division 4a finals march 5, 1999

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SoCalHoops High School News

CIF SS Division IV-A Championship:
Verbum Dei Beats Crossroads 70-50--(March 5, 1999)

We won't go through all the rosters for this one. Suffice it to say that the starters for each team have become familiar names for most:

Crossroads started Anthony Locke (5'-7" So. PG), Chad Gordon (6'-3" Sr. G/F), Felipe Williams (6'-3" Jr. F), Devrin Anderson (6'-2" Sr. G/F), and Isaiah Fox (6'-9" So. C). Verbum Dei started the usual suspects: Dalron Johnson (6'-9" Sr. C), Marlon Parmer (6'-1" Sr. G), Washum Dashiell (6'-3" Sr. F), Jamal Dean (5'-11" Jr. G), and Ricardo Suazo (6'-5" Sr. F).

This game was just about the most entertaining game we've seen in a long time. First, it's not every day that you get to see a player of Marlon Parmer's caliber hit for 40 points in a variety of ways, in fact just about every way you can think of a player scoring: Driving, pulling up in the lane, from way outside on the baseline, and even shooting technicals at the line. Of course Marlon was named the Player of the Game for Verbum for his performance, but he also should have gotten an academy award for at least two critical acting jobs. The first occurred with 17.9 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Nick Dodson, who had come into the game to spell Dalron Johnson after he picked up his fourth foul, ended up fouling Mischa Taylor (6'-6" Sr. PF) of Crossroads very hard, so hard in fact that Taylor hit the floor with an audible thud, and many of us thought that something might have been broken. The fall can really best be compared to a full-bodied low-bridge flying tackle. Mischa got up, but apparently Marlon Parmer said something to Crossroads Albert Gersten, who at about 300 lbs is probably not someone to mess with. Gersten didn't like what Parmer had said (or done), so he just shoved him. . . hard. And Marlon, great actor and smart player that he is, hit the deck, literally flying backwards through the key, and Gersten drew the game's first technical, in fact the first and only technical of the evening up until that point. Taylor first made both free throws, and then Marlon hit the free throw from the T, and with time expiring in the third quarter, Dodson hit a short little jumper at the buazzer to take the score to 49-36 Verb.

It was sort of like that throughout the game, with little moments of drama, great matchups, and fine scoring. At first, in the first quarter, Verbum Dei was running what looked like it's traditional offense, but they were not placing Marlon up at the right side with Dalron as the decoy, and it seemed like Verbs offense was sort of stalling in the first half. We say "seemed" because clearly it wasn't, as Verbum Dei broke out to an 18-10 first quarter lead; but in the second quarter, Crossroads made a little headway, outscoring the Eagles 14-11 in the second, and Verbum took a 29-24 halftime lead. At the half, Marlon had 13 points, on 4 for 9 shooting from the field, and Dalron had 10 points, also 4-9 from the field. Suazo, who had scored the first basket of the game, was pretty quiet, scoring 4 at the half, and Dashiell had 2. The high scorer, and the only one keeping Crossroads in the game, was Devrin Anderson, who had 1`1 at the half. Mischa Taylor had 6, and Fox had 5, while Chad Gordon had 2, and that was it. Not a very impressive showing by the Roadrunners. And as things turned out, Marlon was just getting started, and things were about to get a whole lot worse for Crossroads.

Verbum Dei's coach Greenwood decided to entirely switch the offense in the third quarter, and Huston Holley (5'-5" Sr. PG) pretty much played the one for the rest of the game, while Marlon switched to the two spot. The offense for Verb seemed puzzling, but it was simply designed to allow Marlon to get open and he had a green light to shoot and create, and he did just that. Marlon was wherever he wanted to be, shooting whenever he wanted, and pretty much connecting at will. And with this change in offense, something weird and wonderful was happening for Verbum Dei: They were pulling ahead, way ahead. and in the third quarter, they outscored Crossroads 20-12.

UNLV coach Billy Bayno was there watching the game, and assessing his prize recruit Dalron, who was hitting from just about anywhere he wanted to also, and unlike his usual inside game, Dalron was pulling up for jumpers from 15' to 17'. He was taking floaters, leaners, and baseline jump shots, and most of them dropped. We chatted briefly with Coach Bayno, and he said that he's looking forward to getting the opportunity to work with Dalron next season. "I view him as a four with the option to score from the outside," said Bayno. "He'll fit in great with our system." Coach Bayno also told us that he was going to be leaving LA tomorrow morning, and would be flying up to Fresno to check out "a point guard." Of course we couldn't help wondering why he would want to even look at another point guard when he was watching Marlon, one of the best point guards, and an unsigned one at that, on the entire West Coast. We mentioned that to Bayno, and he just smiled. And smiled. And then smiled some more. Hmmmm. Marlon as a Rebel? He could do a lot worse. Of course there were others there looking at Marlon too, including the University of Portland's Rob Chavez.

