SoCalHoops High School News

CIF State Finals Division II Game Preview:
Compton Dominguez v. Sacramento Grant--(March 17, 1999)

State Championship Game--Division II
8:15 p.m., Friday, March 19 - Arco Arena
Sacramento California

The State CIF official website claims that these are "Two teams which play a similar style game" who will meet in "what figures to be a terrific matchup."  For the sake of the fans in attendance who make the trip from beyond the Sacramento area, we certainly hope so.  Because looking at the roster for Grant, and reading about how they've played this year, and more importantly, looking at their results and strenght of schedule, we here in SoCal have our doubts about just how close this game will be.  Grant is good, don't get us wrong. In fact they're really good, but like almost every team that Dominguez has played this year (probably with the exception of Oak Hill, which defeated them, but only barely at the Nike Extravaganza), we'd say there isn't a deeper and more talented team at this moment than the Dons.   If you witnessed the SoCal Regional Final, then you know what we're talking about.   Dominguez was a really, really good team before that game, coming in ranked No. 8 in the nation by USA Today.  But they left as a great team, certainly one of the greatest in the State right now, as they just pounded Edison Fresno 85-57, and Edison was no patsy either. Frankly, we really have our doubts about whether this game is going to be all that close.   It looks to us, frankly, like Dominguez is nearly unstoppable right now. 

Before we get to the matchups, first, the usual historical stuff:  Dominguez has won back-to-back state crown in 1996-97, after losing the 1995 Division II title game to St. Francis Mountain View. This is the Dons' fourth appearance in the state title game in five years. The top-seed in the south, Dominguez was never really challenged in the southern regional bracket, beating East Bakersfield (100-51), Inglewood (71-42) and Edison Fresno. Even the CIF website notes:  "The Dons' high powered offense is multi-dimensional and does not rely solely on one standout player." In the regional finals, Tyson Chandler led the way with 18 points. Keith Kincade added 17 and Ronald Jackson knocked down 12.

And while Grant counters with some good players, they've also suffered a major ego blow today.  The news out of Sacramento is that the Grant High basketball team was forced Tuesday to abandon a two-season tradition of players and coach praying together at games after the ritual was challenged as unconstitutional. Pacers coach Tony Lowden, who has been dogged by controversy this season, and his team captains spent much of the day today (Wednesday, March 17) defending the practice of joining together in prayer before games.  But when they were faced with a late-afternoon ultimatum from Grant's  Superintendent James N. Rutter, who said that Lowden could not coach in Friday's Division II championship game if he prayed with his players, Lowden left the decision to his team about whether they thought prayer or a coach were more important. The team captains said they wanted their coach there to lead them to what they hope will be the school's first state title, so Lowden will be there but there won't be any praying.   News like this probably was not the kind of attention from the media that Grant wanted going into this game, and they certainly didn't need the distraction, because Dominguez will give them all the distractions they can handle.

But back to the history: Grant was a top-seeded team in the northern regionals and had an easy playoff run. Grant beat Shasta 82-49,  then beat perennial power St. Francis of Mountain View 71-52,  and finally beat Chico 70-51 in the regional finals.  Ronald Dosty is the big name at Grant, and he led the offensive attack with 18 points and 14 rebounds. James Pugh also came up big offensively with 17 points in the final.  Grant makes its second appearance in the title game, having never won.  In 1996, they lost to Harvard-Westlake and the Collins twins in the Division III championship game, a 62-49 loss.

Here are the rosters:

So what do we know about Grant?  Well, we know that Tony Lowden, a young Marine,  must have had a chat with David Greenwood of Verbum Dei:  He doesn't just coach Grant to play well, but the Pacers' coach also has a dress code before and after games (like Greenwood) requiring the players to wear suits and ties.  This is a well-behaved group of young men.

What about their players?  Well, a story earlier in the year described Jameel Pugh as a player who "likes to wear Superman T-shirts in practice and warmups," and Pugh loves to fly to the basket, dunking the ball whenever he can. In the NorCal regional final against Chico, he threw down an alley-oop from Parris Warren and his soaring one-handed finish from Warren with 5:25 left in the game also put the exclamation point on the win. In the final, Grant dominated Chico in virtually every aspect: The Pacers were faster, continuously beating the Panthers downcourt on long outlets with Warren or Stephen Walton finishing. They were superior rebounders, getting a 50-24 advantage on the boards.  They played better defense and won all the sprints for loose balls. The Sacramento Bee has described some of the players: "Stephen Walton is the spiritual leader and playmaker. Ronald Dosty is the rebounder and interior muscle. Onterrio Smith provides the inspiration and the floor burns."  Walton was injured in the Sac-Joaquin semifinal game against East Union, but the senior guard still managed to score 21 points despite playing most of the last three quarters with a dislocated middle finger on his shooting hand. Dosty, a 6-6 junior forward who led the area in rebounding, had 14 rebounds in that game, and Smith, a football star, hit for 13 points and had nine rebounds. 

