Harrison Bonner providing defensive force in Poly's run

It might be easier to score 20 points against Harrison Bonner than it would be to get the senior Long Beach Poly basketball player to talk about himself. Asked to do so, he furrowed his brow and considered the request.

“I keep to myself, mostly,” he said simply.

If Long Beach Poly’s fans want a win today when the Jackrabbits face J.W. North in the CIF State Division II SoCal Regional championship in Long Beach State’s Walter Pyramid, they’ll need Bonner to be the player he has been for the past two years.

The game starts at 11 a.m., and the winner will travel to Sacramento for next weekend’s CIF State Division II championship. The Jackrabbits have won 20 CIF Southe Section championships but only two state titles (in 1921 and 1984), and they are looking to make history with another pair of wins.

To get them, they’ll once again need solid offensive and defensive games from Bonner, one of the area’s most complete players. Despite starting every single game for the Jackrabbits his junior and senior years, and despite averaging 13 points per game, Bonner has flown under the radar, likely a result of his steady demeanor.

He’s an anomaly in the hyper-competitive, hyper-emotional world of high school sports — a gifted player who doesn’t draw attention to himself. On the rare occasion that he blows a defensive assignment, he doesn’t come to the sideline and slap his chair during a timeout. On the much more frequent occasions that he hits a big three, he doesn’t celebrate all the way down the court — instead he finds the player he’s defending and gets back to work on defense.

“I’m not shy, I’m just not really outgoing either,” said Bonner. “I don’t like to talk much. I’ve always been that way.”

That kind of mentality can rub some coaches the wrong way. Some coaches want a senior leader who’s yelling all the time, leading with emotion rather than execution. Fortunately for Bonner, Poly head coach Shelton Diggs is just fine with who he is on the floor.

“He reminds me of me in high school, actually,” said Diggs. “It’s easy for me. I can tell him something and I know he gets it.”

Diggs said he and assistant coach John Atkinson haven’t tried to change Bonner this year and have largely stopped bothering to give him pointers mid-game, since they found he was making the same adjustments on his own that they’d ask him to.

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Bonner has been Poly’s best one-on-one defender, and has almost always guarded an opponent’s best player over the past two years, which means he’s often faced off against future Division 1 talent. While he may prefer to stay silent, his record on the defensive end of the court speaks for itself.

Last week in the state playoffs he guarded Los Alamitos’ Eyassu Worku, the best player in the area (and the highest-scoring) and held him to 16 points, the fifth-lowest total of the season for the UC Irvine signee. Earlier this year in a matchup against J.W. North he held UC Riverside signee Dikymbe Martin to 11 points, his sixth lowest tally of the year. And early this season he held Cal commit Jemarl Baker (who scored 30 points against the nation’s top team, Chino Hills) to just six points, his lowest total of the year.

His length (6-foot-4 with an even bigger wingspan) and athleticism allow him to guard just about any type of scorer on the perimeter, and to do so without fouling.

“He’s locked up a lot of kids with offers, while scoring 15 or 20 points himself,” said Diggs. “And he likes playing defense — there’s not a lot of kids like that.”

Bonner has the perfect mentality for a defensive stopper, similar to that of a great pitcher. If something goes well, he might nod a little, but he’s not going to get so excited that he has a lapse. And if something goes wrong, he has an easy time pushing it from his memory and focusing on the next play.

“I just enjoy playing defense, and I take pride in not letting my man score more on me than I do on him,” he said.

This year he’s also leaed to be more aggressive offensively, something he’s had to do with the number of injuries Poly has had to deal with. He’s evolved from a quiet defensive force into a steady scorer as well, forming the third leg of Poly’s scoring trio alongside Zafir Williams and Drew Buggs.

Diggs and Bonner are hoping the senior lands a late mid-major or Division 2 offer, and they know that playing in a state championship would help with that.

“Right now though, all I’m focused on is winning,” said Bonner.

To have a shot at the team’s first state title in more than 30 years, they’ll need a big game from Bonner and the rest of the roster. But don’t be surprised if after they get that win, Bonner lets the rest of the roster do the talking.

Ticket Info

One ticket will get you into both Poly basketball games at the Pyramid today, the boys at 11 a.m. and the girls in the Open Division championship at 5 p.m.

General admission pricing for the day’s games will be $18 for adults and $10 for any seniors, children, and students with a valid ASB card. Tickets are available online at LongBeachState.com/CIF or from the Pyramid box office.