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Even great dreams and journeys must come to an end. And the campus of Chaminade High in West Hills was that final stop for the Culver City High girls basketball team as the Centaurs lost in the CIF State Division 2 semifinals to the Eagles on Tuesday night, 76-46. The Centaurs brought an 18-game winning streak into the contest against a squad that is realistically and was officially a CIF Open Division team during the recent Southern Section playoffs. Why and how the CIF playoff organizing...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Play by play, quarter by quarter, game by game the 2013-14 Culver City High girls basketball team is raising the bar of success while rewriting the school's record book. After another thrilling victory, 53-52, last Saturday at Del Goodyear Gymnasium over visiting Garces Memorial High from Bakersfield, the Centaur girls have now claimed their first two state tournament wins in the school's history. Their nail-biter followed a first round CIF State Girls Division...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Meet the Culver City High girls basketball team: the hottest team in town and the newly crowned 2014 CIF Southern Section Division 2AA champions. The Centaurs captured their first Division title since 1979 with a determined and resolute win over Mira Costa High of Manhattan Beach, 55-49, last Friday night at the spacious and impressive campus of Godinez Fundamental High in Santa Ana. Culver completed unfinished business from the past two years when they made it...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The Culver City High girls basketball team gallantly fought for and secured its second consecutive invitation to the CIF Southern Section, Division 2AA championship game. The Centaurs eliminated another powerhouse on the road, Norco High of Riverside County Tuesday night. The 68-55 final score was the Centaurs’ sweetest victory of the season and especially considering that Norco was the scene of the team’s semifinal heartbreaking loss two years ago by four poi...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Grace, poise, execution and team defined the Culver City High girls basketball team at Del Goodyear Gymnasium last Saturday night as the they went toe-to-toe with perennial Orange County power Foothill High. And the Centaurs delighted the intimate but boisterous home crowd in a third round CIF Southern Section, Division 2AA playoff thriller by seizing victory in the final crucial minutes, 57-49. Only four days earlier the Culver girls took a nice long bus ride...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The quest to return to the CIF Southern Section championship began last Saturday with a solid step from the Culver City High girls basketball team. They squarely beat visiting Elsinore High, 75-47 in the first round of Division 2AA playoff action at Del Goodyear Gymnasium. Centaur senior center Michelle Curry took matters into her own hands as she scored early, controlled the boards often and was the catalyst on numerous fast-breaks. Culver head coach Julian...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter The 2013-14 season ended for the Culver City High boys basketball team on their home court in Del Goodyear Gymnasium as they fell to third seeded Westlake High, 76-68, in the second round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs Tuesday night. The visiting Warriors had just enough in reserve to withstand several late game surges by the Centaurs who could never quite grab the reins and the lead. Westlake took a quick 12-4 lead. Culver tied the score, 16-16, by the...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter What a difference a game makes. Last week, teetering on the edge before finally securing an invitation to the CIF Southern Section playoffs, the Culver City High boys basketball team made the most of it by practicing with purpose and intent. And it paid off as the Centaurs went on the road to convincingly eliminate Westminster High, 68-47, a team that went undefeated in the Golden West League. All the pieces seemed to have fallen into place when the Centaurs...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Defying the odds, the Culver City High boys basketball team has made the CIF Southern Section playoffs. Despite losing their final six Ocean League contests, most of them in the last agonizing minutes of each game, the playoff committee felt the Centaurs earned an invitation. And for added respect, the committee rewarded the team a favorable matchup against a 14th seeded team. Head coach Adam Eskridge gave a rundown on what he learned this past Sunday...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Let the games begin. Having taken care of business during the regular season the Culver City High girls basketball team began preparing this week for the CIF Southern Section playoffs. The team will host a Division 2AA first round match with Elsinore High from the Sunbelt League this Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Del Goodyear Gymnasium. The Centaur girls were given an indifferent seventh seed despite having swept the Ocean League for the third year in a row. Last...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter It wasn't the kind of Senior Night ending the Culver City High boys basketball team had dreamt about. The team was on the verge of having staged an against-all-odds comeback when Wes Dixon buried a clutch three-pointer from the left corner that tied the score at 77-77 with 7.3 seconds left in regulation. The Centaurs clearly had the momentum on their home court in Del Goodyear Gymnasium as their fans went wild in celebration. But the tides were not with them as...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Senior Night was fittingly special for the Culver City High girls basketball team as it captured the Ocean League championship while cruising in the second half over Hawthorne High, 61-41. It was the Centaurs' third straight league title and the girls have won 29 straight league games. They play their last league game of the season this Thursday, February 13, at Beverly Hills High, the last team to beat them in league. The Centaur girls took a 23-12 first quarte...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter It's beginning to play like a broken record but it certainly sounds like a finely tuned instrument. The Culver City High girls basketball team won two more 2013-14 Ocean League contests to retain sole possession of first place with a 6-0 record. And they did it rather handily once again compliments of pin-point shooting from three-point range. Even head coach Julian Anderson has been impressed with the team's recent exploits, "We're shooting the ball...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter It's back to the fundamentals after the Culver City High boys basketball team took two more Ocean League hits the hard way. And it's become apparent the fourth quarter is the Centaurs' Achilles heel this season in the consecutive four-point losses. The first came at home against Beverly Hills, 60-56. Two nights later host Morningside High in Inglewood added to the pain, 68-64. The team returned to Monday's practice with a renewed commitment and determination to...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter A self-imposed wakeup call was made as a sense of urgency fell upon the Culver City High boys basketball team late in the fourth quarter of Friday night's game at Hawthorne High. Looming in the background was the Centaurs previous two losses, also due to not securing the fourth quarter. And a sigh of relief went up after the Centaurs withstood a valiant comeback attempt by the host Cougars, 77-66. Culver had a 65-47 lead with seven minutes remaining in the...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporteri The Culver City High girls basketball team put an exclamation point on its week after Saturday's non-league victory against Ridgeview High, 53-32, in the MLK Extravaganza tournament hosted by Narbonne High. The win followed two more Ocean League successes days earlier on the road at Inglewood and Hawthorne. Coach Julian Anderson was succinct in describing the game, "We played Ridgeview from Bakersfield and we won. Right now we're doing a good job at staying...
