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January 14, 2025
By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on X
When Whitney High stunned Cerritos High 61-58 in last season’s 605 League opener, it snapped a 15-game losing skid to its crosstown rivals, including the last 12 coming in league action. The Wildcats had a team of 16 players, including four senior starters, and so much was expected with eight returning players.
But so far it has been rough-going for first-year head coach Jazzy Kruczynski who saw his team get dominated 60-32 last Friday, sending the Wildcats to 7-13 overall and 1-1 in the circuit. Senior William Kang scored 33 seconds into the game but after that, it was all Cerritos, which scored the next eight straight points and led 15-7 after the opening quarter.
“I’ll take the blame for the loss because I should have done a better job of prepping these guys,” said Kruczynski. “We spent the last two days getting ready for Cerritos; we watched film. But I guess what we did and what I have planned just didn’t work out. When we face them again, I’ll come up with a little bit of a better practice strategy as well as a game strategy.”
He added that he knew Cerritos likes to throw the high pick and roll and he spent some practice time on icing the screens. But once the game began, his players didn’t ice the screens. That allowed the Dons to run their offense the way they wanted to.
Whitney was still within reach with 3:40 remaining in the half and trailed by seven points. But the hosts went on a 12-0 scoring spree that would be the determining factor. Sophomore Vincent Valenzuela began the run with a steal and basket and after a free throw from junior Devon Hardy, freshman sensation Jace Ribac scored consecutive baskets, the latter after his only theft of the game. Then junior Noah Lai got into the action with back to back buckets, the first of which came following one of his three steals. By halftime, the Dons were already cruising with a 33-14 lead.
“That’s just us not doing what we wanted to do defensively,” said Kruczynski. “We knew who the shooters were going to be; we knew who the ball handlers were going to be and who was going to drive it in. But we just didn’t take care of business.”
“It’s always good to get those runs,” said Cerritos head coach Jonathan Watanabe. “We always talk about closing quarters well, and you want to make sure that every quarter you’re controlling that and you’re getting a few extra ones whether it’s stops or scores. But it’s tough sometimes and we really try to emphasize that.”
While Cerritos was enjoying a balanced scoring attack and defensive effort from its starters and three of its bench players, the same could not be said for the Wildcats, who got their scoring from only three starters-juniors Jack Diancin, Joseph Roman and Kang. Not a factor was junior leading scorer Jezreel Dela Cruz, who missed all five of his attempts from the field, but grabbed five rebounds in the half. Equally frustrating was the fact that senior Shayadheeran Saravanakumar, the team’s tallest player and probably leading rebounder, did not have a board in the half, and was saddled with three fouls.
“I didn’t know about the zero rebounds, but that’s awesome,” said Watanabe. “We knew we had to keep him off the boards. We knew we were going to try to take away Jezreel; I know he does a lot for them and their point guard did a great job. But I thought [sophomore] Wilbur [Lai] off the bench played a great game.”
“For Shayadheeran not having any rebounds is always not a good look when you play the center spot,” said Kruczynski. “But our guards were really picking up the slack on the rebounding side. He knows that he needs to box out and create space for my guards to come in and get rebounds. Obviously, he should be getting some of the easy ones if they’re there. Him getting into foul trouble really does suck because he’s a real big defensive piece for us.”
After connecting on five of just 21 shots from the field in the half, it wouldn’t get better in the second half as Whitney was true on six of 21 from the field and only scored consecutive points once. Meanwhile, the Dons continued to keep the pressure on, going on a 12-5 run over the final 5:23 of the third quarter and a 9-3 run over the final 4:13 of the game.
Wilbur Lai led the ‘Cats with 10 points, all coming in the second half, and had a pair of rebounds while Diancin and Kang added eight and seven points, respectively. Ribac paced the Dons with 19 points and was one of 10 players who found the scoring column. He has scored at least 10 points in straight games and 15 of the first 20 games, the most by any Cerritos player. Noah Lai scored 11 points and had half a dozen rebounds while junior Jeremiah Ju and sophomore Kaleb Duag each scored six points off the bench,
“Jazzy is doing a great job of coaching them,” said Watanabe. “To get a late start to take over a program and not to have returning stud guys…he’s working with the younger guys coming off the bench last year and he’s doing a great job with them. I think he’s building a great culture; they play hard and that’s one reason why we can never really pull away [from them] because they are never going to give up.”
Whitney (7-13, 1-1) will travel to Pioneer High on Friday to end the first round of league action before hosting Oxford Academy on Wednesday while Cerritos defeated Pioneer 73-67 this past Monday to improve to 11-10, 3-0 and will travel to Oxford Academy on Friday before welcoming John Glenn High on Wednesday.
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