Peninsula Boys Frosh/Soph Earn 2nd Victory of the Young Season

On Wednesday evening at 6 PM the Peninsula Boys Basketball Team traveled down to Price High School to play a very tough Culver City team in the 2nd round of the City of Angels Tournament. The Panthers had reached the 2nd round by defeating the Leuzinger Olympians on Monday by a score of 60-57. Culver City had defeated Price High School to reach the 2nd round. Both teams came out of the gate slowly as they tried to gain their footing and play their games. The Panthers were playing very tentative and were making several sloppy plays and not playing smart basketball. Culver City came out of the gate firing and jumped out to an early 8-4 lead. As the 1st quarter started winding down the Panthers began to put everything together and they went on a small run to take the lead at the end of the 1st quarter by a score of 14-11.

The 2nd quarter began and the Panthers looked like a new team, there were players diving on the ground for every loose ball and their defensive effort was much greater than it had been in the 1st quarter. The Panthers began causing turn-overs and they also began getting steals and suddenly the defense became impenetrable. The Panthers out scored Culver City by a score of 20-3 to take a 34-14 lead going into half-time.

The Panthers came out of the gate very slowly at the beginning of the 3rd quarter and poor defensive play led Culver City to a minor run. The Panthers righted the ship and again increased the defensive intensity and they began causing turnovers whenever Culver City would try to penetrate the middle of the key. The Panthers were able to outscore Culver City by a margin of 21-15 to lead 55- 29 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The 4th quarter started and the Panthers continued the pressure defense and Culver City struggled to keep the ball out of the hands of the Panthers. The Panthers outscored Culver City 14-3 in the 4th and final quarter to take the game by a score of 69-32. The Panthers earned the right to play perennial power house Loyola on Friday evening at 6:00 PM at Price High School in the first semi-final game.

The Panthers had a balanced scoring attack this evening with Hudson Guagliano and Rhys Hershberger both having 12 points, Guagliano had 5 rebounds, and 1 steal, Hershberger had 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Wyatt Chang chipped in with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals, Chiweta Ajufoh, Kevin "Elvis" Uyesugi and Greg Jeon contributed 6 points, 7 points and 6 points respectively. The Panthers are now 2-0 in this very young season and they have a great deal of work to do but if today was any indication the learning curve just became a bit sharper.