SGV/Whittier Prep Sports Zone: Escarcega on Preps: When it comes to girls basketball, nothing beats Keppel 1.0
Keppel's high-flying offense was in full display on Wednesday night against Portola.
Keppel girls basketball team photo after defeating Portola on Wednesday night in a CIF-SS quarterfinal. (Escarcega)
ALHAMBRA – How many times have you heard commentators call the next great athlete "The next Patrick Mahomes" "The next Tom Brady" or the next "Mookie Betts"?
And what happens most of the time? It never pans out.
And if you think it doesn't happen at the high school level, well – you'd be wrong there, too!
When I arrived at Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra, which is on the border of Monterey Park and is less than a mile from the horrific scene of a mass shooting that forced the city to become the attention of the world, for Wednesday's CIF-SS quarterfinal playoff game between Portola and Keppel, basketball fans came up to me and said, "Hey did you hear that Portola is calling themselves, Keppel 2.0?"
That are not many things that raise my eyebrows… this was one of them.
Keppel 2.0? My question was simple, "What was wrong with Keppel 1.0?" After all, they haven't lost an Almont League game in almost two decades. They have the status of one of the most respected programs in the San Gabriel Valley. They are coached by Jose Herrera, who couldn't be more fun to hang out with and "talk ball."
It was a strong statement. And I concluded that this CIF Southern Section Division 2A game was going to be one of the more entertaining games of the night with a scoring pace that figured to be frenetic from the opening tip to the last possession.
I was wrong.
And so were the people that told me that Portola was Keppel 2.0.
There was nothing that gave me the impression that Portola was Keppel 2.0 during the game. In the first quarter, Portola's defense looked so bad that it conjured up the question that football reporters asked the late football coach John McKay about his woeful defense in his first year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, "What is your opinion of defense, coach?" asked a reporter. "I'm all for it," McKay answered.
Keppel's defense is all about being in your face, not allowing any airspace between you and the basket for an easy jump shot. It's about diving for loose basketballs, switching off defensive responsibilities with the ease of a taxicab driver navigating his way through traffic during rush hour in New York City. It has to play this way because of the size of the roster. Most of them are undersized and have to compensate for height with relentless effort.
In the first quarter, Portola's defense was anything but that. They pretended to be the toll booth guy that allows cars to go through without any interference. Keppel players attacked the basket without being touched. It was as if Portola was playing, "Ole'" defense. As you could imagine, Keppel took full advantage of the Bulldogs' generosity by opening up a 17-4 lead.
The student section, which is an interesting group of students of different ethnic diversity, kept yelling out to the Aztecs to apply more pressure. "PASS THE BALL" was one of the main phrases uttered along with "JUST SHOOT IT." That was exactly what Keppel did in the second quarter, except something interesting was taking place, the shots were not dropping and Portola was taking advantage of being at the free-throw line. Moka Saiki, who would end up being the top-scorer with 22 points, converted 6 of 8 free throws and cut Keppel's lead at halftime to 23-18.
Once the third quarter began, Keppel reminded Portola of what Keppel basketball is all about. Sophomore Jada Ly handled the ball like a WNBA pro. She also got her offense-scoring prowess going again as she scored nine points in the third quarter and gave Keppel a 44-25 lead. As you could imagine, Keppel basketball was played on one side of the court, the other side showed anything but a Keppel-replicated offense. It looked like something you would see in the "Three Stooges."
All we needed was the Benny Hill theme song and we'd be in business.
Passes sailing out of bounds, losing loose rebounding opportunities to the Aztecs, playing as if the situation was too big for them. Let's make this clear, this is not what Keppel basketball looks like. This was as if we were promised a Filet Mignon for dinner only to be served a McChicken Sandwich from Mcdonald's.
Yes, it was that bad.
And if you think word of this astonishing comparison had made it down to the gym that the Aztecs practice in, it did.
"Keppel 2.0, that is what I kept hearing all week," Herrera said. "There is a lesson to be learned here. There is nothing like the original."
We had to ask Jada Ly, who has to be on the shortlist of outstanding sophomore guards in Southern California, what Keppel 1.0 is supposed to look like. "You just have to make the right plays and the right decisions," Ly said, who scored a team-high 24 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. "You have to make them quickly and our system allows me to do that."
Portola fans will counter, with some validity, that the Bulldogs finally got some offense going, getting as close as 49-44. However, much like a champion thoroughbred racehorse that is racing in the final stages of an important race, the Aztecs pulled away as they outscored the Bulldogs 11-2 to advance to Saturday's semifinals and qualified for the state tournament.
As for the brief scare in the fourth quarter, Herrera surmised "I saw us more nervous because I'm dealing with a young team. They knew what was on the line. They knew that a state bid was on the line. And they got a little tight and that was why I used a lot of those timeouts."
Keppel is back in the semifinals and for them, and the majority of players that live in the Monterey Park area, this run has given the community something to cheer about. It is one of the better feel-good stories of the year. For a city that has been through nothing but grief, this Keppel playoff run provides a much-needed diversion from a tragedy that has forever scared the city.
"We're trying to give the community a break and something to cheer for," Herrera said. "We've been mourning for quite some time, and this is a feel-good story right here."
It's amazing what Keppel 1.0 can do these days.