SoCalHoops High School News

CIF Southern Section Playoffs: Division II-AA
Semifinal Results--(March 2, 1999)

Division II-AA Upper Bracket Semifinal

Nike Dominguez 93,  Shoeless Rancho Verde 73

"Nike" Dominguez?  "Shoeless" Rancho Verde? Hey we're just kidding.   We don't mean to make fun of anyone, least of all the Rancho Verde kids, who did one heck of a job throughout the season, and last night, and for making it to the semifinals they are certainly to be congratulated.  

All joking aside, Dominguez' win over Rancho Verde was a very touchy subject last night with Rancho Verde Coach Bill Ciancio, whose team lost by 20 points to a vastly superior Dominguez team.  Ciancio, probably the first and only coach all season to publicly castigate Russell Otis, wasn't kidding around last night when he took a swipe at Otis, Dominguez, the refs, and even Nike too. And his remarks were reported in at least two major media outlets today.

Here's what the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported:

"They're the best team that money and Nike can put together at the high school level," said Rancho Verde coach Bill Ciancio. "If we'd been going up against a regular high school team, we would have been fine."   Continued Ciancio: "I anticipated everything that would happen in the game down to the Nike ball that they'd use. I even knew about the referees."  Ciancio was referring to the 16 fouls his team was called for compared to the nine Dominguez picked up. "There was no way," Ciancio said, "that the officials were gonna let Dominguez be in a close game."

Ouch.  In fairness though, the P-E did print Dominguez Coach Russell Otis' reaction:

Otis took umbrage, however, at Ciancio's comments regarding the Dons' Nike basketballs, uniforms and workout suits. "If they'd played against everyone we've played against, I'd like to see if they would still be 26-4," he said. "I'm usually mild-mannered but when you take cheap shots like that at my team, that ain't cool."

However being a Riverside/San Bernardino paper, the P-E felt compelled to describe Tyson Chandler as a "San Bernardino native." 

The Long Beach Press-Telegram also printed something similar to lead off their story of the game, but looked at it a little bit more from the "hometown" perspective.  When Otis, grinning from ear to ear with the win, went to shake hands after the game with the Mustangs, obviously elated because the Dons win put them in the finals for the seventh consecutive year, he was stung by Ciancio's remarks:

But that smile was short-lived, turning to an angry frown as he went to shake hands with Mustangs coach Bill Ciancio, whose verbal jab stunned the Dominguez coach. "He said, 'You have the best team money can buy,' " Otis said. "Taking a cheap shot at my team is not cool. I was going tell him that he did a great job with his team, then he made that comment."

Why can't college players and coaches criticize refs, criticize their league official or NCAA officials (look at Steve Lavin and Baron Davis with the ref-fiasco at Washington a few weeks ago),  but it's acceptable for a high school coach to,  in effect, accuse another coach, a school and game referees in a playoff game of undermining the credibility of the game, question the integrity of the referees, and in short, cast doubt on the validity of the outcome of a high school playoff contest?   Should the CIF tolerate such conduct?  More importantly what can or should they do about it?  If there's even a grain of truth to what Ciancio has suggested, what of it? Should the CIF investigate; should it review game films to be certain that there's no truth to the charge about the referees?   If there is even a shred of evidence, then the CIF can deal with it appropriately;  and if there's no truth to these allegations, shouldn't an apology of some sort be required.     We understand that from time to time coaches say things in the heat of the moment which, upon reflection in a more sober and quieter time they might not otherwise, but when a coach makes the kind of allegations made by the Mustang's coach, doesn't it impugn the integrity of the game, the integrity and honesty of the refs, and the put into question the entire governance structure that is the California Interscholastic Federation?

Hey, we don't have the answers.  But we sure do have questions.  Well, maybe we have a few answers.   The fact of the matter is that Dominguez beat Rancho Verde, and they did it on the basketball court.  It probably didn't matter what kind of shoes either team was wearing, and we doubt that either team would have played much differently had they all worn adidas or Reebok, or Converse, or Puma, or any other shoe you can name.  In fact, if the whole Dominguez team wore different uniforms and each player wore a different kind of shoe, Dominguez would still probably win.   The Dons didn't win because the ball said "Nike" on it.  It would have bounced the same had it said "Spaulding" or "Wilson."

