Boys Hoops: Flintridge Prep Scores Dominant Win in Round 1

plunged into the win-or-go-home stage of the boys basketball season with an unambiguous message directed at visiting St. Paul.

Go home.

The top-seeded Rebels totally dominated the two teams’ first-round CIF-Southern Section Division 5AA matchup Wednesday night, bursting out to a 30-4 lead midway through the second quarter en route to a  77-41 victory.

The Rebels (19-6) advance to a second-round matchup at 16^th-seeded Whitney on Friday at 7 p.m.

Against Whitney, Flintridge Prep will hope to replicate its defensive performance from Wednesday night.

“We defended well,” Rebels coach Garrett Ohara said after the game. "To hold them to four points 10 minutes into the game, that set the tone for us early.”

Many teams' shots get altered when they go up against Flintridge Prep. That's because of 6-foot-9 center Kenyatta Smith, an imposing obstacle for any opponent who dares to venture into the paint.

But against St. Paul, Smith wasn’t the only Rebel blocking shots. The visiting Swordsmen were rejected by Flintridge guards Robert Cartwright, Jedrick Eugenio and Kory Hamane as often as they were by Smith. And many of those blocks turned into fast-break points going the other way.

Smith led the Rebels with 17 points and 15 rebounds. But Flintridge’s guards also did their share of the scoring. With Smith held to two points in the second quarter (he sat for a spell after picking up his second foul), the Rebels still managed to put 32 on the board.

Jedrick Eugenio scored 13 of his 15 points in that second quarter. And with Kory Hamane also missing for much of that quarter with foul trouble, his younger brother Kyle Hamane picked up the slack, coming off the bench and nabbing five steals while playing alongside Cartwright.

“It was crucial for us to start strong,” said Cartwright, who scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half. “We just wanted to come out and make a statement.”

St. Paul had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of that statement. The Swordsmen probably didn’t have big expectations of success in the playoffs, entering with a 6-20 record, but whatever hopes they may have had were vanquished extremely quickly.

“We were surprised we got into the playoffs,” said St. Paul’s Paul Telles, who led the visitors with 14 points.

Norsworthy and Jordan Whaley scored 10 points apiece for Flintridge.