III-AA first round results

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SoCalHoops High School News

CIF Southern Section Playoffs: Division III-AA
First Round Results--(Feb. 20, 1999)

This Division's bracket is small and there were just 16 games. Heck, there were just 15 teams qualifed, and so one at-large was added. Since there are 22 teams in the entire Division, this means that 72% of the entire division made the playoffs, which is astonishing, considering some of the lower divisions, like V-A and V-AA only had about 30% of the their teams represented in the playoffs. In any event we're still wondering why the CIF didn't just make one big 32 team bracket for both D-III AA and III-A, because when you get to the next bracket, it's pretty silly--win two games and go to the State Tournament. Sheesh. Last night in D-III-AA, all the favorites and seeded teams won, some very convincingly. Here's a summary followed by the details. And based on these results, you can pretty well imagine what the bracket looks like, and Bishop Montgomery will meet South Hills, Pomona will play Gladstone, Alemany will meet Servite and Brawley will matchup with San Dimas in the Quarterfinals this Tuesday. All of these games will be played at "Alternate Sites", i.e., neither team's home court, so check back later when we find out where they'll be playing.

Upper Bracket

Bishop Montgomery 67, Pioneer 45
South Hills 69, Gabrielino 68
Pomona 39, La Quinta 31
Gladstone 51, La Canada 45

Lower Bracket

Alemany 62, Santa Paula 49
Servite 57, Monrovia 49
Brawley 76, Chaparral 62
San Dimas 93, Yermo Silver Valley 46

Here are the details:

Upper Bracket

Bishop Montgomery 67, Pioneer 45 --Errick Craven and Gabriel Hughes scored 17 points for Bishop Montgomery in the III-AA opener. The Bishop Montgomery boys basketball team reaped the benefit of its Division III-AA No. 1 seeding, landing the size-challenged Pioneer Titans for its CIF first-round playoff game. Pioneer, whose tallest player is 6-foot-3 and starting center is 6-1, had its work cut out against the Knights' front line of 6-9, 6-4 and 6-4. To boot, Pioneer came in with a losing record, 10-15, and finished third in the Del Rio League. With that said, the Knights did what was expected, winning, 67-45, at Bishop Montgomery on Friday night. Despite the the large margin of victory, Bishop Montgomery coach Doug Mitchell wasn't completely satisfied. Bishop Montgomery improved to 22-4. The Knights trailed, 20-16, behind back-to-back three-pointers by Marcos Ramirez early in the second quarter. But Bishop Montgomery put a quick end to the Titans' upset bid by going on a 20-0 run in a five-minute span to close out the half. Derrick Craven scored six of his eight points in the spurt, and Marvin Perez and Kenny D'Oyen each hit three-pointers as the Knights took a 36-20 halftime lead. Pioneer shot 2 of 10 and turned the ball over five times in the second quarter, while the Knights connected on 8 of their 10 attempts. Sophomore guard Errick Craven led the Knights with 19 points, and 6-9 Gabriel Hughes, who missed the last week with a concussion, scored 17

South Hills 69, Gabrielino 68 --Lauren Smith's free throw with 3.5 seconds left won the III-AA game for the Huskies. Smith's brothers Kieran and Greg scored 22 and 11 points, respectively. South Hills will next play Bishop Montgomery, the No. 1 seed in the division at an Alternate Site to be determined (i.e., it's not going to be at either South Hills or Bishop Montgomery).

Pomona 39, La Quinta 31--Ben Fredrickson scored 12 points but the shorthanded Aztecs (17-9) lost at home. Chris Smith, the Aztecs' leading scorer, and point guard William Chau were suspended by Coach Cork Snider for skipping school Friday. Pomona is now 13-9. Pomona led La Quinta 17-12 at the half. La Quinta had two of its three best players out of the lineup for disciplinary reasons, and so La Quinta's Southern Section playoffs ended much quicker than expected. The Aztecs were without the county's fourth-leading scorer, 6-5 senior forward Chris Smith (22.3 points, nine rebounds) and the team's third-leading scorer, guard William Chau (nine points). Both were not at school Friday and not allowed to play, according to Coach Craig Snider. Another player was academically ineligible, Snider said. Senior Ben Fredrickson had 12 points and 15 rebounds for La Quinta (17-9). Dustin Jordain scored 11 points for Pomona.