The point is that Dominguez won the game not because of their uniforms or shoes, or the name on the ball, but because they are an incredibly talented group of players.   Sure Dominguez may get more free stuff than other teams, and there may be more "star" players who have flocked to Dominguez so that they can be surrounded by other "star" players, but don't blame Otis for that.  Don't blame Nike either; they're just trying to sell shoes and build brand identification.  And don't blame the refs. 

Nope, let's get real here.  If you want to blame anyone, blame the California State Board of Education, and blame the policy of "Open Enrollment," an educational statement which allows California students to go to whatever school has room.  Want to play the flute, and need to transfer because you want to play with the best orchestra instructor?  No problem. If there's room, c'mon over.  Want to attend the best magnet for math and science?   No problem. If you've got a sliderule and a calculator, we've got a desk.  But if Tyson Chandler, one of the best young 7-footers ever to grace a California high school court, wants to play with the best, and the best all happen to congregate at Dominguez, well, then shame on him.

This may sound different than the tune we were playing last year in discussing the issue of transfers, shoe company influence, and AAU coaches, but really, we've had a lot of time to observe and think about these issues, and we've found that there's really very few athletes, if any, who are influenced or "told" what high school they "must" attend by any shoe company.   In fact, we'd say that the shoe, so to speak, is on the other foot. It's the shoe companies and the AAU/summer coaches, who court the student athletes, who make overtures to them, and who scramble around in the spring to make sure that they get "committments" from the best and brightest stars to play on their spring and summer traveling teams. Let's face it, shoe companies and aau traveling coaches are concerned with getting the best players and winning the most games.  That's about it.

If you want to "blame" anyone for the situation that now exists, again, we say blame the current system which permits it to exist.   Blame  parents who make educational decisions based solely on athletics without considering the academics, and without realizing that little junior probably has some pretty long odds staring him in the face when it comes to getting a Division I scholarship, and even longer odds of ever playing at an even higher level.  Blame the administrators who allow kids to graduate without really getting an education. 

But don't blame Dominguez for winning a basketball game.  Do kids transfer for athletic reasons?  Of course they do. But that's the system, at least until the powers that be change it.

So what happened in the game?  Oh yeah, there was a game played last night.

Well, in the Rancho Verde v. Dominguez game, the one played by the players during regulation, not the one played by the coaches afterwards, Keith Kincade scored 25 points and had seven rebounds, Ron Jackson scored 18 points and center Tyson Chandler had 12 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks for Dominguez.  Dominguez guard Marcus Moore did not start, but finished with nine points, seven rebounds and four steals.  Dominguez' win means that the Dons will play in their seventh consecutive championship game against San Gabriel Valley League rival Gahr, the Cinderella story of the playoffs.

The Dons came out with a big lineup against the small but quick Mustangs, who basically start five guards, much like Sonora did against Dominguez in the quarterfinals. The front line of center Tyson Chandler and forwards Keith Brooks and Keith Kincade got Dominguez moving quickly, scoring 19 points to give the Dons a 21-13 first-quarter lead. Fourth-seeded Rancho Verde pulled to within 24-21 on Brandon Shaw's basket 2:30 into the second quarter. That's when Dominguez's Ronald Jackson, playing for Marcus Moore, who was benched the first half for disciplinary reasons, began a tear. He had 12 second-quarter points, and Kincade, who finished with a game-high 25 points, added 10 points to help the Dons pump their lead back up to 49-37 at halftime. Preston Norman, who paced the Mustangs with 23 points, got RanchoVerde, which was down by as many as 15 points in the third quarter, within 10 points, 70-60, hitting his fourth 3-pointer of the period with 26 seconds to go. After that basket, the Dons, who also got 12 points from Steven Moore, responded with an 11-0 run to put the game out of reach.

