southern regional semi results for glendora, artesia, manual, mater dei

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SoCalHoops High School News

CIF D-I SoCal Region Semifinals: Artesia Beats
Glendora; Mater Dei Beats Manual Arts--(March 12, 1999)

We have the results from both the Artesia v. Glendora game and the Mater Dei v. Manual Arts game. Since we were personally at the Artesia game, the article is substantially longer. If you want to jump right to the Mater Dei article, just scroll down the page. Here are the highlights from last night's Southern Regional Semifinal games.

Upper Bracket

Artesia 73, Glendora 46

Let history record that Mighty Casey has struck out. Well almost. He only scored 10 points, and didn't scored until 26 minutes had elapsed in the game as Artesia won last night's semifinal game. Let history further record that with the game clock showing 42 seconds remaining in the game, and Glendora hopelessly behind Artesia with the score at 71-44, the mighty Casey Jacobsen, the leading scorer in Southern Section basketball history, fell 76 points short of breaking the all time scoring record in the State of California, and ended his high school career on what had to be a somewhat down note. And as always, the Glendora fans were gracious in defeat, treating Jacobsen and the rest of the starting seniors, notably Chris and Chad Clark, to a standing ovation. But the same can't be said for a vocal minority of Artesia fans who harrassed and heckled Casey throughout the game and right up to the point when he left the contest, with chants of "overrrrrated" or "quit yourrrr whining." Merciless? You bet. But then nobody said the golf "polite applause" rules were in effect either. Even the Long Beach Press-Telegram this morning was pretty ruthless about it as staff writer Dave Werstine wrote:

Midway through the second quarter of Thursday night's second-round CIF Southern California Division I regional playoff game between Artesia High and Glendora, the chant of "Overrrrated, Overrrrated, Overrrrated" nearly deafened the capacity crowd at Gahr High.

How right those Pioneer fans were, as top-seeded Artesia ran the Tartans out of the postseason, 73-46, in what was one of the most-anticipated showdowns of the state playoffs.

Ouch. Those fans weren't alone last night, as about 2500 people packed the Gahr High School gym to watch the Artesia juggernaut simply roll over Glendora. And at various times in the game, Glendora simply looked like they didn't know what had hit them. What plowed into them was one of the state's most efficient and talented lineups, perhaps the best, certainly in Division I. And with St. Ignatius out up north (falling to DeLaSalle), if Artesia can get by Mater Dei, (we know we'll draw criticism from our NorCal friends at De La Salle or Oakland Fremont) it looks like no one will be able to stop them.

"Artesia isn't ranked No. 1 in the state for no reason," Glendora All-American guard Casey Jacobsen told the Press-Telegram last night after the game. The Tartans (31-3) spent much of the season rated No. 1 in the Southern Section Division I-A poll before falling in the CIF title game to Mater Dei. "They ran us out of the gym. We tried to keep up, but couldn't." If anything, Dave Werstine gets the award for "Bravest Person" because he actually tried to interview Jacobsen after the game, something that no one else wanted to do, given the look Jacobsen had. And it was not an inviting smile either.

And not very many other teams will be able to keep up either. That is if Jason Kapono remains healthy. Last night, in the third quarter, the Pioneers (32-2) paid the price for the victory as Jason suffered a sprained ankle. He came back to play for nearly six minutes in seeming agony, and finally with 2:36 left on the clock and Artesia up by more than 20, he left the game. We talked to his father, Joe Kapono, after the game and he said, "We don't really know how bad it is. We're taking him to the hospital to get checked out. Hopefully he'll be all right." The Long Beach Press-Telegram also interviewed Artesia coach Wayne Merino after the game, and he reportedly said, "The prognosis is that he is all right. He says that it is really sore."

If Kapono is ok to play tomorrow in San Diego, that would be a major boost for the Pioneers, who will need everything to beat Mater Dei.Of course, the Pioneers have a lot more than Jason Kapono. Artesia's huge front line features Kapono and a two huge sophomores, 6'-9" Amaury Fernandez and 6'-8" Jack Martinez. Point guard Andre Hazel has come on of late and 6-4 guard Aaron Hamilton had some responsibility for shutting down Jacobsen. Artesia scored 100 points in six of its Suburban League games, but had stalled prior to this game, playing a sub-par game in their 49-41 victory over Long Beach Poly in the Division I-AA title game last Saturday, and they struggled to put away Fairfax in what was one of the ugliest basketball games we've ever seen. But that was ancient history when it came to last night's game, and Artesia wasn't going to be denied their shot at the State Title again.

