first half of Suburban League play last Friday with a 65-48 victory against Cerritos.

Winning has been the dominant pattern for the Monsoons this season, who at press time held a 7-1 record in league (15-7 overall) after securely defeating

Norwalk, Glenn, Bellflower and Artesia. Friday’s victory kept the Soons in second place behind La Mirada (8-0 in league, 21-2 overall) at the end of round one.

Senior forward Kyle Richardson believes their triumphs can be attributed to their preseason schedule, which included names such as Millikan, Los Alamitos and Tesoro.

"We played better teams to prepare us for league play," he says. "In San Diego [during the Torrey Pines winter break tournament], we played with a lot of chemistry," a

chemistry he claims is the defining strength of the team.

"The whole team’s real solid," says senior guard Garrett Jefferson. "We have a lot of good guards. Every player can go into the game at any time and there will be no real drop-off."

He further notes the progress the boys have made since the beginning of the season.

"Before, we were very up-and-down, but now we’re coming to our peak."

Still, Jefferson sees that there is room for improvement on the court.

"We have to learn to play harder throughout the entire game," he says.

According to senior guard Sam Ferguson, "We do our best when we push the bar and are not making any mistakes."

He specifies boxing out and rebounding as areas that require more work.

Richardson again cites team chemistry as the main determining factor for the remaining games.

"We need to bring it back up to the level it was in San Diego. Since then, it dropped a bit."

For Ferguson, expectations for the second half of the season consist of "winning the league

championship and finishing strong."

This goal is very much a possibility to Richardson.

"We have to get the chemistry back up, play harder against La Mirada, and see where we go from there."