The Hawks found themselves in unfamiliar territory. They weren’t winning by double digits. They didn’t even hold the lead. In the final minute, victory hung in the balance.
Las Positas opened the season 16-0 without experiencing a nailbiter. Even in their signature win, they built a lead on City College of San Francisco and controlled the game from ahead. That’s how it has gone for a team with a 23.2 average margin of victory.
But their rivals, the No. 18 Chabot Gladiators, were in The Nest. And the Hawks — newly minted as the No. 1 JUCO team in California — are now the hunted. So it made sense they’d have their hands full. With 53 seconds remaining, the game was tied at 73. Las Positas needed to find a clutchness they’ve scarcely used. They needed someone to make a play at a critical time.
They needed Elijah Mobley.
“It’s a special moment,” head coach James Giacomazzi said. “You gotta have guts. You gotta have will. You gotta have passion. You gotta have the want to. And you can’t let the pressure get too big in that moment. And we feel that in that moment, Elijah was not going to falter.”
He did not.
Mobley scored on a floater with 40.8 left to give the Hawks the lead. It quieted all doubt, the biggest shot in an 8-0 run by the Hawks to close the game.
Las Positas’ sister school was game for a fight before a rowdy crowd on Jan. 15. But in the end, the Hawks simply found a new way to win. The 79-73 win over Chabot was their closest victory of the season so far.
It was a display of the Hawks’ mettle. It was proof their No. 1 ranking was no fluke.
“We get very emotional,” Elliot Mobley said, “especially when teams disrespect us and say we shouldn’t be where we are. We put countless hours in the gym that people haven’t seen. … So when teams disrespect us and say we shouldn’t be No. 1, shouldn’t be undefeated, we’re not that good — they don’t know what we’ve been through. So we take that as disrespect and fuel to just be better every day.”
It doesn’t get any easier for the Hawks in Coast Conference-North action. They are set to go on a two-game road trip against No. 21 Cañada and No. 22 Ohlone. Las Positas then returns home to play De Anza before hosting No. 17 Skyline.
Six of the eight teams in the Coast-North Conference are currently ranked in the top 21. They’ll be looking to upset the Hawks.
The heat is turned up on the Hawks. That was evident in Elijah Mobley, McClanahan and Edmonds combining to score 68 of the host’s 79 points. The Hawks managed just two bench points, a pair of Coby Christensen free throws. Las Positas reserves went 0-for-10 from the field.
This was a game for the star players. So when it was time, the Hawks turned to their brightest.
Las Positas went to Mobley in the post, isolated against freshman forward Iyon Brown. On the strong side was sophomore guard Jorren Edmunds, known as one of the Hawks’ best shooters. On the weak side, sophomore guard Sterling McClanahan was ready to shoot. And he was on fire, finishing with a game-high 29. Since the defense couldn’t abandon either one, Mobley had all the space he needed to attack.
The 6-foot-1 Mobley is built like a running back and lives inside the lane. In two dribbles, he was in the center of the paint. His spot. Mobley rose up, releasing a quick right-handed floater before the help defense could arrive. The drama of the moment seemed to suspend the ball. It traveled in slow motion, eventually dropping through the hoop.
“I saw a one-on-one matchup,” Mobley said, “and I’m very comfortable down there. I play with a lot of patience.”
Mobley stood outside the locker room, shirtless in his sweatpants. His face and bare chest were bone dry, the sweat from his 26-point performance already wiped off. It almost looks as if Mobley didn’t break a sweat.
“There’s not a lot of guys,” he continued, “that can stop me down there.”
Chabot brought an upset-minded intensity Wednesday. It boiled over in the first half when Gladiators freshman center Christian Wilson got into a slight skirmish with Hawks sophomore big man Mecca Okereke. They got in each other’s faces, but the Hawks quickly grabbed Okereke and separated him from Wilson, who received a technical foul. The crowd, already amped up by the rivalry, perked up even more.
Wilson was then slapped with his second technical foul, seemingly for something he said, and ejected from the game.
“They (were) hot they were losing,” Okereke said. “I almost went there, but I gotta hold my composure, be the bigger person. I’m trying to win, so I didn’t want any techs. No unnecessary bullcrap. It’s a rivalry game, so there’s a lot of tension. That’s what it’s gonna be in sports, a lot of emotion.”
Mobley’s clutch basket preserved a big night from McClanahan, who went 7-for-9 from three-point range.
He closed the first half with a barrage. With 3:24 remaining before halftime, he made his third 3-pointer. On the very next Hawks possession, he caught the ball on the left wing and, with zero hesitation, rose up and drilled another three.
Just 30 seconds later, McClahanan caught a pass well behind the three-point line on the left wing. He didn’t care. He splashed his third straight.
“I knew coming in I was a shooter last year and they left me open and I wasn’t hitting,” McClanahan said. “I knew this year, if they’re gonna leave me open, I got players who make great passes and hit me right on my chest. So I have got to do my job and hit shots.”
The Hawks took a 48-35 lead into the half.
But any chance of Las Positas stepping on the gas and putting away the Gladiators was far-fetched. Chabot has five sophomores in its rotation and a freshman guard in Zion Yeargin, whose 19.5 points per game is second only to Elijah Mobley (19.6) for the highest scoring average in the conference.
One of the toughest to deal with on the Gladiators is Marcellus Edwards.
Last season, he hurt the Hawks with 25 points in a big road win for Chabot. He scored most of his points by going 14-for-14 from the free throw line. He hurt the Hawks in a similar fashion Wednesday. Edwards made all 12 of his free throws and finished with a team-high 22 points.
Free throws — the ability to add points while the clock is stopped — is a great way to stay close in a game.
“He’s a hard guy to slow down because he’s so skilled with a basketball,” Giacomazzi said. “He’s got great body control. He gets to his spots. He knows how to counter when you counter…. He gets in the paint and causes a lot of problems. He did it last year, twice. He gives me nightmares, that kid.”
The tension increased as Chabot rallied from behind. Inside of two minutes remaining, the Hawks led 71-70.
Yeargin missed a free throw, missing a chance to tie the game. But the Hawks didn’t get the rebound. The ball found its way back to Yeargin in the corner. He didn’t miss this time.
His 3-pointer gave Chabot the lead, 73-71. It also presented the Hawks with the possibility of their big moment being just a blip. Their stunning upset of San Francisco and first-ever No. 1 ranking put the Hawks on a pedestal. One game later, they were on the brink.
But Las Positas has Elijah Mobley. He’d score six straight points to put the game away.
His pair of free throws with 1:22 left set up his game-winning floater shot in the lane. Yeargin tried to answer for Chabot but was smothered by McClanahan on his pull-up jumper. Elliot Mobley leaped for the rebound, knocking the ball away from the basket — and fortuitously right to his twin brother. Elijah Mobley scooped up the loose ball for a transition layup. The dagger after his game-winner.
A pair of Edmunds free throws turned out the lights.
That’s 17-0 on the season, 1-0 in close games.
***
TOP PHOTO: Elijah Mobley rising above the Chabot defense to give the Hawks a 75-73 lead. The Hawks finished on a 8-0 run to close out the Gladiators. (Photo by Jakob Arnarsson/ The Express)
Jakob Arnarsson is the Sports Editor of The Express. Follow him on X, formally Twitter, @JakobA2004