There were a ton of subplots to the Artesia v. Glendora game. First there was the mystique of California's two (reputedly) best players hooking up, and the playoff history between the teams. There was the anticipated matchup of the only two McDonald's All-Americans from California. And there was the subtext of Glendora getting revenge for last year's SoCal Regional semifinal loss, and Artesia wanting to repeat, and finally get the State Title in D-I for Jason Kapono and company. The 7:30 game at Gahr High pit the state's second-ranked team (31-2 Artesia) against the seventh-ranked Tartans (also 31-2). The winner will play Mater Dei, which beat LA Manual Arts, tomorrow at San Diego State's Cox Arena for a berth in the state championship game.
Glendora entered the game coming off a 61-58 victory at Clovis West on Tuesday night; Artesia won, 72-64, over visiting Fairfax. There's a lot of history for these two teams. The Pioneers eliminated the Tartans, 77-64, in this same round last season, and beat them in Southern California championship games in 1990 and '92. Those teams were led by Ed and Charles O'Bannon. This one is led by Jason Kapono, who Pioneer coach Wayne Merino said is the best player he's ever coached. The 6-foot-8 McDonald's All-American averages 24 points per game and had 21 in the victory against Fairfax. Utah, UNLV, Rhode Island and Syracuse are among the schools he's considering, and for those keeping track of the "Jason-watch," Billy Bayno of UNLV was there to watch Jason and check out the game, and he certainly wasn't disappointed with what he saw and neither was anyone else. .Kapono, who scored all 11 of his points before the injury, still played hard even after he was hurt, and he still managed to get a game-high 10 assists even after the injury.

And some Artesia fans might want to give credit to whoever the genius was who first invented or used the "box and one" defense. First used to frustrate Jacobsen at the Nike National Championships last summer by Dinos Trigonis' Belmont Shore team which used it very effectively to keep Jacobsen almost scoreless in the semifinals there, Mater Dei used it to perfection by sticking Christian McGuigan on Jacobsen in the Southern Section finals. And Artesia used it extremely well last night. According to the Times article today, "Before the game, Artesia Coach Wayne Merino and his staff spent hours studying tapes of Mater Dei's victory over Glendora in last week's Southern Section I-A final in hopes of slowing down All-America guard Casey Jacobsen. Artesia (32-2) wound up stopping him cold."

As Wayne Merino told Werstine at the Long Beach P-T, "This was one of the three best games that we've played all year. We didn't do too many things wrong. We did just about everything we wanted to." Everything included 21 points, a game high, from Amaury Fernandez, 11 from Kapono, and 20 from Jack Martinez, who also managed 5 blocked shots.

Here's the blow by blow account of the game. If you just want the finals stats, they're down at the bottom of the article, so scroll on down.

Glendora started Chris and Chad Clark, Casey Jacobsen, Justin Davis, and Mike Ahmad. Artesia started Fernandez, Andre Hazel, Jason Kapono, Jon Stefansson, and Aaron Hamilton.

From the start, this looked like it was going to be a close game; how wrong first impressions can be. Jason Davis hit the first basket of the night, a three pointer, but Jason Kapono came right back with a ;two pointer and for a couple of minutes while the two teams loosened up, the score remained 3-2. Kapono and Jacobsen were, at the start of the game matching up well on each other. Kapono made a beautiful cross-court feed to Fernandez who jumpstopped and timed the drive hittin an easy layup, but Mike Ahmad came right back with an easy layup and the score was still one point, until at 3:47, Jason Davis again made a great rebound, and put a missed Chris Clark shot for two to make it 4-7. Jason Kapono got fouled hard made, two free throws off a Mike Ahmad foul to make it 6-7. With 3:07 to play in the first, Fernandez was fouled and went to the line, making both to give Artesia the first lead of the game, a lead they would never relinquish. Chad Clark missed two wide open three point attempts, and Jack Martinez made a huge block on Jason Davis, and this game was startring to just take off, Artesia capitalizing on Glendora missed shots and turnovers.

