In last season’s CIF-SS Division 1AA second-round boys basketball playoff loss against Long Beach Poly, Orange Lutheran was able to go toe-to-toe defensively with the eventual champion Jackrabbits, but the Lancers didn’t pack enough scoring punch to pull out a win.
Orange Lutheran welcomes back four starters from last season’s team, but one of those four will be vital to the team’s success.
Lancers point guard C.J. Hankins is using this summer to strengthen his body and his game in order to take Orange Lutheran to the next level this winter.
Last season, there were times when Hankins would dribble the ball a little too much and force a shot, which made the Lancers’ offense stagnant.
All those empty possessions in a game become crucial when you consider Orange Lutheran went 14-15 and lost six of those games by three possessions or fewer.
Since the season-ending loss to Long Beach Poly, Hankins has hit the weight room and put 15 pounds of muscle on his slender 6-foot-3 frame.
The added strength – and a new offense that gives him and others more freedom – has allowed Hankins, who now weighs around 180 pounds, to carry more of a load for the team and himself.
He’s become a more forceful player, as opposed to one who was sometimes unsure of himself, and Hankins’ offensive insistence was on display last week at the Sea Kings Varsity Summer Shoot-Out at Corona del Mar.
He drove the lane frequently, and either drew fouls or scored buckets on his way to a 17-point effort in a runaway victory against Brea Olinda.
“He just became more assertive,” teammate Rogers Printup said. “In the offseason we’ve been in the gym working together. I pretty much just tell him every time, ‘There’s pretty much nobody that could guard you … and be assertive and go in there (the paint) until they stop you.’”
With a more forceful offensive game, Hankins’ forays into the paint don’t end with forced shots anymore. Instead, they result in passes to teammates who have open looks.
“Last year, he didn’t understand that sometimes moving the ball to someone else would get someone else open,” Lancers coach Chris Nordstrom said. “He would want to hold the ball a little longer, and that’s natural for a younger, more inexperienced player.
“But now his willingness to pitch it up and make an error on a pass, take some risks, has been really helpful for us.”
Hankins’ offensive IQ is growing, and it may be catching up to his prowess on the defensive end of the court.
His 6-3 frame and his long arms can frustrate opposing players.
He, alongside Printup, Keisean Lucier-South and Kavaughn Scott, should make the Lancers’ defense a top-notch outfit next season, and help them compete in the Trinity League, which is losing the likes of Mater Dei’s Stanley Johnson, JSerra’s Johnnie Vassar, Santa Margarita’s Joe Furstinger and St. John Bosco’s Daniel Hamilton.
The summer also allows Hankins to focus on what’s next after high school.
Hankins, who has a 4.4 GPA, has an offer from Columbia and is garnering attention from other Ivy League schools.
But he is content letting things play out before making a decision about where he’ll play basketball after high school.
“I’m just going to take my options after the AAU season ends, take some trips, see what schools I like, and hopefully I can make a decision soon,” Hankins said.
Until then, Hankins will focus on his on-the-court consistency.
“We would see these flourishes of things he could do really well, and then you would see some where he just kind of struggled through,” Nordstrom said. “This summer, he has been outstanding. We have really seen the improvement. He’s been very good.”
That’s good news for Orange Lutheran, bad news for its opponents.
Contact the writer: amorales@ocregister.com
