The Culver City High School boys’ basketball coaching staff knew this season was going to be challenging because a lot of good and experienced players graduated from last year’s team. What they did not count on was not having to be able to play home games in the Del Goodyear gymnasium on the high school campus.
The November rains flooded the gym so now they have to play all of their games on the road. They will play one semi-home game at Vets Park on Overland Ave. in Culver City for Senior Night on Friday, Jan. 23, against Leuzinger at 7:30 p.m.
Despite having a young team and not having home games the Centaurs are 7-8 overall and 1-2 in the Ocean League. “Not having home games does not feel good,” said Culver City’s boys head coach Ray Singleton. “It’s surreal. We have to practice at the middle school and that’s a smaller gym. We are not the only team that has to deal with adversity, so we just have to make the best of the situation because it’s out of our control.”
According to Singleton this team is also fighting through growing pains. “All the players are adjusting to new roles. We have new players that have not played together. The last few years we have had players that played together a few years and that makes a big difference. This year the players a going through a big learning curve. It’s an adjustment period that we are going through right now. We are 7-8 and it could be a lot worse.”
On the negative side Culver City is averaging 27 turnovers per game and 13-15 missed free throws per game. It’s remarkable that they are 7-8. “Our biggest problem is ball security,” said Singleton. “We can’t take care of the ball. If you do the math, that’s why we are 7-8. If we finish in the middle of the pack in the Ocean League, we still have a good chance to make the playoffs,”
Leading the way for Culver City this season are seniors Willaim Fourte, Jordan Njoku and Verdel Baskin. “They are all stepping into new roles because last year they were role players and this they are the main players,” said Singleton. “They have to score and defend at a high level but they are getting use to their new roles. Kamari Stewart and Edan Aguiar are also playing well right now.”
On Friday, Jan. 16, the Centaurs travel to Hawthorne for a 7:30 p.m. game and next week they play at Inglewood on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 7:30 p.m. That game will be played at Morningside High School in Inglewood. Their last regular season game of the year will be at Vets Park in Culver City at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 23.
