Learning curve is painful for Flintridge Prep boys’ basketball
BURBANK — Perhaps no local boys’ basketball team has as big a learning curve to deal with as does Flintridge Prep.
Not only did the Rebels graduate their top two scorers from a season ago, but a chunk of the squad has only recently returned from a football season that ended 10 days prior.
Combine those realities with a hungry San Marino squad to play and the results were not pretty in Tuesday evening’s Paul Sutton Tournament at Providence High, as the Titans picked up a 56-34 victory in the season opener for both squads.
Flintridge Prep will continue tournament pool play Wednesday at 8 p.m. versus Aveson Global Leadership Academy (0-3) at Bellarmine-Jefferson High, while San Marino will face host Providence (1-0) at 8.
“I told the team that it was going to take a while to find our identity,” said Flintridge Prep Coach Garrett Ohara, whose squad advanced to the CIF Southern Section Division V-AA championship last year. “Today, we had some first-game jitters and nerves that frankly lasted a lot longer than I would have liked.
“The effort was there, but there’s a lot of learning to do.”
Flintridge Prep committed five or more turnovers in three quarters and finished with 20 in the game versus 10 for the Titans.
Some sloppiness could be understood as the Rebels just returned four of their 11 players from a semifinalist football team, including senior guard Kendall Kikkawa.
“When you look at San Marino, they’ve been playing together since the summer and some of us have barely practiced because of football,” Kikkawa said. “You can tell they have great chemistry and we want to get to that point, too. We just know it’s going to take a while and you could see that with the turnovers. That killed us.”
San Marino led, 26-15, at the half and scored the first eight points of the third quarter. The last bucket was a runner from Titans senior guard Owen Koch, who led all players with 17 points, at 5:25 that gave San Marino a 33-17 lead.
Flintridge Prep eventually trailed, 40-20, at the two-minute mark in the third before both teams traded three-point plays as the Rebels trailed, 43-23, after three.
Flintridge Prep pulled within 47-33 with 4:44 left after a technical foul resulted in two free throws and an eventual three-pointer on the subsequent possession from Jonathan Le, who led the Rebels with 13 points.
Jake Althouse added 11 points for Flintridge Prep.
The change in momentum led San Marino Coach Mihail Papadopulos to reinsert key starters and the Titans closed out the game with a 9-1 run.
“I liked everything in the game except the way we finished,” Papadopulos said. “I liked that we played hard, shot well and rebounded, but I don’t like the technical foul. We’re a classy team and we want to win classy.”
Jake Althouse added 11 points for Flintridge Prep, while Jadyn Torres chipped in 11 points and 10 rebounds for San Marino, which also received 10 points and seven rebounds from Chuma Azinge.
