SoCalHoops High School News

CIF SoCal Regional Semifinals:
Mater Dei v. Manual Arts--(March 11, 1999)

There are two games being played in the Los Angeles area tonight in Division I: Artesia v. Glendora at Gahr High School, and Manual Arts v. Mater Dei at Loyola Marymount.  Both of these are "must see" games, so something's gotta give somewhere.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Mater Dei v. Manual Arts
At Loyola Marymount University 7:30 p.m.

What a wild, improbable matchup and contrast in styles.  We can't imagine two teams with more dissimilar styles and makeups.   Mater Dei is the  No. 1 team in Orange County, and is also ranked 14th in the USA Today Super 25 poll issued yesterday, March 10. Mater Dei (32-3) has won 13 CIF Section Championships; Manual Arts is not ranked in the Super 25 National Poll, and they aren't ranked in the USA Today West Regional poll either.  Mater Dei is methodical, structured and extremely careful with their game plan.  Manual runs, runs, runs, and then presses some.  Both teams are deep, but Manual probably has the more athletic group of players, and there will be some great matchups here.

For Jamal Sampson, this game will be deja vu' all over again. The sophomore transfer, who didn't get to play too much in last year's LA City Championship game, played for last year's City, Southern Regional and State Division I Champs Westchester, which eliminated Manual Arts in the City Finals at the Sports Arena.  Manual then traveled up north to Fresno, and lost to Clovis West in the first round of the Southern Regionals, but that was a game played without James Wright (6'-0" Sr. PG) who has signed with Long Beach State and may just be the quickest and fastest point guard in the West this year. Who will guard James is going to be a big question-mark, because Mater Dei simply has no one as quick or fast as James, especially now that Cedric Bozeman is out for the remainder of the season with a foot injury.

Manual also has forward Brandon Moorer who has signed with Texas A&M Corpus Christi,  and center Johnny Hardwick  who has also signed with Texas A&M, and we'd expect that Jamal and Mike Bayer, with some assistance from Erik Soderberg will get the call to matchup in the paint. The big open spot for Manual will be which Johnny Hardwick shows up:  the player, or the guy who disappears for long stretches, sometimes whole games.  Mike Bayer (6'-8" Sr. C) has been the workhorse for Mater Dei this year, and Jamal Sampson (6'-11" So. PF/C), who has only played in about 10 games this season, had a great game in the finals against Glendora.

We have no inside track on what kind of defense Mater Dei will try to throw at Manual, but if they play it right, they would be well advised to slow the game down and force Manual to run a half-court game.  Mater Dei has the personnel to do just that, and more, but they probably can't really be expected to run with the Toilers, at least not for long.    Mater Dei has tremendous offensive rebounding threats in Sampson and Bayer;  Derrick Mansell (6'-0" Sr. PG), Steve Scoggin (6'-0" Jr. SG) and Imran Sufi (6'-0" Sr. PG) have all played well, but whether they can adapt to Manual's pace will be something that only time will tell.   Manual for it's part has some great outside shooting, although you don't often hear about it.  Ron Cass (6'-3" Sr. SG/SF) is as good as any shooter in SoCal when he gets his feet set, and for a guy his size, he can run the floor very well.  James Wright, in addition to just pushing the ball and laying it up, has some backup on the perimeter from Curtis Millage who can hit the jumper, Larry Dillingham and Mario Roberts who are all capable scorers.

No matter who wins, this will be one very entertaining game, one we wouldn't miss for anything. . . well, maybe except for Artesia v. Glendora.

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