Last second shot puts Culver City High School boys' basketball in Semi-Final game

And you thought the Super Bowl was exciting. The Culver City High School boys basketball team played one of the most exciting games in school history when they beat Windward 57-55 last Tuesday inside the Del Goodyear gym on the Culver City campus. The boisterous crowd stormed the court after junior forward Achebe Thompson made a layup as the horn sounded to end the game. Hollywood could not have written a better script.

"It felt really good," said Thompson outside the locker room right after the game. "My teammate Brycen (Matthews) made the basket and the free throw to put us in position to tie the score and all I had to do was be in the right place at the right time."

Two weeks ago, Thompson said it's all about their demeanor and attitude with this team. Against the heavily favored Windward team the Centaurs put together a furious fourth quarter come back after being down by 11 points. "It was all determination and focus tonight," said a happy Thompson. "We had a good attitude going into the fourth quarter.

Now the 18-11 Centaurs are in the CIF 2AA semi-final against Tesoro high school from Rancho Santa Margarita (27-4) on Friday at 7 p.m. at home. "If we expect to win Friday's game we need to get some rest, eat well and have a good game plan," said Thompson. "Our coaches are going to do a good job of formulating a good game plan and we are going to go into the game and try to execute the game plan."

Windward came into the game with a 23-8 record and they were one of the best teams in Southern California but the Culver City coaches did great job of making the right substitutions are the right time. "It was a good team victory," said assistant coach Ray Singleton. "I feel ecstatic but on Friday we will need to make our free throws and move the ball better when teams play zone against us. It's going to be another battle on Friday."