10:00pm | On Wednesday night the Cabrillo gym was home to a lesson in the motion offense. The home Jaguars showed patience and poise in their offensive sets— coupled with discipline and determination in the zone defensive look— on their way to a 65-53 Moore League victory over the visiting Lakewood Lancers.
It was close until the waning minutes, but Cabrillo guard Christian Verdugo sunk nine of his game high 24 points from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to close the refrigerator door and get that jell-o jiggling. Simply put by the senior captain, “that’s all mental. Yeah, you have to practice (free throws) but it’s all in your head.”
The Jaguars worked at a snail pace on both ends of the floor to get in the Lancers’ head, and it worked as the slowed down game yielded only 20 total points in the opening quarter. The Lakewood pressure man-on-man defense helped to limit the offense as well, but the tide turned when Lancer pressure turned into fouls. Cabrillo went 7-for-8 from the line in the first half, and 16-for-21 in the second half after taking a 33-19 lead into halftime.
Lakewood made the adjustment against the Cabrillo zone after the break as head coach Matt Ruiz moved leading scorer Jared Garber off the baseline and to the top of the key. After just two points on five shots in the first half, the senior answered the call immediately and scored the first six points of the third quarter on his way to a team-high 16 points.
With hustle plays from Marcel Jones (3 steals) Alex Cartwright (6 rebounds) and Dominique Lanier (5pts, 2stl, 2ast) the Lancers pulled back within 46-41 after Lanier found Jonathan Snagg for a breakaway dunk early in the fourth quarter.
However— after sitting for almost the entire third quarter with four fouls— Verdugo came back into the game a minute later and buried his first shot of the second half… a three pointer from the corner, and the foul.
The crowd erupted, his teammates surrounded him in celebration, and the entire gym came out of the huddle more relaxed. How relaxed, you ask? Verdugo and fellow guards Dametre Mondragon and Bobby Hawkins actually ran the three-man weave with about four minutes remaining. Then with three seconds left on the shot clock Verdugo found Jovan Pearson for the jumper.
The Lancers made some three pointers and fouled as the game came to a close, but Verdugo and his newly confident teammates answered and closed it out at the charity stripe.
Mondragon (12pts) and Tony Bell (15pts) put the exclamation mark on the game as the final seconds ticked off when Mondragon played the give-and-go game with Bell, who slammed it home to the delight of the hometown fans.
Asked about the last play and this team’s season, Verdugo smiled, “Yeah, we’re confident. We want to go to the playoffs.”
With the victory, Cabrillo moves into a tie with Lakewood at 3-4 in the Moore League. The Jaguars will see second-place Compton on Friday night, and Lakewood will return home to see first-place Poly.