Boys’ basketball: Fairfax pulls a 180 against Mater Dei

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Just like with Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, it seems like you never know what you’re going to get out of Fairfax.

The Lions looked dreadful during a defeat against Woodland Hills Taft in a City Section semifinal only 10 days ago. A sagging defense rendered stars Renardo Sidney and Solomon Hill ineffective and the team’s outside shooters couldn’t connect with anything approaching regularity even though they were repeatedly left open.

Flash forward to tonight and Fairfax looked like it might be able to hang with the Lakers. Junior guard Jordan Weathers made seven of 11 three-point baskets and finished with 23 points after not even knowing until shortly before the game whether he would be able to play because of a sprained right ankle.

Junior guard Donte McFrazier, who struggled mightily to make open shots against Taft, connected on three of four three-pointers and four of six shots overall en route to 19 points. Hill had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

‘We probably didn’t look like the team that played Taft 10 days ago,’ Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani said in what might have been the understatement of the year. ‘We had a lot of guys stepping up.’

Curiously, one of them was not Sidney, who had 10 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes. The big man was hindered by foul trouble, but he didn’t seem fully engaged or even capable of running up and down the floor without getting winded.

Fortunately for the Lions, Weathers had the touch.

‘I kept feeling it,’ he said. ‘I told my teammates to keep feeding me the ball. We came in here and showed people what we can really do.’

But can they do it again Thursday against rival Westchester? Depends on which group of Lions shows up.

--Ben Bolch