The Culver City High boys basketball fans were treated to an early Ocean League showdown between the Centaurs and visiting Santa Monica High last Friday night in Del Goodyear Gymnasium. But to their dismay the Centaurs fell to their arch rival, 62-53, as the Vikings' consistent pressure and execution earned them a comeback victory. The loss dropped Culver into a third place tie with Inglewood at 1-1 each in early Ocean League standings. Santa Monica's victory kept them in a first place tie with...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Home cookin' was all the Culver City High girls basketball team needed to get back on the winning track as they matter-of-factly took down their first two opponents to kick-off the 2014 Ocean League season at Del Goodyear Gymnasium. The Centaurs easily finished off Morningside High in their league opener, 53-19, on Wednesday. Two nights later they summarily dismissed rival Santa Monica, 58-29 in likewise fashion. It was a welcome relief after the girls had...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Fans of the Culver City High girls basketball team know that the team played in the 2013 CIF State Basketball Championships last season while compiling a record 24 wins under the tutelage of Julian Anderson and his staff. The girls can no longer can fly under the radar. Despite the team losing its top player and leader from last year due to graduation and the fact they are now a marked date on their opponents' calendar, the girls have quietly embarked on their...
The Culver City High boys basketball team is already a good month deep into the 2013-14 season, mainly a rough campaign of tournament games. Full team practice has been impacted recently due to injuries and holiday schedules conflicting with the students' family time and other obligations. Now entering 2014 with a 7-7 won-loss record, the journey hasn't been easy but is starting to pay dividends. The competition has been tough and appears to have galvanized the Centaur squad by evidence of its 6...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter Culver City High boys basketball sailed into non-favoring winds a few nautical miles due north up the bay in "The Tournament" at Santa Monica High compared to the previous week's successful 3-1 record in Manhattan Beach. This time they came up short by one basket, 60-58, to Palisades in the tourney's bronze match Saturday afternoon for a disappointing 1-3 record in the second week of the season. Accentuating a sluggish start, the Centaurs couldn't find the...
By Fred Altieri Observer Reporter It was: "Heartbrrreak!", a phrase coined and famously emphasized by the late great Los Angeles Laker announcer Chick Hearn. The Culver City High boys basketball team was mere seconds away from running the table at the Mira Costa Pacific Shores Tournament that initiated the 2013-14 basketball season. A jump shot from the right corner along the baseline just missed as time expired in the Centaurs' overtime loss to host Mira Costa, 59-58 in Saturday night's...
Culver Girls Transition To New Basketball Season (EDITOR’s NOTE: This is Part 2 of an interview with Julian Anderson, Culver City High Girls Basketball Coach)) During this past season’s playoffs, each win became more surreal than the previous one. The fun part about the playoffs is each game is different. Regardless of the difficulty of each game you have to find a way to win almost in a different manner each time. It was not easy for us at all. We were battle-tested over in Arizona during the...
Coach Explains Success Of Culver Girls Basketball (EDITOR’s NOTE: This is Part 1 of a 2-Part interview with Julian Anderson, Culver City High Girls Basketball coach) I’ve been coaching girls’ basketball at Culver City High School for eight years. I started out as the JV coach for the first four years and this is going to be my fourth year as head coach of the girls varsity team. In total, I’ve been coaching basketball for about 18 years. I’m only 36 years old so I began coaching when I was very...
Culver’s Tanita Named Player Of The Year Culver City High guard Taylor Tanita has repeated as Ocean League Player of the Year. The sharpshooting guard led the Centaurs to regular season and playoff success which culminated with a berth in the state girl’s tournament. Culver City went 10-0 in the Ocean League for the second straight year. Tanita is considering options for her college career and has been impressed with UC San Diego among others....
