In This Corner

Another factor? The Terriers had eight very solid prep basketball players, guys who had been together a long time and had great chemistry, guys who were unselfish and expected success.

But it was not a team with remarkable individual talent. The Terriers weren't very big and certainly weren't very fast. They also didn't have that one Go To Guy who could create a shot -- and make it. This is not a team with a Division I college basketball player. Not even a marginal one.

And when this team's belief in itself was shaken ... when some physical problems cropped up, all of its shortcomings suddenly loomed large. At the very time the Terriers were playing some tough and hungry teams.

Other reasons for the stunning turnaround:

1. After growing accustomed to 24 games (26 CBL games, over two seasons) of nothing but success, Redlands never recovered from the jolt of that first loss -- at home to REV, a team the Terriers earlier had rolled over twice, 82-59 and 69-55. Even though REV won by shooting an astonishing 30-of-33 from the line, "that game knocked us on our heels a little, to be honest," Scott said. "We'd beaten them twice and had no reason to believe we wouldn't beat them again and would go into the Ike game with a piece of the CBL (title) already. We were up 58-53, and lost. We finally had a bad game. And hats off to REV. They had everything to play for and we weren't as focused as we might have been."

2. The immediate followup game (two days later) against a very good Eisenhower team, which the Terriers lost, 56-42 when the style of the game turned rough-and-tumble.

"We regrouped for the Ike game," Scott said, "and we were up nine by half, and they made some adjustments, and the second half was called like a college game, and they're more physical than we are. We got knocked off the ball, and a physical game would go ike's way and a finesse game would go our way. That's just how the game was called."

3. The flu that struck Redlands' starting guards, Josh Green and Ricky Peetz, in the days leading up to the first round of the playoffs. Green missed four days, Peetz missed two, and neither started nor played many minutes in the home game against Fullerton -- which won, 51-43. (Alex Wolpe and Tristan Kirk led Redlands with nine points each.)

A team already dealing with a wounded psyche got minimal contributions from its starting guards, and that's a hard way to win.

"Ricky's stat line was one assist and no points, and he's the point guard who led us to 24-0," Scott said. "And Josh looked sick out there. That took us out of our routine.

"Our whole rotation changed for the first time in 27 games. We were out of kilter. We basically didn't miss any players to injury or illness till the last week before playoffs. Last year, when we went 14-0 in CBL, we didn't have anybody injured. We had some luck, no question. Unfortunately, lady luck turned on us.

"And we didn't make shots. We were 2-for-10 from the line, 3-for-14 from three and 16-for-38 (from two-point range).

"Our inability to score the last two games, whether it was confidence, I don't know. Fullerton didn't do anything we didn't expect. For us to be averaging 74-75 points (per game) coming into the last week, and to score 42 and 43 is kind of a shock."

4. Tristan Kirk wearing down as the season progressed. The CBL MVP as a sophomore seemed to fade down the stretch of his junior season. "Tristan played great early on this year but he had multiple injuries at the end of the year and probably should have sat out," Scott said. "Maybe I let him play too many minutes this year. He's the kind of guy who will dive into the stands after a ball with three seconds left in a quarter.

"By the end of the year he was really beat up, worn down. He had a bruise on his hip that was about four inches by four inches. It was huge, and he had to put a pad on it to play. Maybe some of those hustle plays he works so hard at might have hurt him down the stretch."

5. No team wants to lose any game, but Scott conceded pressure built up on his team as it went deeper and deeper into the season without a defeat. And when it finally lost, the damage it created was deeper.

"I would like to say (the pressure) didn't (get to the team), but in the back of my heart there has been a lot of pressure on the kids," Scott said. "We never talked about going undefeated. We talked about tournaments and winning the CBL and a chance to make the playoffs ... It became one of those things nobody talked about. ... And the pressure went up more for the Ike game, and then even more for CIF.

"I don't think I saw it till this weekend; I went to the beach for three days just to get away. ... The pressure wasn't something you could see or feel. ... I just think with the flu, that was the kicker.

"It was like, 'How many things can we overcome the last 10 days?' And we just couldn't overcome it."

Scott plans to return next season, his eighth running the program, and he expects back four of his top eight scorers from this season -- forward Nate Fultz, guard Matt Green, Peetz and Kirk.

The Terriers should get some reinforcements from the JVs, who shared the CBL title with REV. But Redlands will be smaller as 6-8 Reyer Van Mouwerik and the 6-5 Wolpe graduate. "We'll be smaller, but we should be faster," Scott said. "We've got some good players coming up and coming back."

The four graduating players hope to play at the next level, Scott said -- Van Mouwerik perhaps at Division II Puget Sound, Wolpe perhaps at the U of Redlands, Josh Green at La Verne or Chaffey College, Chris Duncan at La Verne. "These kids love to play," Scott said. " I feel bad it ended the way it did for them."

Redlands also went out in the first round of the playoffs in 2007, losing to eventual semifinalist Murrieta Valley.

"The thing i don't want to forget for this grouf of kids was the things they did accomplish," Scott said. "That's probably easy right now. We won three tournaments, and that doesn't happen often. We set a (Redlands) regular-season record of 24 consecutive wins. Those are two major commplishments i won't let the kids forget.

"Two years from now nobody will remember you lost the last three, they'll remember you were 24-3 and had a great year. I have to remember that too. The kids had a great run, and I don't want them to think the season was a failure."

And one more thought about that first defeat, and failing to recover from it:

It's something that's not measurable," Scott said. "All of a sudden your cockiness, your swagger is a little questionable. After you lose the first one, to come back and beat Ike wasn't an easy task.

"When that first loss came, we needed to get a win right away to get the swagger back, no matter who we played. We needed a win to get it back. ... Great teams go in slumps, and all it takes is one game to get it back. We didn't have enough games to get that swagger back."