chaminade beats harvard-westlake

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SoCalHoops High School News

Chaminade Beats Harvard-Westlake At HW--(Feb. 1, 1999)

Chaminade won the second Mission League meeting this year, this time at Harvard Westlake's Studio City campus, 71-80, but it wasn't nearly that close. In the last two minutes of the game, Harvard-Westlake came from a 17 point deficit and cut the lead to six, but Scott Borchart, Cayce Cook (5'-10" Sr. PG) and Darren Tarlow (6'-4" Sr. SF/SG) managed to each score to keep the Eagle's lead secure. We were really impressed with Tarlow's rebounding and his ability to get inside and score, and we hear that he's drawing attention from several D-I programs.

We didn't bother to keep stats, but we do know that Clarence Mitchell (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF) of Chaminade has to be the player of the game, as he scored at least 6 three pointers. Clarence was driving, firing on the run, and he has one of the weirdest looking three point shots, sort of a left hand shot put type of thing, but it went in a lot tonight. Scott Borchart (6'-9" So. F) also played very well, posting, and rebounding athletically and powerfully. J.J. Todd only managed to play about half the game, and didn't score much (if at all, we actually don't remember him scoring) but he did some nice rebounding during his limited playing time. Again, it would seem that he signed his National Letter of Intent at UCSB based more on his potential than any demonstrated ability to actually put the ball in the hoop.

Jim Lefebvre (6'-4" Jr. SF/PF) played well during the second half, scoring and passing well, and in general making good decisions, and it looks like he'll be a solid contributor next season as he, Mitchell, and Borchart take over. Oh, and J.J. Todd's "little" brother (who is now 6'-4" or so) who is playing Freshman ball this year, will also probably move up. Ryan Arceo (6'-0" So. SG) and Robby Tanouye (5'-10" Sr. PG) both moved the ball well, but were not very effective scoring.

After the game we talked briefly to Chaminade Coach Jeff Young who reminisced about the last time these teams met: "Last time we played them, we had 33 turnovers, but won by 15 points. This time, we had only about 10 turnovers and only won by 9. Maybe we should commit more turnovers," he joked. "Actually, I thought we played very well. I can't remember the last time we put 80 points on the scoreboard except in an overtime game. 80 points is really impressive for our team."

"I was also pleased with what we did defensively," Young said. " We managed to bother Russell Lakey and get inside his head a bit, and even though he scored 24 points, we still managed to keep him from scoring a lot more."

Lakey was playing well, but Young was right, he was "bothered" but not by the Chaminade defense which really didn't contain him much, but by the four fouls he had in the game. In fact, he played the last 6 minutes of the game with four fouls, and still managed to drive and score almost at will. He was effective inside and off the dribble, but as for Harvard-Westlake's "full metal jack-it-up-anytime-you-touch-the-ball" offense, H-W would do well to re-think this strategy, because they simply don't have the consistent shooters needed to pull it off. Nor were they able to consistently rebound the ball in order to insure enough possessions to outscore Chaminade's fast transition game.

While Eric Geffner and Alex Holmes can both hit the occasional three-pointer, as can Dan Kinzer, all three of them are really inside players and excel in the paint. While Holmes did have three three-pointers, he probably missed at least double that many from outside, and also passed up opportunities to get down low in favor of the three, and there's really no reason a 320 lb. 6-5 human version of the Sherman Tank should be jacking up three's, especially when Chaminade has a frontline of 6'-9 and 6'-10" in the game.

Eric Geffner (6'-5" Jr. SF/SG) was one of the few bright spots for the Wolverines both offensively and defensively, slashing inside, hitting some nice sweet shots high off the glass and exerting second and third efforts to get the ball and the tip in and in general showing great body control. If we have one observation its that someone needs to show him the way to the weight room . . . . or maybe not, because he seems to be doing just fine at only about 145 lbs. (Hey, that's a guess. Feed the boy, Mitch).

From what we witnessed, Harvard-Westlake really was never in this game, and at one point in the first half, trailed 27-12. While they continued to hang around, making small runs, they never led in the second half, and Chaminade pretty much cruised.

We're not sure of their league records, but given that Division III-A only has about 20 teams, if they have a 16 team pool, there's not much danger that H-W won't make the playoffs