Faith Baptist’s Shattering Experience

Moments before Faith Baptist High took the floor for its first-round game in the Thousand Oaks basketball tournament, Coach Ron Colon turned to his bench, sighed and said a bit nervously, “Well, here we go.”

I could sympathize with Colon. His squad of seven players was about to take the court against one of the best high school teams in the country--Crenshaw.

Colon mentioned before the game that he didn’t want his team falling victim to the myth of Crenshaw. Instead, his team became part of the growing legend.

I wasn’t the only spectator eager to check out the Cougars. The entire Westlake basketball team arrived two hours early for its game. Westlake was Crenshaw’s likely opponent in the second round.

Before fans could even settle down on the bleachers, the Cougars were on their way to a lopsided first-round victory. They jumped to a 26-2 lead after four minutes, scoring at a pace I’d never seen. After each Crenshaw possession, the Westlake players’ eyes grew wider and their jaws dropped lower.

After watching the Cougars throw down tomahawk dunks and alley-oops, connect on 10 of 17 three-point shots and employ a rugged full-court press, Westlake players jokingly contemplated throwing their game against St. Monica, just so they wouldn’t have to face the Crenshaw juggernaut. I couldn’t blame them.

It wasn’t a case of Faith Baptist playing poorly: Except for a few blown layups, the Contenders played as well as they could, considering they weren’t nearly as fast or tall as Crenshaw. The Cougars were simply overwhelming.

But then came the play that left everyone speechless.

With 2 minutes 40 seconds remaining in the second quarter and Crenshaw holding a 69-22 lead, center Leon Watson dunked the rebound of a shot by teammate Reggie McFerrin. In the process, Watson shattered the backboard, and the disconnected rim cut into his shoulder blade.

The crowd erupted. The entire Crenshaw team ran onto the court to congratulate Watson on his awe-inspiring feat. The Westlake players sagged in amazement.

But seconds later, the blood dripping out of Watson’s arm indicated a problem.

After a few minutes, Watson was still bleeding, but was able to move his arm. His teammates, slightly shaken, breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m just shocked at what happened,” Crenshaw forward Kristaan Johnson said minutes after the dunk. “I can’t put anything into words.”

The crowd of about 200, like Johnson, sat in stunned silence, partly out of concern for Watson, but mostly in sheer shock at what had transpired.

Paramedics were called as a precautionary measure, but Watson was able to wave to the crowd with the injured shoulder as he was wheeled away. He underwent minor surgery and would watch the rest of the tournament from the Crenshaw bench.

Fans wandered from the bleachers and gravitated toward the broken backboard. Ignoring pleas of tournament officials, fans walked directly underneath the backboard and stared upward, as if they didn’t believe what they saw and needed a closer look.

I was one of those fans. I took special notice of the way the remaining glass bent outward, primed to fall at any second.

Watching a backboard shatter before your eyes isn’t something that happens every day. My only experience is the highlight reel, an old image of Darryl Dawkins before the advent of breakaway rims.

How rare was this? Johnson’s father, former NBA standout Marques Johnson, attended the game and said it was the first time he’d seen a backboard break in person. Marques Johnson has been around organized basketball for more than 20 years, including playing in the NBA at the same time as Dawkins.

As the Westlake players left the gym, heading back to their own school to play their rescheduled first-round game, they could only mutter to themselves about what they had seen.

Westlake won their first-round game and faced Crenshaw in the second round the next night. The Warriors lost, 111-65, but I could hardly blame them if they were intimidated. But at least no one broke a backboard on them.