Ryan Reyes further stretched the Artesia lead to 11-7 with 1:50 to play on a baseline three point shot, and then Amaury Fernandez made a layup, which was followed by an Aaron Hamilton layup, and the score was suddenly 15-7 with just a minutte to play. It just continued to get worse for Glendora as Amaury Fernandez got fouled by Ahmad, his second, and Fernandez made the shot at the line. Ahmad, who was the only consistent scoring threat for Glendora last night in the first half, but who only finished with 9 points overall, came right back with a monster dunk, followed by another layup just beforfe the buzzer, and at the end of the quarter, Artesia lead Glendora 18-11.

At the start of the second quarter, Chris Clark picked up a foul which let Kapono set up for what Artesia calls "circle" which is basically Ryan Reyes setting a pick for Jason Kapono at the top of the three-point arc, and Jason hit the three just as planned from the top of the circle, to make the score 21-11. On Glendora's next posesssion, they turned the ball over, and Reyes scored a layup. Chad Clark hit a three pointer, but then Jason Kapono followed with a beautiful feed to Jack Martinez who hit the back door layup off the bullet pass through the key. When Glendora turned the ball over yet again, they finally decided to call a timeout and with 5:17 to play in the first half, the score was 25-14. Immediately following the timeout, Jason Davis grabbed the inbounds pass and raced the length of the court for two, but Kapono came right back and made a driving, leaning layup off a Martinez assist. Hazel then ripped Chad Clark who was not having a good night bringing the ball up the court, and with Andre's blazing speed, he easily raced to the other end of the floor and scored an easy layup.

With a couple of minutes remaining in the first half, it seemed as though Jacobsen, who was continually being taunted by the Artesia fans with "overrrrated" and "quit yourrrrr whining" chants, finally cracked and lost his composure. With the score 31-16, and Casey racing down court, playing point for Chad Clark who was now sitting on the bench after committing consecutive turnovers, Jacobsen attempted a flying, slam dunk instead of just making the easy layup. Not only didn't he make the basket, with the ball flying off the rim, he also got called for the charge. Casey was not alone in his frustration, and LeDuc called a full timeout with 3:00 to go, and when the teams came back, Glendora had switched from a matchup-up man coverage to a 2-3 zone, and it seemed for a moment to stop the Artesia penetration somewhat. But only momentarily as Artesia went to a smaller lineup, with Andre Hazel and Ryan Reyes both in together. And Artesia countered by throwing a full-court press on Glendora, which just completely flustered the Tartans. Casey took over at the point because Justin Davis got trapped in the backcourt twice, but for Jacobsen, who doesn't have the best left hand dribble we've ever seen, it was sort of futile, and with 1:57 to play, Glendora continued to trail, 33-17. Casey drove hard to the basket, got fouled, went to the line and promptly missed both attempts, and in the first half he remained scoreless. The final moment in frustration for Jacobsen had to then be the final moments in the quarter: Jacobsen had an easy layup at the other end after an Artiesia missed shot, and he came storming and racing down court, with only one man on him, and . . . clunk. He missed the shot. Mike Ahmad managed to get the rebound, but he too missed a dunk with less than 10 seconds remaining in the half, and as the final insult, Jason Davis got the rebound off Ahmad's missed shot, and he too missed the putback. At the half, the score was still 33-17. Not insurmountable, but if things continued the way they had in the first half, the game was over.

