Tom Scott, Neighbor

<strong>Peninsula Boys Varsity Survives a Shoot-Out in Redondo!</strong>

The Peninsula Varsity Boys Basketball Team began its defense of the Bay League Title won by a team led by Reese Morgan and Andrew Maynard last night on the road in Redondo Beach. The Panthers earned a very hard fought 56-54 victory over an excellent shooting Redondo Union High School team. The game began with Redondo jumping out to early lead but Peninsula came back chipping away at the early Redondo lead with a very balanced attack. Jack Hensley (11 points) hit a pair of early 3&#39;s and Stanley Roberts Jr. (10 points 13 rebounds), who is continuing to improve with each and every game, began to take control of the interior on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. Sam Borst-Smith lead the way with 19 points (11 coming in the second half) and did a great job of sharing the ball with his teammates in the second half. The game was a see-saw battle through-out the second half with each team taking turns at holding 1 and 2 point leads. In the latter part of the 4th quarter Peninsula appeared to be extending the lead and were up by 6 when Redondo&#39;s phenomenal outside shooting began to get hot. Redondo came back on several possessions to cut the Peninsula lead to 3 and then tied the score a number of times. Peninsula did not get rattled and would not break and when Redondo would make their runs to the score Peninsula would calmly come down and begin to re-establish itself with great ball movement and hitting the open shot or getting to the foul line. Junior Matt McFarland was a key factor during this stretch netting 6 of his 8 points from the foul line. Peninsula seemed to have an answer for every run that Redondo made and for this night Peninsula made all of the right moves, Peninsula is now 12-4 overall and 1-0 in the Bay League. There is a great deal of parity in the Bay League this season and with Peninsula being the defending champion there will be no easy games for the Panthers, but if they can remain resilient and execute as they did tonight against Redondo it will be a very interesting season for the defending Bay League Champs!