SoCalHoops High School News

LA City Section Playoffs: Second Round
Schedules & Preview--(Feb. 24, 1999)

We're not going to go on and on again at any great length about the differences between the "City Championship" and the "City Division Championship."  Even though there's no more 3A and 4A any longer, just think "3A" and "4A" and that will help you understand what's happened with the City Section playoffs:  The top 16 teams in the City are playing for the "City Championship" and for the right to go on to the CIF State Tournament which starts in early March.  The next best 16 teams (i.e., 17-32) are battling for bragging rights only.

Based on the results from the first round of play last Friday night, here are the games which will be played today.  Note that all games are at 7:30 p.m.

The "City Championship"  games will feature some great matchups:

No. 9 Cleveland at No. 1 Fairfax-- This is a renewal of a great rivalry, as the LA Times reminded us yesterday. This year the Fairfax Lions have Joe Shipp (6'-6" Sr. SF) who is having a great year and is still looking at Vanderbilt, Pepperdine, Oregon State, Jason Morrissette (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF) who can just take over a game with his athleticism, Stanley Thorne (5'-11" Sr. PG) one of the quickest and fastest ball handlers in the City this year, who has signed with Loyola Marymount for next year, Marqui Jones (6'-4" Jr. SG), Fowzi Abdelsamad (6'-0" Jr. SG), Lovester Adams (6'-2" Jr. SG), Craig Smith (6'-6" So. F/C), Ismael Torres (6'-2" Jr. SG), Fernando Samson (6'-0" Fr. PG), Kevin Cooper (6'-1" Sr. G), and Evan Burns (6'-5" Fr. F).  Cleveland features All-American Kent Dennis (6'-2" Sr. SG) a true three-point specialist. But they also have some other guys, including Kenny Mason (5'-11" Sr. PG/SG), Eric Bush ,  Brian Smith, Grant Pledger, and a few others, all capable scorers.

Yesterday, the LA Times put out a very nice sort of historical piece on the Fairfax v. Cleveland game.  Here are some excerpts:

During the late 1980s, there were few basketball rivalries as fierce as Cleveland-Fairfax.  The City Section schools were in the same league and produced future NBA players Sean Higgins and Chris Mills of Fairfax and Lucious Harris and Adonis Jordan of Cleveland. The coaching matchup was Bobby Braswell of Cleveland against Harvey Kitani of Fairfax.  Fairfax knocked off Cleveland, 86-58, in the 1987 City Championship game en route to a 25-0 record before the state playoffs. The Lions defeated Cleveland four times that year.  Two seasons later, Fairfax upset the heavily favored Cavaliers, 53-51, in a 1989 quarterfinal that was Braswell's final game as Cleveland coach.  The fact Cleveland (21-4) is playing top-seeded Fairfax (22-5) in a City Championship quarterfinal Wednesday night at Fairfax brings back memories for Kitani, in his 18th season as the Lions' coach.  "We've had some great games with Cleveland," Kitani said. "All we need is to have Braswell there."   Braswell, the coach at Cal State Northridge, said he would attend the game if he wasn't on the road with the Matadors at Weber State. But he intends to send assistant Andre Chevalier, a former Cleveland player and coach, to Fairfax for the game.   "We'll have the original Cavaliers represented one way or the other," Braswell said.  Adam Levitt, Cleveland's first-year co-coach, was a freshman player at Cleveland when the Cavaliers lost to Fairfax in the City final. Levitt has told his players that a victory Wednesday could propel Cleveland back to City prominence.   "We've pumped them up with the knowledge of what Cleveland used to be," Levitt said. "They want to take us back to the good ol' days."  No. 9-seeded Cleveland has won 12 consecutive games led by seniors Kent Dennis, Kenny Mason and Brian Smith. The Cavaliers' 60-47 rout of Palisades last week sent a message to the rest of the City.  "We're definitely a legitimate team and have built up a nice set of steam," Levitt said.  Fairfax has no intention of taking Cleveland lightly.  "We won't do that," Kitani said. "They were in our spring league, so I know they have some very good players." 

No. 7 Washington at No. 2 Manual Arts-- Washington is good, and proved that they were good by beating No. 10 Chatsworth convincingly, by 21 points, but still, Manual has to be considered the favorites in this game, with their running and frantic style of play.  Washington features Nehemiah Campbell (6'-4" Sr. F), Rodney Anderson (6'-1" Sr. G), Lewis Woods (5'-11" Sr. PG) Antoine Parker (5'-10" So. PG),  Eugene Moore (6'-6" Jr. F) a big banger who can do some things and get up and down the floor in a hurry,  David Warsaw (5'-11" So. PG/SG), Michael Torday (5'-10" Sr. PG/SG),  Darrell Bagsby (5'-9" Sr. PG/SG), Dontae Foster (6'-2" Fr. G) and Timothe Fehoko (6'-1" Fr. G).   Manual Arts of course features two of the quickest and best guards in the City in James Wright (6'-0" Sr. PG) who will attend Long Beach State next year, and Curtis Millage (5'-11" Sr. PG/SG).  At the small forward spot, Manual has Ronald Cass (6'-3" Sr. SG/SF/PF), one of the most versatile and unassuming players you'll see, who also happens to have the best footwork of anyone  in the City section in our opinion.  Ronald is a great kid, personable, coachable, and we hear he's fully qualified, but he's still one of the most under-recruited players we know of right now.  Brandon Moorer (6'-8" Sr. PF/C) and Johnny Hardwick (6'-10" Sr. C) don't need to worry about recruiting any longer, because they're going to Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and we expect big things from them in this game. Manual also features reserves Otis Belisle (6'-2" Sr. SG/SF), Larry Dillingham (6'-2" Sr. PG), Mario Roberts (6'-1" Jr. PG/SG), Earl Felix (6'-5" So. PF), Luis Rodriguez (6'-6" Sr. C), Deandre Morris (6'-4" Jr. F) and Jason Crow (6'-4" Jr. F).