Here's the scoring for the first two quarters: Glendora 1st quarter (the numbers are the shots, not totals--a 3 is a 3-pointer, 2 is a field goal, 1 is a free throw, and 0 is a missed free-throw): Jason Davis 3,2; Mike Ahmad 2, 2, 2 (Total Glendora 11); Second quarter: Chris Clark 1, 0; Chad Clark 3; Casey Jacobsen 0, Jason Davis 2 (Total Glendora 6) Artesia First Quarter: Amaury Fernandez 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1; Reyes 3; Hazel 2; Kapono 2, 1, 1 (Total 18); Second quarter: Matos 2; Fernandez 2, Hazel 2, Kapono 3, 2; Martinez 2, 2 ( Total 13)

In the third quarter Aaron Hamiton made a layup followed by an Ahmad layup but Jason came right back and scored again. Mike Ahmad finally hit the salm dunk for Glendora, and with 6:27, the score is 37-21. At 5:30 to play in the third, the unthinkable then happened as Jason Kapono, coming down off a rebound got pushed by Ahmad and collapsed on the floor and went out with an injury to his left ankle. With 4:22 left to play in the third, Jacobsen got his first score of the game, a layup, and then he came right back with a three pointer, but the score was still 43-26 with 3:39 to play as the teams essentially traded bakets after Kapono's exit.

It's sort of hard to describe the next series of plays, but with 3:02 to play, Kapono reentered the game, and promptly fed Jack Martinez, (who has the longest arms of anyone out there) with a gorgeous pass, and he conveted. With 1:34 to play, Glendora is hitting threes off Chad Clark, but at the end of the third, the score is 53-37, and it's looking more and more hopeless. Kapono is visibly limping, having great difficulty walking, but he's just the toughest kid we've ever seen, and if he's in pain, you'd never know it.

In the fourth, Martinez hit two. The teams traded possession, but Artesia, off some great Kapono assists, extended the lead by another 6 to 59-39. At 3:54 to play the game was, for all intents and purposes over, as Glendora called a timeout with the score 61-39. Artesia scored two more off free thorws and it was 63-39 when Kapono finally went out of the game, and Artesia, with Hazel, Matos, Reyes, Martinez and Hamilton again went to a full court man press, which was almost sort of redundant given the fact that there was no way Glendora was going to come back from almost 30 points behind. Matos hit one for three and made it 66-39, and at that point, with the freshman pouring them in, the game really was over. With 2:37 to play, Glendora managed to score again off Casey's free throws, scoring only their third and fourth points of the quarter, to make it 66-41. Andre Hazel hit another three at 1:24 to make it 69-41. Casey finaly hit a superfluous dunk, and with 52.5 to play, Artesia led 71-44. At that point, the Pioneers made a wholesale substitution, and brought in the bench who played around a bit, and LeDuc and Glendora realizing that there was no point in keeping Casey in any longer, pulled him out with about 32 seconds remaining, to end the high school career of the leading scorer in the Southern Section.

And so it ended, a 73-46 final score with Artesia advancing to the Southern Region finals tomorrow. Total scoring was Glendora: Chad Clark 1, Chris Clark 6, Jacobsen 10, Justin Davis 15, R. Briggs 2, Mike Ahmad 9, D. Reid 2. For Artesia, Matos 5, Fernandez 21, Reyes 7, Hazel 7, Kapono 11, Crane 2, Martinez 20.

Jacobsen shot 3-11 from the field, 1-4 from 3pt range, and 3-5 from the line. Fernandez shot 9-12 from the field and 3-3 from the line, while Kapono shot 4-9 from the field, 1-3 from 3pt range, and 2-2 from the line. Martinez was 10-13 from the field; Fernandez had 9 boards, Kapono had 6 boards, and Hazel had 6. Artesia shot an amazing 62% from the field (75% in the second half) shooting 31-50 overall, while Glendora was only 17-51 (33.3%).

Lower Bracket

Mater Dei 66, Manual Arts 64

Mater Dei appeared to be heading home on the big bus as the Monarchs trailed by 12 towards the end of the second quarter. But Mater Dei, never a team to be counted out (just ask Compton Dominguez) managed to come back from a 10-point second-half deficit and pulled out the 66-64 win last night at Loyola Marymount University before a packed house in the Southern California Regionals.

