Home Court No Advantage to Seahawks in 78-82 Loss

Harbor basketball Coach Ken Curry said before Wednesday’s non-conference game that his team always plays well at home.

Fans at the Seahawk game against San Bernardino Valley College (6-9) will tell a different story.

Harbor lost, 78-82, in an extremely sloppy game that had Curry yelling helplessly from the sideline. Harbor will take a 7-7 record into the Southern California Conference opener against Compton next Wednesday.

“We had too many lapses,” Curry said. “We just didn’t play hard. The effort was just not there.”

Harbor was lucky to take a 1-point halftime lead after freshman Joe Hay drove the lane for a layup that made the score 37-36.

That was the highlight of the first half for the lax Seahawks. Even guard Keith Billingslea, who leads the team in scoring and is usually effective from 3-point range, couldn’t produce.

The 6-foot-3 sophomore threw enough bricks to build a house. He finished the first half 0-4 from 3-point range and 1-9 from the field.

Billingslea finally hit a 3-pointer 1 minute into the second half, which put Harbor up, 40-38, but it took the Seahawks five minutes to score again off Ronald Lewis’ two free throws. During the Seahawks’ scoreless period, the Indians had a 13-point run that put them ahead, 51-40.

The Seahawks never saw the lead after that. San Bernardino practiced a running game that Harbor could not handle.

“We didn’t play defense,” Curry said. “We just sat there and let them score.”

Sophomore forward Jerome Henrix led the Seahawks with 22 points. Freshman guard Vernon Middleton had 14 and sophomore forward Ronald Lewis scored 12.