Ocean league girls’ and boys’ basketball playoffs started last Tuesday for the Culver City High School basketball teams when both teams traveled to Beverly Hills High School to face the Normans. If they win those games the Centaurs will advance to the second round on Thursday, January 29. Contact Culver City High School to find out if the teams advance and where and what times they will play their next games.
The 2025-26 basketball season has been an up and down roller coaster ride for the girls’ and boys’ teams. Both teams are young and both Centaur teams had to play all of their games on the road and at Vets Park in Culver City because their campus gymnasium floor was damaged during the heavy rains last November. They played their last two regular season home games at Vets Park.
Despite all of the obstacles both teams are having good seasons. The girls finished the regular season last week with a record of 10-11 overall and 4-3 in the Ocean league. That record was good enough for fourth place. The boys finished 11-10 overall and their league record was 3-4. They are fifth in the league standings.
If both teams can win at least one game in the Ocean league playoffs that should punch their ticket to the big dance, the CIF playoffs. To do that the young players on both teams will need to step up and play at a higher level.
“We are super young and super inexperience,” said the girls head coach Julian Anderson last week. “We have only had two players on the team that have been here for four years and also we probably would have won three or four more games if we did not have so many injuries.
“We had to play a lot of inexperience girls,” said Anderson. “It’s a little bit of a silver lining because a lot of young players got playing time. Every young team has to learn how to play through adversity.”
The boys team faced the same type of problems this season with basically only three experienced players. They had to rely on those three players to lead them this year. William Fourte, Jordan Njoku and VJ Baskin had to carry the majority of the load this season. There are several other underclassmen that played well this season, but the coaching staff looked to the seniors to play at a high level every night. “They are doing what I expected them to do,” said head coach Ray Singleton last week. “They have to be locked in on defense and play a good overall game.”
Singleton has preached ball security, rebounding and defense all season to his young team but turnovers and missed free throws have kept them from winning more games.
