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In the first half of this game, it was all Verbum Dei, and no one, we mean no one who saw the first half could have predicted what would happen in the second. And no one ever would have predicted that Pasadena, which trailed by 11 at the half would bring Verbum Dei, the defending Division IV State Champions, who could easily play at least as high as D-II if they wanted to, would take them to overtime. In the first half, Marlon Parmer was doing his thing, setting up high on the right, waiting for Dalron Johnson to set the pick and then swinging left with the ball, hard off the pick down through the lane to the left block where he spins, turns and makes the basket. Marlon had 32 points in the game, 14 from the field most of them in the first half. But in the second half, it was his 16 of 18 shooting from the line that ultimately saved Verbum Dei in overtime as they beat Pasadena 66-63.

At the half Verbum Dei led 31-20, and we were thinking the game was more than half over. But in the third quarter, Pasadena brought itself to within four points, trailing just 41-37 as they went on a 17-10 run behind the great shooting of George DeJohnette, and the excellent defensive play of Reggie Harmon (5'-8" Jr. PG) and David Ball (6'-0" Sr. PG).

By the fourth quarter, Pasadena's defense had Marlon and the high pick offense figured out, and more often than not, Marlon was forced to dish to Jamal Dean or to Ricardo Sauzo, but when he didn't he went to the line. A lot. Of course, one other thing that Verbum re-discovered was that the one great disadvantage of Marlon always handling the ball is that no one else is really used to seeing it much, and so when Marlon did dish, for example to Ricardo, he was stripped a couple of times. And Dalron never got the chance to really show what he could do underneath, finishing with just 10 points and playing decoy for Marlon most of the game. Pasadena also forced Marlon to drive more from the right, but as we said, it didn't matter, since he still managed to goe to the line a bunch of times.

With 4:41 to play in the game, Verbum had just a five point lead, and Pasadena was knocking on the door. In a matter of seconds, specifically about 20, Pasadena hit a basket, and then stole the Verbum Dei inbounds and Pasadena had cut the lead to just one, 46-45, and David Greenwood called a timeout to try to regroup the troops. On the next inbounds Verbum managed to get the ball up court, but Marlon got picked by David Ball who went in for the slam to put Pasadena ahead 47-46. On the next inbounds, Marlon picked up his dribble in the backcourt and passed across court for Suazo who missed the pass and the ball sailed out of bounds. Nick Dotson fouled Pasadena's Kevin Richard, and he made one of two to give Pasadena the lead for the first time in the game, 48-46.

Marlon then drove again and was fouled, his fifth trip to the line in the fourth quarter. Pasadena coach Tucker called a timeout with 3:24 to play and a two point lead, both teams with 7 team fouls. Marlon made the two free throws, and then the teams traded baskets, so with just 2:09 to play the score was tied 50-50. Jamal Dean then hit a huge three pointer for Verb, and Pasadena failed to score on it's next possession and when Marlon was again fouled by David Ball, hit both at the line, it looked like the game was just about over as Verb again had a 5 point lead. But Pasadena's Josh Duncan hit a shot in a crowd and was fouled and with 1:20 to play, the score was again close at 55-52. Duncan hit the foul shot, and with just a little more than a minute to play the score was 55-53 with Verbum Dei hanging on for dear life. Verb managed another two points, and extended the lead again to 57-53.

On the next possession, unbelivably Verbum turned the ball over on Washum Dashiell's pass, and Reggie Harmon recovered it, and he hit Josh Duncan on an unbelivable pass over the top; Duncan made the shot to tie the game, and again, on the next Verbum possession Marlon turned the ball over and Ball hit Duncan with another unbelivable no look pass to tie it with 57-57, just 23 seconds to play. The next 23 seconds was really a desperation play by Marlon, who got tied up at the perimeter and the buzzer sounded and we were into overtime.

In the extra period, both teams traded the first two baskets each, the last by Jasun Ridley and Verbum called a timeout with 1:49 to play. Greenwood decided to decided to run "stack" a play designed for Huston Hollis, the diminutive point guard who hadn't played the entire game but (some would say unbelivably) who was sent in for just a single play in the overtime. And it was almost one play too many in this very close game, since the only thing the timeout and the set play resulted in was Hollis, who hadn't touched the ball in the entire second half, getting picked by Reggie Harmon, and has Harmon drove, missed the layup but Ball put it back to give Pasadena the lead at 61-63, you could see the look on poor Hollis' face, and he knew he was going to get pulled. And he did. Marlon manged to tie it again on two free throws, and on next possession, Pasadena turned it over. So with 56 seconds remaining and time running Marlon hit Kyle Jones standing all alone and he scored to give Verb the lead. Pasadena then squandered all kinds of time, tried to get a shot off, but missed, and Verbum Dei got the rebound. Marlon again tried to drive, and Pasadena was forced to foul him and he went to the line on the next foul shot and hit one of two.

Pasadena still had about 14 seconds left and as Harmon brought the ball up he fed it to George De Johnette over on the left wing and as he dribbled around trying to get free for the shot, he realized he had no more time left and let it fly, trying to hit the three, which completely missed the rim and the backboard. Bzzzz. Game over. Verbum Dei won it, 66-63.

This was an exciting finish by two very talented teams. Even though Pasadena was missing Clayton Coleman who has evidently left the team, we did predict before the game that Tim Tucker would know just how to get the most out of the guys he's got. Too bad they came up short, but for Verbum Dei, it was really another exciting finish and a personal tour de force for Marlon Parmer, who, along with Tito Maddox in the Compton v. Artesia game and Wesley Stokes and Marcus Moore in the Poly v. Domiguez games which followed, showed us just how critical good point guards can be to the high school game.

Here's the final stats: For Verbum Dei, Kyle Jones had 7, Dalron Johnson 10, Rashawd Cobbs 0, Marlon Parmer finished with 32 points (14 from field, 16 of 18 from the line), Washum Dasheill had 6, Jamal Dean 5 (a three and a field goal), Larry Davenport didn't score, Ricardo Suazo finished with 2 points, Nick Dobson finished with 4. For Pasadena, Reggie Harmon had 10, Justin Davis 1, David Ball 6, George DeJohnette 9, Jasun Ridley 13, Josh Duncan 7 (all in the second half) and Kevin Richards finished with 5 (also all in second half). Here's the scoring by quarters:

Verbum Dei	21	10	10	16	9
Pasadena	10	10	17	20	6

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