SoCalHoops High School News

Venice Wins League Opener
In Wild Finish At Hamilton--(Jan. 14, 1999)

Venice won its league opener against Hamilton at Hamilton in dramatic fashion as only these two league rivals seem capable of doing, and it came down to the final shot in the final seconds of the game as the Gondoliers managed to squeak by with a 78-77 win. Venice off to great start, and for most of the first quarter, the lead changed hands several times, but Venice managed to get the lead at 15-9 by the end of the quarter.  Venice though and in particluar Joe Dural (6'-8" Sr. F) was just on fire as he led Venice to outscore Hamilton 21-12 in the quarter to take a 36-21 halftime lead. 

But just as fired up as Venice was in the first half, so was Hamilton in the second, and it was role-reversal time again. According to Venice coach Dave Goosen, "We came out in third as flat as a pancake, with no intensity, no execution, just not in it mentally."  Hami came out fired and managed to outscore Venice 27-16 in the quarter, mostly on scoring by Damian O'Connor and David Fisher.

But in the fourth was when things broke wide open, and these teams duked it out to the very end, Venice scoring 26 points in the quarter and Hamilton 29.  David Fisher (6'-3" Jr. SG) hit for 12 of  his total 18, scoring off the drive, from outside, hitting a three.  In fact, going into the fourth, Hami had cut Venice's 15 point lead to a single point and for most of the rest of the quarter it remained a 3-4 point margin.  With a minute to go, Hami cut it to one, and then took the lead and with 30 seconds remaining Venice, after leading for most of the game,   was down by 3.

Venice came down in it's "hurry up" offense, an effective two man offense utilizing Dural and top prospect Glen McGowan (6'-8" Sr. SG/SF/PF) handling the ball.  McGowan fed Dural on the break, and he hit a 10 foot turn-around j in the post.  Venice then called a quick time out with 15 seconds remaining in the game.  Venice threw on what they call their "suicide" (survive or die) press, and this time it worked, forcing a five second violation as Hami couldn't get the ball inbounds.

Venice then ran an inbounds play for McGowan, who got the ball, pump faked, hit the layup and drew the foul.  McGowan went to the line and made the foul shot, and Venice was then up by two.  Hami got ball, Damian to Fisher, who drove to basket and was fouled on the shot by Venice's Kevin Johnson with only 5 seconds remaining.  So Fisher goes to line, 5 seconds to play.  David makes the first, but then misses the second, and Kevin Johnson, redeeming himself, got the ball, but inexplicably bobbled it out of bounds, and, this being a home game at Hamilton, you can guess that only one second would have been run off the clock, so Hamilton gets the ball out of bounds under their own basket with four seconds remaining to play.  Venice leads, but Hamilton isn't done trying.  Hami inbounds to O'Connor who gets the ball to Fisher, and he shoots, but Joe Dural gets a piece of it, the shot misses and Venice escapes with a one point lead, 78-77.  Wow. Great game. 

For Venice, Dural finished with 22 points and 8 boards; Glen McGown had 21 points and 6 boards; Steve Brown a young point guard had 9 points and 5 rebounds, Kevin Johnson had the game of his life, getting 9 points but 16 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocked shots, and he was just everywhere.  Keven Eleby had 8, Montel Duhon had 6, and Eric Dilworth finished with 3 points.  For Hamilton David Fisher had 18 points, but he was not the high scorer, as that was reserved for Sterling Brown with 20;  Damien O'Connor finished with 17, all in the second half; Brian Glass had 6, Shabbaz had 1, Lambkins 2, Chris Foster 11, Davis and Atkins 1 each.  The scoring by quarters was: Venice 15, 21, 16, 26; Hami 9, 12, 27, 29.

Venice is now 14-3 overall, 1-0 in conference, and Hami drops to 0-1 in conference play. These two teams are a lot better than many had given them credit for at the beginning of the season, especially Hamilton, who we only got to see once at the Beverly Hills Tournament in a game which was not especially impressive. Venice next plays at Palisades on Friday at 5:00 p.m.  Glen McGown got a cut on his hand during the game, which required medical treatment and stitches, and he is doubtful for the game, which should make this rematch of these two teams who played (miserably) in the Beverly Hills Tourney final, very interesting.  If you're out anywhere near Pacific Palisades on Friday, be sure to catch the game.

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