As the clock ticked down late in the fourth quarter with the outcome long decided, Redondo Union senior guard Devin Wright caught a pass off the backboard from teammate Chace Holley in midair and stuffed it through the hoop two-handed — the exclamation point to an emphatic 85-51 victory over archival Mira Costa on Friday night.
Wright finished with a game-high 23 points — most of them on layups while cutting to the basket — small forward SJ Madison scored 19, Holley had 17 and Chris Sanders added 16 as the Sea Hawks, ranked No. 2 in the Southland by The Times, stayed unbeaten in the Bay League and sent a message to their competition.
Redondo Union’s SJ Madison shoots a jumper during an 85-51 win over Mira Costa on Friday.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
“We knew this was a big game and I had to be there for my team,” Wright said after scoring 18 points in the last two quarters. “We saw early they couldn’t contain us so we were getting open looks and hitting them.”
Madison and Mira Costa forward Paxx Bell traded baskets throughout a fast-paced first quarter, which ended with the host Sea Hawks up 20-18. They extended the lead to seven by halftime and used a 23-7 run in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.
“Chace is a big weapon, but we’re all weapons,” Wright said. “If they double-team him it leaves someone else open. We all took our turns.”
Bell led the 19th-ranked Mustangs (18-4, 3-1) with 15 points while senior shooting guard Luke Lowell and junior wing Strax Dragicevic each added 12.
The teams shared the league title last winter, each winning on the opponents’ home floor. On Friday, the Sea Hawks (18-3, 4-0) showed they have the skill and talent to claim the title outright.
“We didn’t like splitting league with them last year,” Wright said. “So this year it’s all ours — and we’re taking it.”
Mira Costa’s Paxx Bell scores on a layup over Redondo Union’s Chace Holley in the first half on Friday.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Redondo Union beat Mira Costa 72-66 in the CIF state Division I regional semifinals last season before losing to Sierra Canyon in the next round — falling one win shy of the state finals. The Sea Hawks failed to advance out of pool play in the Southern Section Open Division playoffs while Mira Costa fell to Los Alamitos in the Southern Section Division 1 final. However, that was then and this is now.
The teams meet again to wrap up Bay League play Feb. 3 in Manhattan Beach.
A FAMOUS market in a UK city has started a £9million revamp project.
Grainger Market in Newcastle is being renovated in hopes of rivalling the best of Europe‘s indoor markets, such as Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and Foodhallen in Amsterdam.
Sign up for the Travel newsletter
Thank you!
Grainger Market in Newcastle is undergoing a £9million refurbCredit: Alamy
Works on the market include creating a pavilion upstairs and adding new flooring, according to the BBC.
There will also be new toilets at the venue as well as seating areas to eventually host gigs and plays.
Hand-painted signs and ceramic tiles with street names on the floor will make navigating around the market easier too.
The project is expected to be completed in the first part of this year.
For example, you can pick up fresh meat or fish, cheese and baked goods.
There are a number of street food options at the market as well such as tapas and pizza.
After eating, have a mooch around some of the shops too, which sell locally crafted clothes, gifts and jewellery.
The market also features the original Marks & Spencer Penny Bazaar stall.
Today it is the last surviving example of a Penny Bazaar, which used to be a fixed-price shop, and has a cherry-red exterior with golden signage from when it first opened in 1895.
One recent visitor of the market said: “If you love food then Grainger Market is a must do.
“We had Korean dumplings and buns, chicken wings, a Cuban sandwich (the Cubanos), a pizza slice, a sausage on a stick and shucked oysters from one of the fishmongers.
“There were other establishments that we did not get to and will certainly be visiting again.”
Another visitor added: “One of the best places in town by far.
“A really cool market, indoors, and in a classic 19th Century environment, a truly beautiful building.”
Work on the market is set to be completed this yearCredit: Newcastle City Council
The market is open from 9am to 5:30pm, Monday to Saturday.
The Grade I listed market opened back in 1835 and was a part of the 19th century Neoclassical redevelopment of the city.
The market was designed by John Dobson and replaced some older markets that had been demolished.
R.J. Prewitt has been a Ducks fan since the first puck dropped in Anaheim, so he’s known good times and bad.
He was there when the team won the Stanley Cup in 2007, for example, and when it took another final to a seventh game four seasons earlier. But he was also there through each of the last seven seasons, when the Ducks never placed higher than sixth in the Pacific Division and finished a combined 74 games under .500.
