Justin Galiani of the Langley Saxons stood underneath the basket, frozen like a hockey puck, clutching the basketball like a lifeline. One South Lakes defender jumped nearly on top of him, but still he did not move.
Two more defenders made their moves, nearly leaping right over him. Galiani barely blinked. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, he had outfoxed three defenders, and all that was left to do was spring up and hit the layup, which the sophomore forward did as though he’d done it a thousand times before.
Only it wasn’t Galiani’s 1,000th basket, it was just his first on the varsity squad. On the score sheet it may have represented just two of the 67 points Langley tallied en route to a 67-49 road victory over division foe South Lakes Friday night, but for Galiani, it was a basket he won’t soon forget.
“I was just hoping to get fouled- I was so nervous,” Galiani recalled after the game. “The coach called me into his office on Wednesday, and I thought he was going to ask me to work the camera for the game tonight, but he told me I was going to play varsity- and I couldn’t believe it."
After suffering their first district loss of the season on Tuesday night- a one point shocker at home against Madison (4-9 in the conference)- Langley wasn’t about to treat its final regular season game as a scrimmage, even though they’d already wrapped up the No. 1 playoff seed. They dominated every facet of the game and left no question that they’re the team to beat heading into the playoffs.
“I think it was important after not playing well against Madison to come out and get back on the right track before the start of the playoffs, so that’s the way we treated the game,” said coach Travis Hess. “We talked about sending a message to the district, to let everyone know that we did have a bad game but we’re still playing well, so it was about us coming out for our own confidence.”
The game started off nip and tuck, until Langley took control early in the second quarter with an 18-6 run that was largely orchestrated by junior guard Daniel Dixon, who hit two layups and a three-pointer, and Langley’s leading scorer, David Adams, who hit two jump shots during the run and finished with a team high 16 points on the night.
Already down 31-18 at the half, South Lakes suffered another blow when their leading scorer, D.J. Christian, who averages 14 points per game, was given a technical foul for “disrespecting the officials,” as they walked to the locker room at the half. Adams converted the free throws, Christian was benched for the entire 3rd quarter, and Langley put a stranglehold on the game with an 8-2 run to start the half that expanded the lead to 39-20.
It was smooth sailing the rest of the way for Langley, which capitalized on numerous Seahawks turnovers, while getting strong play from junior guard Austin Vasiliadis (10 points) and senior forward Brenden Dwyer.
The win capped an outstanding 13-1 season in the conference for Langley, who will face last place Marshall, at home, on Tuesday night in the first round of the district playoffs. But despite the conclusion of a nearly perfect regular season, Hess isn’t ready to pop the champagne corks yet.
“No champagne tonight, absolutely not,” he said, laughing. “We haven’t really achieved anything yet. They don’t give out trophies for winning the regular season. For us, this whole season has been preparation for next week.”
