final cif section II-A inglewood v. Mayfair

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SoCalHoops High School News

CIF SS Division II-A Championship: Inglewood
Blows It, LosesTo Mayfair 47-42--(March 6, 1999)

Inglewood was the top seeded team, and returned to the finals after a two year absence. Inglewood had won most of its "easy" games, i.e., the local tournament games and most league games, but in the big ones (Vegas, and now here) Inglewood just forgot to show up.

Inglewood was looking for its third title in the 90's. The Sentinels won the Bay League this season, and then went on to defeat Los Altos 71-38, Lompoc 77-56, and the defending division champion Ocean View 61-45, and entered this game with a 29-3 record.

Mayfair was the true Cinderella story of the playoffs this year (like Gahr). They were unseeded. They had not won a league title, but had finished second in Suburban League behind Artesia. They were looking for their first ever title, and came into the game with a 25-6 record which included a preliminary round game against Ridgecrest Burroughs which they won 49-37, and then wins over Temple City in the first round 67-40, a win over Muir 69-64, and then a tough semifinal game over defending champion Santa Margarita which they won 64-53. The leading scorers coming into the game for Mayfair were Josh Childress, who was averaging 20.8 ppg, and Jesus Miranda, at 11.2 ppg.

Well, today in the final game for the CIF Southern Section Championship, Inglewood forgot to show up, and they were overpowered by Mayfair and Josh Childress who scored just off his average, hitting for 18 points.

This wasn't just any old loss for Inglewood, this was a more that a "virtual" collapse, it was a total and complete disaster. In the first quarter, Inglewood sorta, kinda forgot to play, and at the end of the quarter, the score was 11-7, and had it not been for Sandy Fletcher, Inglewood would have only had Noel Felix's 2 points. Fletcher kept the Sentinels in the game, scoring 5 points on 2 for 5 shooting in the first quarter. Josh Childress had 3, and Jesus Miranda scored 2, while Andre Waters had 4 and James Washington also had 2 for the Monsoons.

In the second quarter, Childress scored another two, Waters scored 2 more, Chris Pittman had a field goal, and Jeff Bonds scored from the field for Mayfair, but this time it was Inglewood who outscored them, 10-8, and at the end of the half, the score was 19-17 Mayfair. This was turning out to be quite an ugly affair for Inglewood, but again, it was Fletcher who saved the Sentinel's bacon in the quarter, scoring another 6 points; Brian Taylor hit a two pointer and Skip Esene also hit 1 out of 4 attempts, but that was it.

After the halftime break, Inglewood came out fired up, and they managed to outscore Mayfair easily, 22-11, and it looked like they were well on their way to that next CIF Championship. At the end of the third quarter, Inglewood was leading by 9, 30-39. But all of the Inglewood scoring was from just two players, Skip Esene who had 9 points in the third, and Flether, who scored another 11, and in a game like this, against a team like Mayfair, that's a dangerous thing.

Because when those two guys stopped scoring, the wheels came off entirely for Inglewood. Really. How bad was it?

The vaunted Inglewood Sentinels, No. 1 seed in the Division, No. 1 in the last SCIBCA poll in their Division and ranked in the state, only scored 3 points in the fourth quarter.

That's right, you read that correctly. Three points. Trey. Two plus one.

Yeeeeeow.

And Mayfair didn't let the opportunity go, and they just punished the Sentinels, scoring 17 points themselves in the quarter. And their defense was tremendous too as they held Sandy Fletcher to just one point, and Brian Taylor to just one field goal.

Childress scored 7 in the fourth, Pittman another 2, Miranda 2, Jeff Bonds scored 4, and Andre Waters scored another 2.

Mayfair played great and deserved the win. As for Inglewood, we can only hope that they remember who they are and how they got to the State Tournament when it comes time to play again this coming Tuesday.

The finals scoring figures were as follows: Mayfair-- Chris Pittman 4 points, 7 rebounds; Edwin Draughn 0 points (only played 3:27); Matt McCraw (DNP); Jesus Miranda 7 points, 7 rebounds; Josh Childress 18 points on 8 for 21 shooting; James Washington 4 points on 2-5 shooting; Terril Smith (DNP); Derek Mollette (DNP); Jeff Bonds 6 points, Andre Waters 8 points, Brandon Morgan 0 (4:26); Sam Garkovich (DNP). For Inglewood: Brian Taylor 4, Sandy Fletcher 23 on 9-18 shooting, 2-6 from three point range, 3-4 from the line; Marvin Issacs 2 points, Skip Esene 11 points, and Noel Felix 2.