Zafir Williams lifts Long Beach Poly past El Camino Real in state playoffs

LONG BEACH >> The gym was half-empty and both the crowd and team started off flat for Long Beach Poly and El Camino Real’s second-round CIF State Division II playoff game on Saturday night in the Ron Palmer Pavilion.

However Jackrabbits junior Zafir Williams provided the perfect shot of caffeine to his team, as his 34 points helped power a 74-59 Poly victory.

“We knew they didn’t have a matchup for Z so the game plan was just to get the ball to him,” said Poly coach Shelton Diggs. He wasn’t surprised to hear that his team’s leading scorer had 34 points and 18 rebounds. “That’s just Z — he can score in so many ways he’s hard to stop.”

Diggs referred to the Conquistadors as the “best 14-15 team I’ve ever seen,” and it was easy to understand why. ECR was tied with the Jackrabbits 19-19 after the first quarter and led 35-34 at halftime after a deep three just before the buzzer. Poly eventually took over in the third quarter as they began feeding the ball to Williams more consistently and then pulled away as he started the fourth quarter with his team’s first 11 points, on an 11-3 run for the Jackrabbits.

“I like it when the whole team is involved so I don’t feel selfish,” said Williams, who also admitted he was licking his chops when he saw the height differential between the two teams. “I expected to get a lot of touches tonight.”

Once Williams’ one-man run was finished, Poly led 61-49 and never looked back. The Jackrabbits were also boosted by 11 points from Harrison Boer and 10 points from Drew Buggs, as Poly’s “Big Three” combined for 55 of the team’s 70 points.

“We played well and we battled,” said ECR coach Joe Wyatt. “Going into the game, we thought (Williams) would be a problem for us — we didn’t work as hard as we should have, but he’s a great player and I have to give him credit.”

The Conquistadors were led by 22 points from Brandon Russell, the son of Long Beach State alum Bryon Russell.

The Jackrabbits (22-10) will advance to face Los Alamitos in Tuesday’s quarterfinal, with the Griffins hosting.

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