No. 6 Sylmar at No. 3 Crenshaw--Sylmar, last year's City Section 3A Champions have had a great season so far, losing only 6 games, and three of those losses were to out-of-State competition and one was a forfeit based on Sylmar's coach Bort Escoto getting assessed two technicals in a single game, which under City Section rules caused the Spartans to have to forfeit because a team can't play without it's head coach (stupid rule. . .what would they say in Indiana???).  Sylmar finished first in East Valley League, first in Valley Pac-8 Conference play, took third in the Fresno Buchanan Tournament and finished 12th out of 54 teams in the Reebok Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic.  This is a very talented team; the only question is whether they will have enough steam, speed, and power to beat Crenshaw, the No. 3 seeded team in the City.  Sylmar's got some size where it counts in Jeremiah Turner (6'-7" Sr. SF/PF) and Joey Youmans (6'-8" Sr. C/F) who are both active and can score in the paint but will need to step up their defense; Dallas Townsend (6'-4" Sr. F) and George Wrighster (6'-4" Sr. SG/PF) will fill up the wings with George playing great and averaging about 24 ppg now that the recruiting monkey is off his back and he's signed with Oregon; Brandon Jacobs (5'-10" Sr. PG) and T.K. Reid (6'-0" Sr. PG) at the point will work on defending E.J. Harris (6'-2" Jr. PG) from Crenshaw. Sylmar has some depth off the bench with players like Chris Slade (6'-0" So. SG),  George O'Garra (6'-6" So. C), Damien Derrico (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF), John Valdez (6'-1" So. SG) and Jerry Calzada (6'-2" Sr. SG).  Crenshaw, for it's part, has Jonathan Stokes (6'-0" Jr. SG), E.J., Webbert Dampeer (5'-11" Sr. G), David Merriwether (6'-0" Sr. G), Richard Bluette (5'11" Jr. G), DeAndre Bennett (6'-0" Sr. G), Dialo Washington  (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF), high scoring Fairfax transfer Tommy Johnson (6'-4" Jr. SG), DeWayne Parker (6'-3" Sr. SG/SF), Shaun Hemsley (6'-9" Sr. C),  Armand Thomas (6'-8" Sr. C)--although we haven't seen him play recently, and rumor is that he might be ineligible--Ryan Simms (6'-8" Sr. F), Christopher Davis (6'-6" So. F), Omosa'lewa Daramola (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF), and Louis Gray (6'-4" Sr. SG).   This will be a close game, a lot closer than most people will expect,  even if Crenshaw does get the home court advantage.

No. 13 Franklin at No. 5 Westchester -- We know a lot about Westchester, and this team, unless it falters or unless Franklin is really vastly better than what we've been hearing, should make it to the semifinals. Westchester, the Division I State Champions from last year aren't likely to make it back to Sacramento next year, but then you never know. . . Manual or Fairfax might lose, and anything can happen between now and March 19-20 in Southern Section, so you never know. Chris Osborne (6'-9" Sr. F/C) has signed to play with ASU next year, and Friday night, he pounded in 20 points from inside the paint.  Eric Knight (6'-3" Sr SG/PG) has got to be, in the words of Frank Burlison, one of the top unsigned combo-guards on the West Coast, maybe not a true point, but certainly capable of playing the position like he's done all year.  Westchester has also moved up Jason McKinney (5'-10" Fr. PG), the quick and talented freshman who Ed Azzam has been hiding all year on the JV squad along with Keith Everage (6'-2" Fr. SG/SF) and a couple of other guys.  McKinney, who they call "Taz" because he moves like the Warner Brotheres, "Tazmanian Devil" character, is really a fun player to watch, just a ball of pure energy, and he can drive, penetrate and shoot too.  Westchester also features one of the top juniors on the West Coast, Lou Wright (6'-6" Jr. SG/SF) who bombed in 20 points on Friday night while shutting Gilbert Arenas and Grant down completely.  Westchester has a sorta, kinda replacement for Jamal Sampson (7'-0" So. C) who transferred out and is now at Mater Dei in Chad Bell (7'-1" So. C).  Chad is not nearly as graceful on the court as Jamal, at least in our opinion, but he's still a huge talent. After being off the team for two weeks for disciplinary reasons, he came back for the Grant game last Friday, and played well.  Westchester also has Jason Breland (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF), a good shooter, and Terrence Lawson (6'-5" Jr. F) one of the best one-on-one defenders and Friday he stuck to Gilbert Arenas like flies on sh. . . well you get the idea; he held Gilbert to just 9 points in the first half, and 11 in the second.  The rest of the Westchester bench doesn't play all that often, but you may see Eres Asserat (6'-7" Jr. F), Kevin Brown (6'-2" Jr. SG/PG), David Popoola (6'-1" Jr. G), Chris Thomas (6'-1" Sr. G), Wayman Rowe (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF) or Mackenzie Dent (6'-5" Sr. F) who sometimes starts.  As for Franklin, we don't know anything about any of their players.  Nothing.  The only thing we do know is what Venice coach Dave Goosen told us:  "This team is for real, and they are going to surprise some big powers in City Section."  Hmmmm.  Wonder if he meant Westchester?  Guess we'll find out tonight.

Remember all games at 7:30 p.m. but you better check with the schools just to be sure (especially at Manual Arts, where security might be a concern).

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