And if the truth also be told, Rancho Verde lost the game, but was in it right up through the end of the third quarter. The Mustangs (26-5) trailed the Dons (27-3) only 72-60 heading into the final quarter. The deficit was impressive since Dominguez, which advanced to the division championship game for the seventh consecutive year, is ranked ninth in the nation in this week's USA Today high school poll.   And whether Ciancio's criticism of the refs is valid or not, it was the Dons' deep bench, and their ability to rest starters for long stretches of time that finally wore Rancho Verde down in the final quarter. The 12-point lead bloated to 26 points before the Mustangs finished with an 8-2 run.  Preston Norman finished with a team-high 23 points, including four three-pointers in the third quarter.  The Dons played the first half without starter Marcus Moore, who was benched after being late for the team bus. He scored 10 points in the second half, including a thundering slam dunk with 3:04 left in the fourth that brought Dominguez players, coaches and fans dancing onto the court along with a shower of candy. Brandon Shaw added 18 points for the Mustangs, who suffered their first loss of the year to a team other than Murrieta Valley or Moreno Valley Valley View. J.S. Nash added 11, and Fraancea Brown scored 10 off the bench.  RANCHO VERDE (73) -- Pinnex 2, Shaw 18, Nash 11, Norman 23, Johnson 2, Brown 10, Morgan 7. DOMINGUEZ (93) -- S.Moore 9, Kincaide 25, Brooks 13, Chandler 12, Jackson 20, M.Moore 10, Haley 2, Sanders 2. Halftime score -- Dominguez 49-37. Three-point goals -- M.Moore, S.Moore, Kincaide, Jackson, Nash, Norman 5, Morgan. Total fouls -- Rancho Verde 16, Dominguez 9. Fouled out -- none.

Division II-AA  Lower Bracket Semifinal

Gahr 76, Pasadena 73 (2OT)

Gahr High's incredible run has reached a point where no basketball team in the school's history has been: a CIF title game. The Gladiators, who have no starter taller than 6-foot-2 and were admitted to the playoffs as a wild-card team, advanced to the Southern Section II-AA championship with a 76-73, double-overtime victory over Pasadena (24-8) on Tuesday night at Occidental College. Marques Jordan's layup with 48 seconds left in the second overtime put Gahr ahead for good. George DeJohnette's 3-point attempt missed for Pasadena in the final seconds and Gahr's Darrell Handy grabbed the rebound and the Gladiators ran out the clock. Gahr (20-10), which missed game-winning shots at the end of regulation and the first overtime, got 18 points from Handy and 15 from Jordan. James Perkins scored 16 points, grabbed eight rebounds, had five steals and five blocks.

It was a typically tight game for Gahr, which has won its four playoff games by a total of 12 points. They've knocked off three league champions and will have a chance to make it four in Saturday when they play a familiar foe: San Gabriel Valley League champion Dominguez. "We play so smart and unselfishly," said Kurt Ruth, Gahr's first-year coach. "Each kid has put the team first."

When it appeared that the Bulldogs were reduced to a noiseless bark late in regulation during its CIF-Southern Section Division II-AA semifinal game with unseeded Gahr, the magic within the Occidental College walls somehow got the team into overtime.  It worked again in the first overtime, when Pasadena bit back and forced another extra session by rallying from four points down with 1:23 left.   But in the second overtime, the Bulldogs had nothing left.  Down 60-54 and unraveling, Pasadena turned to senior Jasun Ridley. Ridley's 3-point play with 2:17 left in regulation cut the margin in half. 
After a Gahr turnover, Kevin Richard scored off a pass from George DeJohnette with 2:09 left.   Ridley made one of two free throws to tie the game, 60-60, before junior point guard Reggie Harmon put Pasadena ahead, 62-60, with 1:24 left with two free throws.   Gahr tied the game when Darrell Handy banked home a shot with 49 seconds left.   Richard then blocked a pair of shots in the final seconds to force the first overtime.  Gahr's 6-0 run put it ahead by four points and the Bulldogs looked to be running on fumes.  But Harmon's clutch 3-pointer and his free throw 46 seconds later tied the game, 68-68. 
Gahr again had the final shot, but Handy's 22-footer at the buzzer fell short.  The Gladiators forged ahead, 72-68, with 2:05 left in the second overtime.   A Harmon free throw and two layups by DeJohnette eventual made it a 74-73 game with 48 seconds remaining.  After two free throws by Michael Williams of Gahr, DeJohnette's 3-pointer was off the mark with one second left. Pasadena couldn't muster a possible game-winning rebound shot off the miss.  Harmon led all scorers with 21 points; Ridley had 15 points and DeJohnette had 14, and Richard had 13.

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