LBPOSTSports.com: If you haven’t been to a sell-out high school basketball game yet this season, make plans to be in Poly’s Ron Palmer Pavilion on campus for their 7:30 quarterfinal CIF playoff game against the Dominguez Dons. The crowd should be filling the gym to its brim as the host eleventh-seeded Jackrabbits (23-5) take on the third-seeded Dons in what is undoubtedly the premiere prep matchup of the evening.
The ‘Rabbits will be hosting a Dons team that is 24-5, and have only lost once since mid-December, to a tough De La Salle team in the Nike Extravaganza. If Poly is to win tonight, they’ll need to mirror the Spartans’ performance in that game, a 64-38 win. De La Salle did it with defense, limiting the Dons’ outside shooting (which Poly’s rangy, athletic guards are capable of doing) and keeping them from getting too many second-chance opportunities (a feat certainly within the abilities of Poly’s inside players, Julian Camper and the sophomore Ryan Anderson).
Opposing defenses have not yet been a problem for the Dons in this year’s playoffs, as they’ve scored a Division IAA-high 90 points per-game through the first two rounds. Poly’s defense, if it arrives in the home gym with the intensity the ‘Rabbits usually show in big games, should be more of an obstacle—to go with the bracket’s best offense, Poly brings the best defense, with a two-game effort in which Poly has allowed a mere 40 points per-game.
The matchup is not a new, either—while not famous rivals, Dominguez and Poly have clashed a few times in recent years, including two seasons ago, when the Dons knocked Poly out of the playoffs in the second round. “That’s the kind of thing we’re trying to overcome,” says Poly senior Shelton Boykin, who remembered the game not-so-fondly after Poly’s defeat of Pasadena last week. “The way we’re playing right now, we’re trying to change that history of losing early in the playoffs.”
Click here to read the rest of the article by Mike Guardabascio…