SoCalHoops High School News

Buckley Demolishes Viewpoint
In 20 Point Win--(Jan. 14, 1999)

Bottom line:   Buckley won this one by 20 points, 69-49.  As games go, this was not as good as it gets, but it was still pretty good for about three and a half quarters as the lead remained at about 8 to 10 points. But late in the fourth quarter, Buckley pulled out all the stops and extended the lead to 25 points in a quarter which saw the Griffins score 29 points, and Buckley's Adam Paster (6'-0" Jr. SG/PG) hit 12 of his game high 23 points, and grab 6 of his game high 8 rebounds. 

Both teams came out tight, sort of groping their way around each other, testing, driving where they could and keeping the perimeter shooting to a minimum, with Buckley testing its ability to penetrate on Viewpoint's two big men,  6'-6" Derek Bly and Nick McKay who looks to be 6'-7" or so.  The result was a first quarter in which Buckley led by only four points, 12-8.  In the second quarter though, the race was on as Colin Ward-Henninger (6'-3" So. SG/SF) hit 8 of his 18 points, Alex Clancy (5'-10" So. SG) hit a long three, Royal Weaver (5'-10" So. SG) hit for two, and freshman point guard David Gale (5'-10" Fr. PG) had a quick coast-to-coast penetration dribble drive to the basket for an up-and-under twisting layup, making the basket and drawing the foul which he converted. Net result: By the half, Buckley led 30-18.

In the third quarter, Viewpoint's McKay got the call, and he hit for 12 of his team-high 20 points, all on turn-around drop-step layups, and if Buckley has a weakness, it's their lack of size in the middle as their biggest player stands 6'-3".  McKey is one very strong kid, and even though Viewpoint hasn't done all that well in league or otherwise from a won-loss point of view (5-8 overall, 1-2 in league), they do have a couple of players who are certainly worth taking a look at like Derek Bly, an excellent wing player who can hit three-pointers with regularity and Dan Roy, an extremely active but as yet fairly unskilled 6'-5" wing / forward type.  The result of McKay's great scoring in the third, was that Viewpoint managed to chip into Buckley's overall 12 point lead by outscoring Buckley 15-14 in the quarter, and at the end of three, the score was 44 to 33.

In the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, Viewpoint made a run of it as Derek Bly hit a three pointer, to cut Buckley's lead to 8, but then David Gale came right back with his own three-pointer;   on the very next play, Bly hit another three from the same spot, and on the way back down, Buckley's Mike Lalazarian (5'-11" Jr. SG) hit a three for Buckley.   But other than a couple of free-throws towards the end of the game and a field goal each by John Kogel, Nick McKay and Dan Roy of Viewpoint, Buckley went on a 23-10 scoring spree, which saw Paster pick up 12 of his 23 points,  Clancy get 4 of his 7, Mike Pakravan (6'-0" Jr. SF) get all 4 of his points and David Gale get 4 of his 6 assists on the night. 

For Buckley, the complete scoring was: Adam Paster, 23 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals; David Gale, 5 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals; Mike Lalazarian 4 points, 3 rebounds and two steals;  Royal Weaver 4 poonts, 1 board, 1 assist and 2 steals, Simon Leonov finished with 2 rebounds;  Josh Ahktarzad had 2 boards; Sasha Rahban finished with 4 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals; Colin Ward-Henninger finished with 18 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and two steals; Alex Clancy had 7 pints and 3 rebounds; Mike Pakravan had 4 points and 1 rebound; and Jake Scannell had one board and one steal; Steven Broukhim didn't score but did have oen board and one steal.  For Viewpoint Feinberg had 4, Kogel had 9, Bly 6 (two 3's), McKay had 20, Roy had 9, and Nassilzadeh had 1. 

Buckley improved its record to 3-1 in league and 10-4 overall, and at this point is considered by most league coaches as the favorite along with Windward and perhaps Providence, which Buckley beat last Friday night . Yeah, we know we were going to report the game, but things got a bit hectic, so here's a brief recap of that one:  Colin Ward-Henninger scored 15 ponts in a tough inside battle with Providence's Jones and the Kascinta brothers, who combined for 25 points (A. Kascinta had 11 and P. Kascinta had 14), but Buckley's swarming match-up zone defense and quick fast breaking, not to mention a record number of forced turnovers by Providence, managed to help Buckley to a 65-53 win.  That game was particularly huge, because going in, Providence was considered the league favorite.   The scoring in the Providence game was pretty balanced with Rahban and Clancy both getting 11 points; Rahban had 5 steals; Paster had 6 points, Broukhim had 4, Gale 2 points, five assists and one steal, Lalazarian had 7 points, Weaver had 1, Pakravan 3 and Scannell 5.

Buckley next plays Windward this Friday at Windward at 7:30 p.m. in what could be a decisive game for the Liberty League title race.  In the meantime, we managed to grab some pictures of the game action.

Buckley arrives	Shoot around	Ward-Henninger warms up	Weaver warms up	Pre-game conference
The tip-off	Ward-Henninger pins a shot	Paster drives to the hole	Paster at the line	Lalazerian boxes out
Sasha Rahban drives the lane	Paster is cut off at the line. . .	. . .but gets in on the left side	. . . and one	Leonov looking for the open man
Rahban moves the ball	Gale subbing in	Rahban cuts to the middle for the pass	Gale and Clancy guard  the inbound	Foul call.
Lalazerian at the line	Viewpoint misses the shot	Pass in the open court	Brining the ball up court	Weaver on the cross-over
Assist	Viewpoint layup	Ward-Henninger gets one of his 18	Colin in the air	Paster looks for an opening
Offensive foul	More warmups