Channel Islands Secures Playoff Spot With Victory

He talked about how excited he was to have helped his team qualify for the Southern Section playoffs, but Bernabe Simon of Channel Islands High showed little emotion after Wednesday night’s 72-69 victory over Royal in a Marmonte League boys’ basketball game.

That’s because he was too exhausted to do much more than stand upright after the Raiders held off a furious Highlander rally in the fourth quarter of a game that pitted teams tied for third place.

Channel Islands (18-5, 8-5 in league play with one game left) led by 25 points in the second quarter and was still ahead, 49-32, midway through the third, but Royal trimmed its deficit to two points four times in the last two minutes.

“I wasn’t surprised they came back on us,” said Simon, who scored 23 points. “We knew they were the defending league champions and they weren’t going to give up.”

The Raiders took a 61-53 lead with 2:17 left to play on a layup by Mike Jackson, but the Highlanders (15-10, 7-6) trimmed their deficit to 62-60 with 1:30 remaining on a basket by Nick Flanagan, who scored 23.

Simon followed with a layup to give Channel Islands a four-point cushion, but Royal’s Ryan Nielsen (22 points) made an eight-foot turnaround jumper with 1:14 left to make it 64-62.

Charles Merricks, who scored 20, hit two free throws with 1:06 remaining to push the Raiders’ lead back to four, but Nielsen followed with another turnaround jumper to make the score 66-64 with 53 seconds left.

Merricks made two more free throws with 49 seconds remaining to give Channel Islands a 68-64 lead, but Ryan Booth scored his only points of the game after getting an offensive rebound to make the score 68-66 with 29 seconds left.

After Val Blue made two more free throws for Channel Islands with 27 seconds left, the Raiders stole the ball and Simon made two foul shots to give them a 72-66 lead with 12 seconds left.

Flanagan hit a three-pointer with six seconds.

“We knew that this game would put us in the playoffs,” a weary Simon said. “That’s why we came out so fired up. We used that as motivation.”

Channel Islands led, 41-25, at halftime, after taking a 39-14 lead with 3:03 left in the second quarter.