dominguez beats gahr in final 3/6/99

socalogo.gif (8739 bytes)
SoCalHoops High School News

CIF SS Div. II-AA Championship
Dominguez Dominates Gahr 75-56--(March 7, 1999)

To our regular readers we're sorry we couldn't get this up sooner, but sleep beckoned, and most people who truly cared about the game were there anyway, right? Ok, well it's true that a lot of people who wanted to be there just couldn't for one reason or another, and that's where SoCalHoops comes in.

This was a game which was never in doubt, and for those who've seen Dominguez play, the big question is, why did they not do what Artesia has done this year, and move up into Division I-AA, because there are probably few if any teams who could be them now, especially in Division II where they will probably end up as the No. 1 seed in the Southern Regionals of the State Tournament which starts Tuesday. But this is not to diminish the Dons achievment, because winning a CIF Southern Section title is pretty difficult, when you stop to think about how many teams there are in Division II-AA (about 75 actually), and it's way more difficult than say Division III where there are only 23 or so teams who can even be eligible for a title.

While we think the Dons would be a perfect fit for Division I, for now, we'll all have to be content in the knowledge that the Dons were the best team this year in D-II-AA, as they won their first ever title in that division, and their fourth consecutive CIF Southern Section crown. For coach Russell Otis, it was the sixth CIF title of his tenure at Dominguez. The Dons, ranked No. 9 nationally by USA Today, came into the game with a 27-3 record. The only three losses this team suffered were to nationally ranked No. 8 St. Ignatius of NorCal (which incidentally lost to Bellarmine Prep in the Championship game of the CIF Central Coast Section Divsion I playoffs in NorCal), No. 1 ranked Oak Hill, and to No. 8 ranked Mater Dei on a shot at the buzzer by Imran Sufi at the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic in Las Vegas in December, which yesterday won the Division I-A CIF title by shutting down McDonald's All-American and the Southern Section's all-time leading scorer Casey Jacobsen. Dominguez' playoff run included wins against Westlake 98-46, Garey 95-71, Sonora 74-59, and Rancho Verde 93-75. And if you don't know the roster for Dominguez, they are led by Tyson Chandler (7'-0" So. C), Ronald Jackson (5'-10" Sr. PG), Marcus Moore (6'-4" Sr. PG), Keith Kincade (6'-5" Sr. SF), and Keith Brooks (6'-7" Jr. PF). They've also got some great shooters in Larry Johnson (6'-5" Sr. SG), Steve Moore (6'-2" Jr. SG), and some tremendous help in the paint with Darius Sander (6'-5" Fr. PF) and Cedric Thomkins (6'-7" Jr. F/C). The team also features point guard Keilon Fortune (5'-10" Fr. PG), Tyson's buddy from the SCA days, Jaffus Haley (5'-10" Sr. SG/PG), Bobby Jones (6'-6" Fr. F), Michah McKinney (5'-11" Jr. G), Everett Smith (6'-0" Sr. G), Keion Kindred (5'-10" Fr. G), and Joey Aubrey (5'-9" Sr. G).

Gahr, the most unlikely team to have made it this far in the division, really wasn't that unlikely at all, considering the wealth of talent that exists in the San Gabriel Valley League. But by standings and results this season, Gahr is nothing short of a Cinderella story. They came into the game as an at-large entry, having finished third in the San Gabriel Valley League behind Dominguez and Lynwood, and looking for their first ever CIF-SS title in the school's history. Coached by Kurt Ruth, they feature Anthony Davis (5'-11" Sr. G) who averaged 13.3 ppg this season, and Michael Williams (6'-1" Sr. G) who was averaging 12.1 ppg. Gahr managed a first round playoff win over La Serna by a score of 49-45, Tustin 53-50, Brea Olina 63-61, and Pasadena 76-73. Their record coming into the game yesterday was 20-10, and they went out at 20-11, as they will make their way to the CIF State Tournament Southern Regionals despite the loss to Dominguez. And by way of background on Gahr, and for future reference for Tuesday's game, remember these other names from Gahr's roster: Marques Jordan (6'-0" Sr. F), John Carraway (5'-10" Sr. G), Hamid Yazarlou (5'-8" Sr. G), Hamed Yazarlou (5'-9" Jr. F), Darrell Handy (6'-2" Sr. C), Ramalice Reed (6'-0" So. F), James Perkins (6'-3" Sr. F), Tajuan Jackson (6'-2" So. C).

