SoCalHoops High School News

Mission League: Chaminade
Demolishes Harvard-Westlake--(Jan. 13, 1999)

First to the bottom line:  Chaminade won this game by a score of 72-56.  That's right, 16 points. And it was awful to watch, no matter which school you were a fan of, because when any team is losing midway through the second quarter 27-7, it's just no fun to watch. This was the "Game of the Week" on Fox Sports West 2, and we're tempted to ask whether any of the programmers at Fox have ever really looked into who is playing in the games they schedule.  Not that there's anything wrong with watching last year's Southern Section D-III Championship team go up against the former State Champions from two years ago. But that was then, and this is, well, it's now.  These aren't the same teams they were two years ago, or even one year ago. 

Last year's Chaminade team was really a better, deeper team, and without some of their graduating players, guys like Scott Long (Navy), Justin Beach   (Moorpark JC), Justin Stewart, Ryan Chicon, and transfer Josh Levy who is now at Campbell Hall, this team has suffered against league opponents they easily handled last year.  Likewise, to compare the current H-W team to the former State Champs is really unfair, because there is not a single player left from the championship years. 

The Los Angeles Times put it far more delicately than we would have in describing this 16 point difference "Game of the Week" on Fox Sports West 2.  This is from today's Valley Edition of the Times:

"Perhaps it was the pressure of playing in front of a live television audience on Fox Sports West 2.  Or maybe it was the absence of forward Alex Holmes of Harvard-Westlake High, who was sidelined by a viral infection.   Whatever the reason, the highly anticipated Mission League boys' basketball game between Harvard-Westlake and Chaminade on Tuesday failed to live up to lofty expectations."

Actually, the Wolverines were missing a lot more than just Holmes;  Chad Garson (6'-3" Jr. SG) one of the better outside three point shooters has been struggling for the most of the season with a bad back and didn't play;   likewise Anthony Naylor (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF), one of the tougher inside players has never fully recovered from his dislocated shoulder suffered at the Best of Summer Tournament at Cal State Dominguez Hills in July, and last week suffered another season-ending should injury. 

And if we'd been called upon to write the story-line for the Times,  we'd have been a little, well, a bit harsher. We might have written something like "This was one of the sloppiest, worst played games we've ever seen from any Harvard-Westlake team in recent memory."    And that's not taking anything away from Chaminade, which did a credible, yeoman-like job on the Wolverines, not stellar, but just pounding away from inside and outside.  We watched the game on television, and at least during the breaks in the action we could go to the refrigerator, which made it somewhat bearable.  The most amazing thing:  After showing the game live at 5:00 p.m., FSW2 also showed it later on tape delay.  If you saw it once, why would you want to watch it again?  And if you missed it the first time around, then you didn't miss much. Really.  

The game was close for the first, well, the first 4 minutes, when the score was 4-3 with Chaminade ahead by only 1 point. But then, Chaminade quickly broke out to a 15-point lead in the first quarter, largely on the inside scoring of Scott Borchart (6'-8" So. F) and Cayce Cook (5'-10" Sr. PG) who drove and dished, and by the spectacular shooting from outside by Clarence Mitchell (6'-2" Sr. SG).   The rout continued through the second quarter,  and  at one point the score was 27-7 in the second quarter, and it took another two minutes before H-W scored its first points again. In fact, while Harvard-Westlake tried to make a run of it late in the second, Chaminade went into the locker room with a 12 point lead.  Why the problems?  Well, for one, Chaminade's Chris Canoles and Darren Tarlow, both pretty strong, tough players, were just shutting down any semblance of an inside game for Harvard-Westlake, doubling up along with Borchart and J.J. Todd any attempt to get inside, and neither Tarlow nor Canoles really seemed to mind much that each of them picked up 3 fouls before the end of the first half.  Another reason for the rout:  Russell Lakey just can't do it all, and when he's off, the whole team seems to suffer.  Alex Minn and Todd Kurihawa weren't hitting their shots, from inside or out, and freshman point guard Craig Weinstein (5'-10" Fr. PG) who has played a pretty even-keeled game throughout this season, only saw about two minutes in the first half, missed a three-point attempt and was gone until late in the game.

The third quarter was a lot of the same, and the Wolverines 9-9 overall and 2-2 in league, managed to hit their first four shots of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 59-47 (again 12 points) with 6:03 remaining, but they then shot 3-13 the rest of the game, to lose ultimately by 16 points.  H-W shot 18 for 60 from the field, which is anybody's book has to be a pretty miserable experience. 

Harvard-Westlake was just unable to do anything from in or around the paint.  Dan Kinzer was really not able to help against Borchart or Todd, and he was unable to convert much "We didn't bring our shooting eye tonight," Coach Greg Hilliard of Harvard-Westlake told the LA Times.   No kidding.   "And we play a game that depends on us shooting well from outside."  

Chaminade also played a pretty sloppy game at times, and they had 32 turnovers. But the Eagles forced Harvard-Westlake into 22 turnovers by rotating players for much of the game.  Borcharta finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles and sophomore guard Ryan Arceo scored 13 points.  Junior guard Russell Lakey scored 18 points for the Wolverines.  "This was really kind of a must-win situation for us," Coach Jeff Young of Chaminade told the LA Times. "Because you don't want to lose two games in a row at home."

Chaminade, which is now 11-3 overall and 1-1 in league play lost to Crespi, 42-38, in their league opener Friday.  The Eagles will play Saturday January 16, 1999, at the adidas Double Pump Hoop Challenge in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend at Cal State Dominguez Hills against Los Alamitos in the 10:30 a.m. game.

It's a fact that the Mission League is absolutely flat-out wide open.  Anyone can, and probably will, win it. Harvard-Westlake isn't out of it, and neither is Chaminade.  Crespi is 2-0 this so far, and Alemany is much improved, and even St. Francis proved they can win one.  Notre Dame is falling but it's not over until it's over, and don't count Loyola out either.  Should be a down-to-the-wire race.  

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