Maulana, Life Christian boys basketball in the hunt for 2B state title
It isn’t unusual for the Life Christian boys basketball team to go out and score 100 points against an opponent on any given night.
But with this year’s team, Eagles’ coach Charles Simmons actively tried to prevent that from happening in some games this year.
“A lot of games, we win big,” he said.” In those games, I would slow our team down — no fast-breaking.”
Life Christian (21-3) took fifth in the last year’s Class 2B state tournament in Spokane. It was during that tournament — with a 65-57 loss to Saint George’s in the semifinals and a 57-49 loss to Brewster in a placing game — that Simmons realized something needed to change.
The Eagles are as good a fast-break team in 2B as there is in the state. But at that level, the best teams focused on slowing them down and limiting their transition opportunities.
“The biggest thing we learned is we had to be able to execute and play in the half court,” he said. “A lot of basketball teams will slow us down. We knew if teams wanted to slow us down, we had to be able to execute our offense and play in the half court.”
In practices this season, Simmons would have the team run drills where the offense would have to find a way to score without dribbling.
“You have to rely on setting solid picks, taking hard cuts, things of that nature,” Simmons said. “That was really helpful for us.”
Junior point guard Omari Maulana, who’s averaging 23 points per game this season, has seen that intentional approach pay off.
“We know that later in the season, we’re going to have to execute in the half court,” Maulana said. “So we take advantage of just practicing that during our regular season games and just slowing it down instead of just running the score up to 100, actually executing and working on our halfcourt plays during real games.”
Maulana, who plays his AAU ball for Washington Supreme. Is one of the top guards in Tacoma, regardless of classification. He’s talented enough to play for any number of 4A or 3A schools, but has stayed loyal to Life Christian.
“God is more important to me,” he said. “My father wanted me to go to a school with good values, good people around me. The coaches have good intentions so there’s no reason to leave. I’m a loyal person. Loyalty is really important to me. I have no reason to leave a school to a bigger school. Don’t go to the crowd, have the crowd come to you.”
His faith has been an important piece of his basketball journey. When Maulana missed the first portion of his sophomore season with a hernia injury, which required surgery and kept him out of action for three months, he leaned on his faith. As someone who practically lives in the gym, it was difficult for Maulana to sit out.
“Being away from the game took a lot out of me,” he said. “There’s ups and downs and whatever your passion is. I can always fall back on God if things aren’t going the way I want them to. God gives me confidence.”
Recently, Maulana had the opportunity to preach at his church, something that didn’t surprise Simmons in the slightest.
“He’s always been a strong, faithful young man,” Simmons said. “He was given the opportunity to come bring a word. He’s a natural born leader and people will follow.”
On the court, Maulana is a total-package player. In the offseason, he put on some size and improved his 3-point shooting.
“He’s really explosive, he’s very fast from end to end with the ball in his hands,” Simmons said. “With a guy that fast and that explosive, when he can shoot, it gets the defense off balance. … He’s just a tough cover — a strong guard, athletic, can shoot it or put it on the floor and get to the rim. When you have that type of balance, that’s tough to defend.”
With only one senior on the roster, the Eagles are still a young team. But they’re not in waiting mode — they’re ready to win now.
“If we all keep following (Simmons), keep God first, be selfless and go hard every game, that’s what’ll win us a state championship for sure,” Maulana said. “We will be bringing the championship home.”
The Class 2B state basketball tournament begins Wednesday at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. Life Christian, the tournament’s No. 5 seed, has a bye into Thursday’s quarterfinals and will play the winner of Wednesday’s matchup between No. 6 Lake Roosevelt and No. 11 Wahkiakum.
