STORY BY MATT SIMON
Compton’s Jabari Steward knew the Tarbabes needed a win in a big way.
After a heartbreaking loss to Millikan last Friday at the buzzer, he admitted that the team had hit a string of bad luck in Moore League play.
So, after the Tarbabes came away with their biggest win of the season defeating Long Beach Poly 68-58, Steward could keep the smile off his face.
Before the game, the Tarbabes three league losses had come by a combined four points.
“This feels amazing,” Steward said. “For the past couple of weeks we haven’t had luck. When we lost to (Poly) earlier they hit that three that bounced all over the backboard and went in. We haven’t had no luck and it was great to come out here at home and show out for our crowd.”
Steward finished the game with 15 points and used his size to keep the Jackrabbits off the glass for a majority of the game.
But, when senior got into early foul trouble in the first half it was Patrick Johnson and Kobi Malone that led the way as Compton battled back-and-forth with the Jackrabbits. The duo combined for 12 points in the first half to keep things close as Poly led 29-26 at halftime.
Poly junior Peyton Watson scored 24 points on the night with a majority of his points coming from the charity stripe. Jackrabbit junior Solomon Jones finished the game with 11 points and Wendell Caldwell scored 12.
Behind the three-ball of Johnson and Malone, Compton took a slim 44-43 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
From there, Steward used his dominance inside scoring eight points to put the game away.
“This is great for us,” Steward said. “This is a good team win and and we coming for everybody after this.”
Poly and Millikan both have one league loss and are tied atop the league standings. Compton is third with three losses.
