SoCalHoops High School News

Michael King: Glendora Dominates Upland--(Jan 21, 1999)

We got an e-mail last week from Michael King, who is a sports writer for Our Times, the local  community  supplement of the LA Times in the Inland Valley. Before that he was the sports editor of the Duke University student newspaper in Durham, N.C.  Michael offered to write for us here at SoCalHoops about the details of the Glendora v. Upland game which was played last night, January 20, at Glendora, a Baseline League game. Of course we took him up on the offer; we're not crazy enough to refuse such a generous offer. Here's the story:

Glendora dominates Upland in battle of state-ranked teams
Clark and Jacobsen lead Tartans to 77-50 win

By MICHAEL KING

GLENDORA – What was supposed to be an all out war between the top two teams in the Inland Empire Wednesday night ended up instead as an old-fashioned whipping as Glendora ran past Baseline League rival Upland, 77-50.

The Tartans, the defending CIF Southern Section champs and No. 5 team in the state, came in 18-1 and 3-0 in league play but expected a tough test from the Highlanders (13-1, 3-0), who were riding a 13-game winning streak, coming off a win over the No. 1 team in Texas, and sporting a No. 16 state ranking of their own.

After building an early 10-9 lead, though, Upland turned from contender to pretenders as Tartan seniors Chris Clark and Casey Jacobsen took over the game. The duo combined for 25 points as Glendora outscored the Highlanders 31-11 for the rest of the half.  “It looked like [Upland’s] defensive strategy was to do everything possible to take Casey away,” Glendora head coach Mike Le Duc said. “You really can’t do that though, because our other kids are too good.”

Indeed, as Clark dropped in 27 points on the night, never taking a shot from more than eight feet from the basket.“My night is really a tribute to Casey and the attention they paid to him,” said Clark, who moved into fourth place all-time on the Tartans career scoring list. “They went with a 3-2 zone extended with constant pressure on Casey and I just filled that gap that opened up in the middle. My teammates did a great job getting me the ball.”

Jacobsen, meanwhile, refused to be slowed by the Highlanders defensive pressure, relentlessly working to get open away from the ball. After struggling for the first quarter, the senior – who has already committed to play for Mike Montgomery at Stanford next fall – exploded, scoring on everything from 25-foot three pointers to slashing lay ups. “My job is to score and I wasn’t going to let their defensive scheme take me out of that,” said Jacobsen, who moved into second place all-time on the California career scoring list. While Clark and Jacobsen got all the post-game media attention, the Tartans could not have pulled off such a one-sided victory if it were  not for strong contributions from sophomore guard Jason Davis, who scored eight very timely points, and senior center Mike Ahmad, who had  just six points, but did a superb job shutting down Upland’s inside game.

Ahmad and the Glendora interior defenders limited the Highlanders talented senior forward, Desmond Penigar, to just 12 points. They also held Upland’s other two big inside players, 6-11 Steve Hamilton and 6-6 DeMarcus Williams, scoreless. The Tartans defense stymied Upland from the outset preventing the   Highlander guards penetrating at all and almost entirely keeping the  ball out of the middle.

“For the first 28 minutes our defense was tremendous,” Le Duc said. “I  couldn’t ask for more from our kids, they forced Upland to play almost  entirely 15 feet from the basket.”

The one player to light it up for the Highlanders was senior swingman Colin Strand, who poured in 20 points on the night, including four threes.

“You could really tell that Colin was playing to win,” Upland coach  Jeff Klein said. “If everyone was playing with that kind of intensity,  things might have turned out a little different.” While the 27-point loss is no doubt humbling for his team, Klein knows  that Glendora is not 30 points better than his squad and is looking  forward to the rematch, Feb. 9 in Upland.

“The good thing is we play them twice,” Klein said. “Life goes on. They are a very talented basketball team, but so are we. We’ll bounce back  and we’ll be ready to play them when they come to our place.”

Note: The game was taped by Fox Sports West 2 and will be broadcast  Thursday at 5 p.m. on that station.

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