SoCalHoops High School News

CIF Southern Section Playoffs: Division I-AA
Game Previews--(March 2, 1999)

We've put together some small previews for tonight's games in Division I-AA. If you want specific information on a player, or on a particular game played earlier this year by any team, use the "Search SoCalHoops" link on the lower-left hand side of the navigation bar. 

Divison IAA Upper Bracket Semifinal

Jordan v. Artesia
7:30 p.m. at Cerritos College

This is one game that a lot of people have been looking forward to for a long time, including Jason Kapono of Artesia and Travon Bryant of Jordan. Artesia is the defending I-AA champion from last year, and they are currently ranked 10th in the country by USA Today in the poll released this morning, March 2. At 28-2, they have not really been tested except perhaps as pugilists last week when Eisenhower tried to physically hur several players, resulting in freshman Franklin Matos winding up sprawled on the floor with a concussion. He didn't get up for almost 5 minutes and was hospitalized briefly after the game, which was won easily by Artesia 77-51.   Artesia has really smoked everyone so far in the playoffs. In the first round, they hammered Palmdale 105-29; in the second round they defeated San Gabriel 89-41, and last Friday night, they defeated Eisenhower 78-51. According to USA Today,  Jason
Kapono is averaging 24.5 points, and Jack Martinez is averaging 18 points.

As Louis Johnson noted this morning in the Long Beach Press-Telegram, "The battle between Jordan junior forward Travon Bryant and a stellar Artesia frontcourt is worth the price of admission alone. The 6-foot-7 Bryant, who is one of the top juniors in the country, is the Panthers' leading scorer and rebounder. He had 18 points and 19 rebounds in a 57-49 win over Ayala."  And as Louis also notes, "Jordan is hardly a one-man team, though. Senior guards Darren Peterson and Craig Calloway are double-figure scorers. The two combined for 32 points against Ayala."  Up front Bryant will have to be able to contend with one of the biggest front lines in basketball, including some college teams:  Jason Kapono (6'-8"), Jack Martinez (6'-8"), and Apolinar Fernandez (6'-9").   Kapono is all-everything, and was just named to the McDonald's All-American team;   Martinez has the longest wingspan of just about anyone playing high school basketball (or college for that matter), and he's a tremendous athlete, a pure rebounder and shot blocker, with a great offensive game as well.  Fernandez tends to drift in and out of games, but if he brings his focus and attention, he's capable of being a dominant post/power forward.  Against Eisenhower,  Kapono scored 31 points, Martinez had 17 and Fernandez contributed 12 in Artesia's quarterfinal triumph over Eisenhower.  Whether Jordan has enough to stop these guys inside is the open question.

Jordan finished second in Moore League play, ahead of Compton but behind Long Beach Poly, and they are currently 24-6.  They've played a much tougher playoff schedule than Artesia has, but that's only fitting for the No. 1 seed to get an easier route. In the first round, Jordan beat Channel Islands 89-57, then pulled Santa Maria in the second round, beating them by 19 points, 69-50.  Then last Friday, Jordan beat Ayala in a very close game 57-52.

Here are the rosters for each team. We've also placed links to our pre-season previews of both teams at the top of the page, just in case you want to compare how we thought they'd do with how they've actually performed. Note: It's possible that we're missing some of the jv/freshman players who might have moved up onto the varsity rosters for playoffs, but we wouldn't expect to see such players get signficant playing time, if they get any at all. This will be a game of all-stars, pretty much limited we would predict to those guys who've carried these teams all year.   We've place an asterisk next to the players we'd expect to start:

Division I-AA Lower Bracket Semifinal

Long Beach Poly v. Corona Centennial
at Long Beach City College, 7:30 p.m.

This is a game which will pit the known against the unknown, the favorite against the underdog.  It's a fact that most teams other than league opponents and the "high profile" teams who play against each other in the big-exposure events (the Pump Hoop Challenge, MLK Nike Dream Classic, Nike Extravaganza, SoCal Classic, etc) don't get to see each other during the season, and thus it happens sometimes that playoff opponents don't know what the opposition is really like.   Tonight's game might be such a game, but fortunately for coach Palmer, we did a preview of Corona Centennial back on October 24, 1998.  Go ahead and call us lucky, say we made a lucky guess, but in October, we just had a feeling that Corona Centennial was going to surprise more than a few "big name" teams. Ok, we're really geniuses, and we knew that Corona Centennial would be in the semifinals all along.

Poly has been a known quantity all season long.  Our preview of Poly was somewhat incomplete, since it was done in the early pre-season back in early October, 1998, but not a whole lot has changed since then. The establishes stars of the team are Wesley Stokes, Shea Anderson, Toe Travis, and a cast of great supporting athletes, including Kenny Wright. In the first rounds of the playoffs, Poly has performed very well. The second-seeded Jackrabbits (23-6) have won their three playoff games by an average of 19 points each. In the first round they beat Esperanza 79-55; in the second round, they beat Oxnard, 65-46, and in Friday's quarterfinal win over Ontario they won 64-50. Junior forward Joe Travis had one of his best games of the year against Ontario, scoring 19 and 15 boards, and Kenny Wright hit for 18 points.

Corona Centennial (19-7) has beaten Littlerock in the first round in a squeaker, 75-72, and in the second round, they dropped the No. 3 seed  Fontana 84-75.  On Friday, they beat Valley View in overtime in the quarterfinals, 89-88.  While their wins have been close, they've been a good shooting team, just as we had thought they would be, and they finished first in Mountain League play during the regular season. Look for sophomore forward Jamaal Williams to make the biggest impact for Centennial. On Friday night, he scored the game-winning basket over Valley View, and hit for a game high 33 points.   Poly's Shea Anderson will have his hands full with Williams, but then Anderson might also give Williams a tough time, and certainly Poly has the size advantage overall in this game.  In our view, though, this one will come down to which team has the deeper bench and whether Poly's good outside shooters decide to show up in the first half, because this is not a game where the Jackrabbits can afford to drift as they often do for a quarter or more.  This one should be one of the best games of the year, and you won't want to miss it.

Here are the rosters. Again, our Corona Centennial roster is based on the early pre-season, so we don't have numbers, and it's probably incomplete too.  It's also possible that others whom we haven't seen lately will show up on the roster, including some jv guys who've moved up. The anticipated starters are shown with an asterisk:

See you there.

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