South Pasadena boys basketball coach Ernest Baskerville said his team’s 80-75 victory over Blair in a crucial Rio Hondo League game Sunday reminded him of the memorable Michael Jordan flu game in the 1997 NBA Finals.

Baskerville said both teams were hampered by the flu bug that has been going around, but players battled through it like they were in a playoff game.

South Pasadena won despite Blair junior Timmy Anderson dropping 40 points, and doing it while under the weather.

“He’s a special player,” Baskerville said of Anderson, “he carried them and kept them in it and I know he was dealing with the (flu) bug just like us. A lot of players showed toughness on Sunday. But he’s (Anderson) one of those players that knows how to draw contact, get to the line and make shots.

“It was a great game, it felt like a playoff game.”

Last week, South Pasadena swept its two league games against La Cañada for the first time in decades.

The Tigers lost their Rio Hondo League opener to Blair, so by winning Sunday’s game the Tigers (17-8, 7-1) are in a first-place tie in the loss column with Blair (13-8, 6-1).

The hardest part of league play is over for South Pasadena. It finishes league with games against Monrovia and San Marino, and needs La Cañada to split with Blair in their two-game series this week (Monday and Tuesday).

South Pasadena will earn at least a share of its second consecutive league title by winning its last two league games this week.

“I’m proud of our guys, they’ve really battled, showed a lot of perseverance,” Baskerville said.

The Eaton fire halted league play for more than a week, so South Pasadena and other teams are having to play several games a week before the regular season ends. The CIF office suspended its rule against Sunday games to allow teams to make up games impacted by the wildfires.

South Pasadena is in the middle of playing six consecutive games and eight games over 10 days while several players are battling the flu.

Baskerville said six players sat out the team’s nonleague game Saturday, a 79-53 nonleague loss to Mayfair, in order to rest for Sunday’s league game.

“It felt like the whole team was under the weather,” Baskerville said of Sunday’s game. “We gave them fluid IV. Some players were drinking tea and battling dehydration. They really gutted it out, and we still have a busy week left.”

South Pasadena will finish a stretch of six straight days with a game Wednesday at home against San Marino.

The CIF Southern Section playoff pairings will be released Saturday.

“It’s been challenging for sure,” Baskerville said of the busy schedule. “Even in tournaments you aren’t playing six games in a row. But I’m glad we’re playing them. For our seniors, they get to play every game they were supposed to play. They didn’t have to lose games because of the (fires).”

Jack Madison has been a valuable contributor for South Pasadena during this challenging stretch. Madison, who was one of the players under the weather Sunday, scored 27 points to go with 12 rebounds in the win over Blair.

“I felt bad for Jack early in the season because he was battling hamstring issues,” Baskerville said. “That’s behind him now and he’s a force. Teams really don’t know how to guard him, he’s that good.”

Baskerville said having already played La Cañada and Blair twice, it will be nice to see those teams battle it out. He will be hoping for a Spartans victory that could pave the way to an outright league title for the Tigers.

“La Cañada’s tough,” Baskerville said. “Coach (Tom) Hofman is a master tactician. They will be hard to beat in back-to-back days.

“That’s our league, the top three can beat one another. We were really fortunate beating La Cañada twice, that’s not going to happen very often.”

CRESCENTA valley KNOCKS OFF PASADENA

Crescenta Valley’s surprising 76-75 victory over Pasadena on Friday has given Arcadia a chance to at least share the Pacific League boys basketball title.

Pasadena (14-7, 4-1) gave Arcadia (16-10, 5-1) its only league loss, but thanks to Crescenta Valley (16-7, 6-0) knocking off Pasadena, the Apaches could force a three-way tie with a victory in their league finale at Crescenta Valley on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m.

If Pasadena beats Burroughs and Muir to close out league play, the Bulldogs could share the league title with an Arcadia win.