L.A. Baptist Bounced by Poor Luck at Line, 45-42

Maury Neville, L.A. Baptist’s basketball coach, was trying to explain his game plan before Tuesday night’s Southern Section 1-A semifinal game against Crossroads.

“We don’t match with them in any spot,” Neville said. “We can combat their shooters, but for their quickness, we have no remedy.”

In retrospect, Neville probably shouldn’t have been concerned about Crossroads’ quickness. The real problem in L.A. Baptist’s 45-42 loss at Santa Monica College was the Knights’ inability to make a high percentage of their free throws.

Crossroads, ranked second in the 1-A Division, will play in its fifth consecutive championship game Saturday at the Sports Arena against Whittier Christian, which defeated Marshall Fundamental, 77-51, in the other 1-A semifinal game.

“Crossroads is a good team,” said Neville, whose team did not make a field goal in the fourth quarter and finished the season 21-4. “But tonight, we beat ourselves. We just didn’t shoot free throws.”

Actually, L.A. Baptist shot quite a few--16 in the first half alone. But the Knights only made 18 of 27 in the game.

None of the misses loomed larger than the one senior guard Gary Kim missed with the score tied at 39 with 2:34 left in the game.

Crossroads forward Matt Bailey had given his team a 39-38 lead by making two free throws with 2:59 left.

Kim, who scored 14 points, had made the front end of a one-and-one to tie the game, but missed on the try that would have given the Knights the lead.

Crossroads (20-7) made four free throws in the final two minutes and Myron Stevens’ short jumper with 30 seconds left gave the Roadrunners a three-point cushion.

“It’s a great win, but it was not fun,” Crossroads Coach Elliot Turret said. “I think L.A. Baptist was a little worn down at the end of the game.”

With good reason.

Neville readily admits that the Knights are basically a six-man team. And playing the type of game they played Tuesday night, they were bound to get fatigued.

The size advantage that Crossroads enjoyed didn’t prove to be much of a factor. In fact, when 6-7 center Dave Wolfe knocked the opening tip out of bounds, it was an early sign of the trouble to come.

Crossroads missed its first five shots and the smaller Knights controlled the boards, limiting Crossroads to just one shot on each possession.

Meanwhile, L.A. Baptist was having no trouble with Crossroads’ superior quickness and vaunted full-court press.

L.A. Baptist center Mark Williamson scored nine of his game-high 15 points in the first quarter by challenging Wolfe with drives to the basket and by beating everyone down the floor for easy scores when the Knights broke the press.

L.A. Baptist had a 19-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, but Crossroads came out and scored seven straight points to start the second period.