Grant went into the  final Sac-Joaquin title game against Burbank as the third-seeded team, and the Pacers beat No. 8 Burbank 77-65. In that game,  Lowden rotated Parris Warren, Onterrio Smith, James Pugh and Stephen Walton in and out of the game, and even though Stephon Harris, Burbank's 6-foot-5 forward and second-leading scorer was averaging close to 35 points coming into the game, Grant managed to hold him to just 11 points on 5 of 18 shooting and he ultimately fouled out of the game with his Burbank team down 10.  Lowden certainly knows how to coach these guys and get the most out of them, and if Dominguez has anything to worry about, it's that Lowden will try to match wits with Russell Otis, who has a lot more in the way of depth to work with.  Grant is smaller than the Dons, but they like to run.  If they have to, Dominguez is very capable defensively and can slow the Pacers attack down with it's amoeba press, and if they do, the Dons shouldn't have too much trouble.  But the thing the Dons will have to keep in mind is that Grant is not a one-dimensional team either, and they don't depend upon just one or two players for their offense.  Stephen Walton, a 5'-11" senior guard, has been averaging 16.5 ppg and 4 rebounds, while Paris Warren averaged 12.5 ppg, Geral Lowe averaged 10 ppg, Onterrio Smith 11, ppg, Jamel Pugh 12 ppg, and Ronald Dotsy led the team with an amazing 17 ppg and 15.5 rebound per game average through the regular season and the playoffs.

But then Dotsy doesn't run into the likes of Tyson Chandler, Keith Brooks and Darius Sanders on the blocks every day, and if he's looking for his usual numbers against this Dominguez team, he'll have to eat more than just Wheaties on Friday.   Grant has beaten some fine teams, but the majority of their competition has not been overwhelming. Not bad, and some pretty good teams, but certainly not the kind of competition that Dominguez has been dealing with all year. Their losses have come against just two teams, Oak Ridge, which beat them twice on back-to back games 87-85,and 88-79, and then a forfeit to Yuba City in a league game.

Dominguez, which comes into the game with only three losses (to St. Ignatius ranked at No. 8 by USA Today for most of the season before dropping in the final weeks after suffering a loss to Bellarmine Prep; to No. 1 ranked Oak Hill, which finished the season still ranked at No. 1 by USA Today, and by Mater Dei, which is ranked at No. 9 currently by USA Today and the favorite to win the D-I State title on Saturday) is, in our estimation, so deep it's obscene.  They are much deeper this year than they were last season with Tayshaun Prince, and they are probably about two or three times as deep as they were with those great teams featuring Kenny Brunner, Walter Small and Tayshaun.  Last year's freshman sensation, Tyson Chandler, has finally shown signs of the maturation that everyone had been complaining he was lacking last summer, when he got pushed around a bit in some all-star games and tournaments.  But this year, no one is pushing the "Franchise" around.  Tyson had a huge game in the SoCal Regional Finals, as Dominguez beat Edison, with Tyson scoring 18 points and 5 blocked shots.  Marcus Moore, who is being pursued right now by several big-time college programs, had a great game, as did Ronald Jackson, Keith Kincade, Keith Brooks, Larry Johnson, Steve Moore, Keilon, Jaffus Haley, and even Joey Aubry, who rarely plays. Really, Russell Otis can just keep throwing wave, after wave of players on the floor, and there's very little that most teams can do to stop Dominguez.  The key for Grant, if they want to have any hope (or a prayer. . . sorry couldn't resist), will be to force Dominguez into a half-court game, slowing their running and relentless attack.  Unless Grant has some speedsters hidden away we don't know about, it would be suicide for them to try to run with the Dons.

We could certainly go on and on about how tough, fast and strong Dominguez is, but why do that.  What we'd suggest you do instead of reading about Dominguez, is just jump in your car, hop on a plane, take the train, walk, ride, or hitchhike, but somehow get to Sacramento any way you can, because this will either be one of the bigger blowouts of the State Tournament, or it will be one hell of a good game. We're not betting on a blowout, but we certainly think Dominguez will win.  And if they don't, well, then that just will just prove that anything can, and sometimes does happen in high school basketball, especially big-time, high-stakes State Championship games.

See you there.

©Copyright 1999 All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
E-mail: jegesq@socalhoops.com