With 17 seconds left in overtime, Las Positas held a 68-66 lead. It seemed the Hawks had found yet another way to win. To survive and stay undefeated.
They needed their usual heroics to get to this point. Sophomore guard Jorren Edmonds hit a tough midrange jumper to tie the game with 0.8 seconds remaining in regulation. Then, in overtime, it was Edmonds and Hawks leading scorer Elijah Mobley trading clutch shots.
It was what the Hawks had done all year — when push came to shove, they found a way to make the winning play.
So, as the clock was running down on the visiting Skyline Trojans, win No. 21 seemed imminent for the Hawks, California’s top-ranked JUCO men’s basketball team. But the Trojans had other plans.
Skyline sophomore guard Achilles Woodson drove around a screen and into the paint. Hawks big man Mecca Okereke’s attempt to block Woodson’s layup resulted in a foul. After the whistle sounded, Woodson scooped the ball off the glass for the game-tying basket. And-one.
https://x.com/SkylineMBB/status/1885065804800287178
With 0.2 seconds left on the clock, Woodson stepped to the free throw line with a chance to knock off the No. 1 team in the state and ruin its perfect record. The whole Nest shook with stomps from the crowd and the screams of anxious fans, hoping to deter the shooter. But Woodson nailed the free throw, and with it stuck the final nail in the Hawks’ win streak.
After 20 consecutive victories to start the season, the Hawks finally lost: 69-68 to Skyline, ranked No. 17 in the state. The loss adds some weight to the pending rematch against City College of San Francisco since both have just one loss in Coast Conference-North play. That game could decide the conference champ.
However, this defeat might be exactly what the Hawks needed. The loss ends the win streak as a narrative, preventing it from taking over their season and essentially giving them a chance to reset going into the playoffs. Now they have been reminded of the sour taste of defeat. It also gives them a consequence for inconsistent performances, something they’d kept avoiding with late-game heroics.
Only five teams have ever won the state championship while going undefeated. Usually, what makes up the DNA of champion-caliber teams is how they respond to defeat. How they respond to adversity.
This will be the first time the Hawks get to show that response.
“That is the good thing about after a loss,” Okereke said, “you learn from your mistakes, figure out the adjustments, and move forward.”
A major factor in the Hawks first defeat were missed free throws. Mobley, who led them in points with 19 and went 8-for-11 from the charity stripe, failed to convert in two critical situations. He made split a pair at the end of regulation with a chance to tie the game, but was bailed out by the heroics of Edmonds, who finished with 17 points.
Near the end of overtime, Mobley again stepped up to the line. This time he had the chance to increase the Hawks lead to three. But again, he split his two free throws and left the door open for the Trojans, who took advantage.
“I just needed to lock in and be mentally focused, make the second, and not let the first one affect me,” said Mobley, who is shooting 75.2% from the free throw line, up from 64.5% last season. “We had a two-point lead with 15 seconds left before they made the tying and go-ahead and-one with less than a second remaining. I feel like you just gotta make your free throws down the stretch and we missed four or five free throws down the stretch. And they did a really good job out rebounding us.”
One of the Hawks most consistent scorers, sophomore guard Sterling McClanahan, had a cold night from the field. He shot 1-for-9, his only points coming off a 3-pointer. It marked his lowest scoring game of the season and the first time he scored under double-digits since totaling just six points on Dec. 7 against Lassen.
The Hawks struggled shooting from deep, making only two of their 11 attempts. Mobley made the other one. It allowed the usually poor-shooting Skyline to build an advantage from deep.
“The game plan was to make them take those threes,” Okereke said, “because they’re not a typical three-point shooting team. They have a couple of shooters but mainly like to attack the paint as they have a couple of bigs and like to score in the paint. So (we liked) forcing them to take those tough shots.”
Another factor in the Hawks’ defeat was the absence of Richard Banks due to sickness. He has been one of the most consistent options off the Hawks’ bench this season. Without him, the reserve unit managed only 13 points, 10 of which came from freshman forward Jaden Woodard.
Along with limited bench scoring, the Hawks also missed Bank’s presence on defense, as they finished with only seven steals. Banks averages 2.8 steals per game. He has been one of the focal points of the team’s press this year.
“Banks is a big piece to what we do,” Mobley said. “He’s a defensive menace and he’s 6 ‘4, long arms and he gives deflections and without him out there, I feel like we needed it, but our bench stepped up, Coby, Mecca, Woodard, they gave us huge minutes off the bench. But without him, I feel like we are missing another defensive presence from him.”
The Hawks have no time to grieve the end of their historic streak. The matchup against the Trojans marked the end of the first round of conference play. They now are set to play each of their rivals a second time.
It begins by traveling to San Mateo on Friday, Jan. 31. The Hawks beat them 72-59 in their previous matchup on Jan. 8, usually a late rally to avoid the upset. Then, comes the Hawk’s next biggest test of the season.
On Wednesday, Feb. 5., the Hawks will host San Francisco, their big rivals. Las Positas shot up to No. 1 in the rankings after beating California’s top seed in San Francisco. Now, both teams are 20-1 overall and 6-1 in conference.
The Hawks will be fueled by something they haven’t felt all season. The gut-wrenching feeling of defeat. The need for redemption. They once again will have to prove their mettle and bounce back if they want to claim the program’s first-ever conference championship title.
“I think after this loss it makes us hungry,” Mobley said. “We can’t let one game detour us from what we wanna do and thats to win state. There are only two or three teams in the state right now who are 20-1 so I mean there are 99 teams who want to be where we are right now so we just gotta become hungry and know that we still have a target on our backs. We beat six other teams in the first round of the conference and the second time around is coming. Nobody is gonna feel sorry for us, everyone wants to beat us.”
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Top photo: The Hawks hadn’t lost in 11 months before falling to Skyline. (Photo by Jayden Griffin/ Special to The Express)
Jakob Arnarsson is the Editor-in-Chief of The Express. Follow him on X, formally Twitter, @JakobA2004. Luke Vavuris is a Staff Writer for The Express. Follow him on X, formally Twitter, @Luke5068.