We didn't get to see this one personally, so we had to rely on reports from others, including Steve Fryer's article in the Orange County Register (really, go buy the paper, it's worth it, because they have the full box score) Here's what Steve had to say: "The Monarchs crept back to pull within two early in the third, but again it seemed the end was near when they fell behind by 10 later in the quarter. "But this team," Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight said, "never ceases to amaze me." The Monarchs (33-3) will play Artesia (32-2) in the regionals final Saturday at 8 p.m. at Cox Arena in San Diego. The winner will
advance to next weekend's CIF State Championships. Steve Scoggin led the Mater Dei comeback in the fourth quarter. Scoggin, a second-team All-Orange County guard, made three three-pointers and three free throws in the final eight minutes after shooting 3 for 9 over the first three quarters. "He battled early," McKnight said. "then he started hitting boom, boom, boom." The first "boom" was his first fourth-quarter three-pointer that cut Manual Arts' lead to 47-44. His second tied it, 53-53, and his third tied it again, 56-56. When Imran Sufi made two free throws with 3:18 to go, he gave the Monarchs their first lead since early in the first quarter. From there, free throws made by Derrick Mansell, Mike Bayer and Scoggin kept Mater Dei on top. Manual Arts' quickness advantage was evident early. But the Toilers' outside shooting also helped them lead throughout most of the first half. Curtis Millage made back-to-back three-pointers in the first quarter to turn a 9-9 tie into a 15-9 lead for the Toilers, and they kept it until the final moments of the fourth quarter.

The LA Times had equal praise for Steve Scoggin: "Steve Scoggin has been trying to find his jump shot throughout the playoffs. Scoggin, a Mater Dei guard, thought he found it Tuesday in a Southern California Division I boys' basketball first-round playoff victory over Chula Vista Bonita Vista. But for more than two quarters Thursday night against Los Angeles Manual Arts in the division semifinal, Scoggin was cold again. His Monarch teammates, however, kept things close with some outstanding free-throw shooting and when Scoggin finally found the range, he drilled three three-pointers and a couple of long-range jumpers to rally Mater Dei to a 66-64 victory at Loyola Marymount."

The Times also described Mater Dei's successful second half defense and the effect it had on Manual's vaunted running and gunning offense:

"Mater Dei hit 23 of 27 free throws, including eight of 10 in the final 3:18, and relied on tough man-to-man defense to keep the Toilers (28-4), the City Section champions, away from the basket in the second half. Manual Arts made only two of its final seven attempts, all forced jumpers. Manual Arts Coach Randolph Simpson criticized his team for being impatient in the second half after pounding the ball successfully into the key often in the first."

If there was one key to the game, according to the Times' Gary McLeod, it "was the shooting of Scoggin, who scored only two of his team-high 16 points in the first half, that rallied the Monarchs from an eight-point deficit. They grabbed the lead for the first time, 60-58, on two free throws by guard Imran Sufi with 3:18 to go. "All my shots felt good," Scoggin told the Times. "It was just one of those days. I knew it had to come around sooner or later and it did." Mater Dei made 13 of 21 field goals in the second half. Although in foul trouble most of the game, 6-foot-10 center Jamal Sampson made his presence felt. He scored 10 points and had seven rebounds but played only 15 minutes. His layup and free throw with seven minutes left in the game got the Monarchs even for the first time, 47-47. Derrick Mansell finished with 14 points, as did center Mike Bayer. Guard James Wright, who made five of eight three-pointers, led all scorers with 23 points. Curtis Millage had 19. When Manual Arts stopped trying to get the ball inside, it cost the Toilers. "We were impatient," Simpson said, "and we didn't make our free throws. Mater Dei did. They had more of them and we were driving inside, too. If we had 27 free throws, maybe we make six or seven and we win." The Toilers made 10 of 18 from the line. Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight credited the Monarch defense with forcing Manual Arts to change its game plan. "I thought we handled their press well in the second half and I think that our team defense bothered them quite a bit," he said. Manual Arts, which made 12 of 22 field-goal attempts in the first half, came out shooting but Mater Dei, thanks to some good free-throw shooting (the Monarchs made all nine attempts in the half), matched the Toilers, 9-9, midway through the first quarter."

So now Manual is done and Mater Dei goes on to Cox Arena tomorrow. Congratulations to Manual Arts and all the players there on a fine season, and to the seniors, congratulations on fine high school careers. And to Mater Dei, congratulations as well, and we'll just keep an eye out for the Monarchs as they run into Artesia and these two superpower teams bang away at each other.