A little more background on these two teams: Prior to yesterday's game, they had met twice in league, and each time Dominguez had beaten them. In the first meeting Dominguez beat them, but not badly, 65-51. In the second meeting, Dominguez just hammered the Gladiators 90-56. But Gahr was a team that liked multiple-game opponents; witness their three prior losses to Brea Olinda in tournaments this past season, 69-63, 72-65, and 67-63; the Gladiators take a while to get things down, but when they do, they ultimately end up winning, and they did just that with their quarterfinal victory over Brea last week to advance. So with Gahr having played Dominguez twice, maybe it was possible that they'd do some damage and get lucky.

But not yesterday, and not likely ever this season would that much luck be on Gahr's side. Because unlike Brea-Olinda, which matches up reasonably well size for size, Gahr really had no answer for Tyson Chanlder who ended up with 16 points and 5 blocked shots, 4 in the first half, and 11 rebounds. Dominguez won this game handily.

But the game wasn't a blowout, and Dominguez had a battle for at least the first half as Gahr managed to control the tempo and the flow of the game. Carraway and Handy were playing well, and Anthony Davis, with his speed and quickness was able to contain Ron Jackson and cause Marcus Moore enough problems that Ron Jackson came in to lead the point. Handy, Williams and Carraway in fact were the leading scorers during the first half for Ghar. The score at the end of the first quarter was 15-14, and the Dons only led by one. But Tyson was well on his way to the game MVP performance as he scored 4 points and blocked two shots; Ronald Jackson who came off the bench in place of Marcus Moore, scored 5 points (2-2 from the field) in the quarter, and Keith Brooks hammered home 6 points on 2 for 6 shooting. Ghar got balanced scoring from a lot of guys in the quarter: Jon Carraway scored 3 with a 3 pointer, Anthony Davis had 2 on 1-4 shooting, Darrell Handy had 4 on 2-5 shooting, Romalice Reed had 2 (1-1 field), James Perkins made a free throw and missed one, and Tajuan Jackson had 2 (1-1 FG).

In the second quarter, Tyson took over again though, and he scored another 6 points and blocked another two shots as the Dons stretched the single point lead to a more comfortable 28-34 lead. For the half, Dominguez shot .538 (14/26 FG) while Gahr was starting to struggle, shooting .387 (12/31) which turned out to be a percentage that Artesia, Poly or Glendora would have been happy with. But that's a different story.

If Gahr's game plan was starting to come apart at the end of the first half, it was shredded by the end of the third quarter. We don't know what Russell Otis said in the locker room during the halftime, but whatever it was, his guys came out and literally tore the Gladiators up, going on a 17-5 run in the quarter. Steve Moore came out and scored 6, Bobby Jones scored 3, Marcus Moore scored 4, Jaffus Haley hit for four, Keith Kincade scored another 4, and Tyson added two more points as Dominguez blasted the Gladiators in the quarter 23-9, and they went into the fourth quarter with a 20 point lead, 57-37.

While Gahr "won" the fourth quarter, 19-18, they only managed to dent the lead by a single point, and the final was a 19 point victory for Dominguez, 75-56. And as Gahr's Coach Kurt Ruth said after the game, "Tyson was just amazing. Every time we'd get inside and try to get something going, he'd shut us down. We just had no answer for him, or for some of the other big guys. But it was mostly Tyson who made the difference in this game."

The final scoring for Gahr was Jordan 6 points (3/8 fg, 0/2 3pt, 0/2 ft, 5 rb); Carraway 8 points (3/5 fg, 2/3 3 pt, 2 rb); Anthony Davis 5 points (2/8 fg, 0/1 3pt, 1/2 ft), Michael Williams 13 (5/11 fg, 3/5 3pt, 3 rb); Handy 8 points (4/12 fg, 0/4 3-pt, 0/1 ft); Reed 2 points (1/3 fg); Perkins 9 points (3/5 fg, 3/5 ft); and Tajuan Jackson 5 points (2/3 ft, 1/2 3-pt, 3 reb).

For Dominguez Ronald Jackson had 7 points (3/6 fg, 1/1 3-pt), Bobby Jones 3 points (1/1 3pt), Marcus Moore had 6 points (2/4 fg, 2/4 ft); Jaffus Haley had 4 points (1/1 fg, 2/3 ft); Everett Smith 2 points (1/1 fg), Joey Aubrey 0, Steve Moore 9 points (3/7 fg, 2/4 3-pt, 1/4 ft); Larry Johnson 4 points (2/3 fg); Keilon Fortune 0, Michah McKinney 2 points (1/2 fg), Keith Kincade 8 points (2/5 fg, 0/1 3pt, 4/4 ft); Tyson Chandler had 16 points (8/12 fg, 0/1 ft, 11 rebounds); Darius Sanders 2 poits (1/5 fg), Cedrick Thompkins 2 points (1/3 fg); and Keith Brooks finished with 10 (4/9 fg, 2/2 ft, and 5 rebounds).