Gladstone 51, La Canada 45 --Chris LaCourt scored 19 points to lead fourth-seeded Gladstone to the III-AA victory at Gladstone. Gladstone now advances to the quarterfinal round on Tuesday against Pamona at a location to be determined. For La Canada, Jeff Riddell had 3 points and 8 assists, Pat Madigan scored 3, Ian Sullivan 14, Mark Futulan 16, Greg Swenson 3, and Jordan Ballard 6. Gladsonte held La Canada to just 5 points in the second quarter while scoring 11, and with a 4 point advantage in the fourth quarter, that made up the difference. La Canada ends it's season at 13-15, while Gladsonte improves to 18-5. Other scorers besides La Count, who had 19, were Titus Bradley with 12, Ray Jones 10, Louie Delgado 6, Darrel White 2.

Lower Bracket

Alemany 62. Santa Paula 49-- Alemany continues its season with a win over Frontier League's Santa Paula as Devin Montgomery scored 21 points and Reggie Kinlaw scored 10 and pulled down 13 rebounds. Bryson Atkins had 12 ponts, Remy Maynord had 5, Casey Clausen 4, Neson 2, Goodman 2, and Herrick 6 as Alemany improved to 18-6 overall and advanced to a quarterfinal matchup against Servite at a site to be determined. Santa Paula, which was held to just 2 points in the first quarter, was never able to get back on track, and even though they outscored Alemany 14-12 and 22-17 in the third and fourth quarters, the 12 point deficit at the end of the first quarter, which was added to by a 19-11 Alemany second quarter, was too much for Santa Paula, which ends its season 14-13 overall.

Servite 57, Monrovia 49-- Billy Hamilton scored 14 points and Matt Ponsford scored five of his 12 points in the fourth quarter to lead the visiting Friars (15-12). Jed Ranzen also scored 12 points for Servite. Servite led Monrovia 30-16 at the half. Servite thus advanced and will play Mission Hills Alemany on Tuesday in the Quarterfinal Round at a site to be determined. Other scorers for Servite were Moore with 3, Lizan 3, Friedl 3, Morris 2, Biolet 8, Ramzam 12, and Ponsford 12. Monrovia ends its season at 11-14 overall.

Brawley 76, Chaparral 62--Brawley guard Andy Burnett started the Division III-AA first-round game by hitting from the outside and then finished off Temecula Chaparral (16-9) at the free-throw line. Burnett, who scored 27 points, made four three-pointers in the first quarter as the Wildcats took a 17-3 lead. Chaparral stayed close and cut a 52-40 deficit entering the fourth quarter to 64-58. Brawley held on by making 18 of 24 free throws in the fourth quarter. Burnett was 9 of 10. Shaun Scott came off the bench to score 18 points to lead Chaparral, which has no seniors and was playing in its first playoff game. CHAPARRAL (62) -- Kurtz 9, Larsen 6, Buller 4, Cooper 6, Cooke 12, Brenier 5, Scott 18, Hopkins 2. BRAWLEY (76) -- Estrada 2, Burnett 27, Atchison 15, Lofton 14, Washington 12, Aguirre 2, Wood 2, Williams 2. Halftime score -- Brawley 39-28. Three-point goals -- Kurtz 3, Scott 4, Cooke 2, Larsen, Burnett 5, Lofton. Total fouls -- Chaparral 19, Brawley 17. Fouled out -- Brenier. Technical fouls -- Burnett.

San Dimas 93, Yermo Silver Valley 46-- Jason Greenlee of San Dimas (24-3) scored a career high 19 points to lead all scorers, and Josh Smith scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and D.J. Hackett scored 13 points and had seven assists to lift San Dimas over the visting Silver Valley.