“It’s my team,” said Prewitt, wearing a white-and-orange Ducks’ sweater as he waited to enter the Crypto.com Arena for Saturday night’s game with the Kings. “I’m going to have faith no matter what.”
That faith is getting another stern test this month. Because after entering December atop the division standings for the first time in more than a decade, the Ducks have lost six of their last eight, with the most ignominious loss coming Saturday in a 6-1 thrashing by their neighborhood rivals and winger Alex Laferriere, who got his first career hat trick.
Ducks left wing Alex Killorn skates with the puck during a loss to Kings Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.
(Katie Chin / Associated Press)
For the Kings, the season-high six goals comes at the end of a slide that had seen them lose six of their last seven, averaging less than two goals a game over that stretch.
Laferriere scored more than that by himself Saturday.
The Kings’ first two goals, from Drew Doughty and Trevor Moore, came in the first four minutes. Laferriere got his first midway through the first period and when Quinton Byfield scored on a power play just before the intermission, the Kings took a 4-0 lead into the locker room at the break.
For the Ducks, who have been plagued by slow starts — 11 of their 21 wins came in games in which they trailed; only the Philadelphia Flyers have more — that deficit was too much to overcome.
“That’s unacceptable,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “You’re not going to make the playoffs being at that level. So we’ve got to make sure that we recapture that feeling of what it takes to be consistent.”
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville yells instructions to his players during a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 19.
(Paul Beaty / Associated Press)
Yet despite Saturday’s loss, the Ducks and their fans still have a lot of positives to celebrate — especially given the team’s recent history.
The Ducks’ 21 wins are still most in the division; they didn’t get their 21st win until Jan. 28th last season. And their 130 goals through 38 games — an average of nearly 3 ½ a night — rank fourth in the NHL. They were in the bottom three in scoring in each of the last three seasons.
But what had been the most remarkable turnaround in the league through the first three months has suddenly hit a rough patch, challenging the narrative that new coach Quenneville had finally taken the team from pretenders to contenders.
“Well, we’ve got to prove it,” Quenneville said after Saturday’s humiliation, the Ducks’ most lopsided loss of the season. “We can talk about [how] we want to be a harder-working team this season. But the game tonight didn’t indicate that at all.
“The tenaciousness and the relentless has to go be part of our identity. But we can’t talk about it. We’ve got to prove that.”
Quenneville has been here before. In 2008, he took over a young Chicago Blackhawks team that hadn’t been to the playoffs in five seasons and guided it to the conference finals. A year later, it won the Stanley Cup.
Then in 2019, he took over a young Florida Panthers’ team and led it to the franchise’s first playoff appearance in three seasons.
Both teams had to learn to win, had to believe they could win, before they actually did so. Now Quenneville’s young Ducklings are having their beliefs tested by their worst eight-game stretch of the season.
“I’ve never been on a winning-record team in the NHL. And I’m not the only guy,” said 22-year-old center Mason McTavish, one of six Ducks younger than 23. “It’s a learning curve for sure.
“But at the same time we know how good we are. And this last six, eight games, it’s not been up to our standard. We’ve taken a huge step this year. But that’s not our end goal. We want to make the playoffs. We want to win the Stanley Cup.”
The Ducks will have to become a lot more consistent to have a chance to make that happen. Because while they’re one of the league’s top scoring teams, only the St. Louis Blues have allowed more goals than the Ducks, who have a minus-2 goal differential. And they’ve been outscored 34-19 in their last eight games.
The slump, then, is looming as a test of character and resolve. At a similar point in Quenneville’s first season in Chicago, the Blackhawks lost five times in an eight-game stretch. But they rebounded by winning nine of their next 12 and never looked back.
McTavish, who had his team’s only goal Saturday, said the Ducks have to do the same thing if they hope to show the playoffs are now a realistic goal for a franchise that hasn’t had a winning record in seven seasons.
Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal is congratulated by Nikita Nesterenko and Mason McTavish after blocking a shot by Panthers center Evan Rodrigues to win during a shootout on Oct. 28 in Sunrise, Fla.
(Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)
“We have to come out the next game and really prove to ourselves that we can play with the top teams in the league,” he said. “And beat them.”
The Ducks long-suffering supporters are also ready for the pain of the last seven seasons to ease.
“Yes, yes, yes. I believe,” said Daniel Núñez of Bakersfield who, like Prewitt, has been a fan from the first season. “We have a good shot, I think, to win the Pacific Division. We have a really good team.”
“Whatever they’re doing,” Prewitt agreed “I’m there with them.”
