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Boys’ Basketball: CdM grateful Moss loves hoops

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Next week the Corona del Mar High boys’ volleyball team will hold its first practice indoors. Ryan Moss, one of the program’s top players, won’t be there because he will be with the boys’ basketball team at CdM.

The first practice for the school’s volleyball team is on Monday. On that same day, Moss will be preparing for the CIF Southern Section Division 3A playoffs with his basketball team.

Moss, a 6-foot-7 senior, is bound to USC to play volleyball, but this season he has shown his commitment to CdM basketball. His basketball coach, Ryan Schachter, still gives Moss a hard time when the topic of what sport Moss enjoys more comes up.

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“Basketball is always …,” said Moss, who’s unable to finish his sentence because Schachter interrupted him.

“C’mon! You’re in basketball season!” Schachter said to Moss, who finally gets a chance to explain himself.

“Put it this way. Basketball is the first love, but I’m better at volleyball,” Moss said. “I enjoy them differently. I enjoy the team game of basketball, but I also enjoy being individually better in volleyball.

“I’d say there’s more pressure on the volleyball court. When I’m playing basketball, it feels like a lot more of a team game, because individually, I’m not too worried about it. I’m more worried about us getting the win.”

Winning is all Moss and CdM did in Pacific Coast League play. The Sea Kings capped an undefeated league title on Thursday, almost a week after Moss produced a remarkable stat line to help CdM clinch its sixth league crown in nine seasons under Schachter.

Almost as impressive as the number of championships won was the triple-double Moss finished with, 14 points, 10 rebounds and 13 blocks, in a 60-47 win at University. The triple-double is the first recorded by a CdM player coached by Schachter.

“I’m assuming,” Schachter said, when asked whether Moss’ 13 blocks set a CdM single-game record. “They don’t really keep good stats here.”

This is coming from the coach who doesn’t post his players stats online in fear of other teams having a leg up on scouting his team. The Sea Kings (20-6, 10-0 in league) are highly regarded, and Moss, a center, is a big reason why.

Going into this week, the final one of the regular season, CdM was ranked No. 5 in the CIF Southern Section Division 3A poll. The four teams ahead of CdM are Los Angeles Cathedral, Mission Hills Alemany, Montebello Cantwell-Sacred Heart and Beverly Hills, programs that might not even compete in the Division 3A playoffs.

The top four teams in Division 3A are also on the Open Division watch list of 28. Up to 16 teams will earn a spot in the toughest division in the playoffs, and Schachter believes Cantwell-Sacred Heart, Cathedral and Alemany each have a legitimate shot to make the Open Division. This opens the door for CdM to claim its first section title since Schachter’s debut season with the Sea Kings in 2006-07, when they won in Division IIIA.

“We got a good shot,” Schachter said if those three teams aren’t in the Division 3A playoffs.

“If those teams stay in our division, oh, man, it’s an extremely difficult division now.”

Schachter has seen Cantwell-Sacred Heart play in person, and it boasts the kind of size that would dwarf Moss on the court. The Cardinals have two 6-11 seniors in Gligorije Rakocevic and Balsa Dragovic, bound for Oregon State and Harvard, respectively, and 6-8 junior Luka Radovic.

Schachter learns on Friday at 3 p.m., when the section plans to announce the Open Division participants, whether Cantwell-Sacred Heart, Cathedral or Alemany are headed for the Division 3A playoffs or not. The Sea Kings have faced two programs on the Open Division watch list, Mater Dei and Los Alamitos, losing to both in the semifinals of separate December tournaments, Mater Dei at the CdM Beach Bash and Los Alamitos at the Westminster Charlie Wilkins Memorial.

In the 67-44 setback to Mater Dei, Moss went up against someone taller for the first time. Moss knew the player, Michael Cage, having seen him on campus three years ago, when Moss was a freshman and Cage an eighth-grader at CdM Middle School.

Back then, Moss said he and Cage were both 6-5. Cage has grown to be 6-10, and he turned in the better performance in the first meeting in a varsity game between the two big men, finishing with 10 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. He was four assists shy from a triple-double.

Moss wasn’t healthy in the matchup, having turned his left ankle the day before the CdM Beach Bash tournament. Later in December, Moss hurt his left big toe during the Don Bambauer Memorial Holiday Classic at Kentfield Marin Catholic. The Sea Kings wound up placing second, their best finish in a tournament this season.

The next tournament for CdM is the Division 3A playoffs, and Moss likes his team’s chances of making a run at a section title. Moss has elevated his play in the second round of league, averaging around seven points, six rebounds and four blocks per game, ensuring CdM finished perfect in league for the third time with Schachter at the helm.

With a volleyball scholarship to play outside hitter at USC, Moss didn’t have to play basketball in his final year at CdM, yet he came out. And he has made an impact in his first season as a starter on varsity.

“This year he made more of a commitment [to basketball] in the spring,” Schachter said. “He wasn’t around much this summer [because he played with the Balboa Bay club volleyball team], but he did come toward the end of the summer. But we had him all fall, which was a huge difference. The thing with the volleyball guys that I’m starting to realize is as long as I get them in the fall, it’s OK if they’re not there for the whole summer.

“[His size is] going to be huge [for us in the postseason]. We’re not the best offensive team, so when he’s tipping those balls out and we’re getting extra possessions, that’s a huge advantage because we don’t score at a very efficient rate a lot of times, so we need those extra possessions as often as possible.”

Ryan Moss

Born: Sept. 4, 1996

Hometown: Laguna Beach

Height: 6-foot-7

Weight: 220 pounds

Sport: Basketball

Year: Senior

Coach: Ryan Schachter

Favorite food: Steak

Favorite movie: “Remember the Titans”

Favorite athletic moment: Helping the Corona del Mar boys’ volleyball team win at Punahou for the first time this past season in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Week in review: Moss recorded a triple-double, 14 points, 10 rebounds and 13 blocks, in the Sea Kings’ 60-47 win at University, helping CdM clinch its sixth Pacific Coast League title in nine seasons.

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