And at this point, it's probably also worth pointing out that being at a big time event like the CIF Southern Section Finals, brings out the best and the brightest stars in the Crossroads family. Nope, we didn't see Baron Davis there, because he's on the road with the Bruins, but we did happen to catch a glimpse of quite a few Hollywood Elite, including Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen (her son is a Crossroads student), Disney's Joe Roth, and several other "luminaries." And the funniest moment for us after the game was seeing Albert Gersten getting into his black stretch Lincoln Towncar Limousine after the game. . . . you'd have thought he was Shaquile O'Neal or something. . . doesn't every high school basketball player come to the game in a limo?

Back to the game. In the third quarter, with UNLV's Billy Bayno looking on, Dalron picked up his third foul with about 3:00 to play in the quarter, and Nick Dodson came in and promptly slammed one down and Verbum Dei stretched the lead to 43-34. Devrin Anderson was keeping the Roadrunners in the game, and Marlon continued to light up with his signature drive from the right to the left side spinning and driving. Towards the end of the third, the weird play with Gersten ensued, and at the end of the third, Verbum led 49-36.

But the fun and games were just beginning. At the start of the 4th quarter, Marlon drove again, made the shot, got fouled, and hit the extra point to make the score 52-37. At this point, fatigue seemed to be setting in on Crossroads, and Devrin Anderson, who had been shooting so well, missed two, the last a long three pointer from the right side of the key, his usual spot for scoring. Crossroads continued having difficulty, and with a little under 4 minutes to play, Verbum led by about 20, and the frustration was starting to boil over for the Roadrunners. At 3:44 to play in the fourth quarter, Devrin Anderson, obviously frustrated, committed one of the silliest fouls we've ever seen, mostly because it was so unneccesary. Here's what happened:

Marlon Parmer had just scored (again) and both teams were racing back down towards the Crossroads basket after the inbounds. Marlon got going a bit too fast, and sort of bumped into Devrin from behind, and Devrin, whose patience had obviously worn way too thin, turn, and gave Marlon an elbow right in the chest.

Now it wasn't a really sharp elbow, just a nudge, and actually, if the refs had wanted to, they could have just as easily called a foul on Marlon for bumping into Anderson. But the ref who witnessed the play had clearly had enough of the pushing and rough stuff from Crossroads, and not waiting to call the second "T" on Anderson, simply ejected him from the game. That's right. E-J-E-C-T-E-D him. And with that, Crossroads chances of winning a Section Championship (to the extent they existed at all this year) went right out the window. And so too have their chances in the State Tournament, as Anderson will now have to sit out the next game as well, and that could prove to be a crushing blow. Even after getting tossed with almost 4 minutes remaining in the game, Anderson was still Crossroad's leading scorer with 14 points.

After the ejection, Coach Roper sensed that the game was almost an exercise in futility, and perhaps not wanting to risk injury or further emotional outbursts from his starters pulled Isaiah with about 3 minutes to play. Fox finished with only 7 points, but by and large he was moving Dalron out of the paint most of the night. Tracy Pierson observed that Fox, who has one of the strongest and most developed bodies for a sophomore, is really different than most young big guys: Fox has the opposite problem of most big men his age; he can establish position which most young big men can't, but he also lacks the mobility and the moves inside that many of the slimmer and lighter big guys have at a young age. For our part, we think that Fox has tremendous upside potential, but he's got to improve his footwork if he really wants to acheive truly elite status. Fortunately, he has two more years to do that, and we have no doubt that by the time he's a senior, he'll have most of the top D-I programs salivating to sign him. As Tracy said tonight, "You just look at Isaiah Fox and he looks like a major Division I player."

With about 1 minute left to play in the game, all of the Crossroads and Verbum players sat down, and the "student" players, i.e., those regular guys who rarely play, got into the game. Others refer to this as "garbage time" but we'd call it "student play" time, because a lot of these guys are pretty decent players who just don't get to play that often because there just isn't room for them on the court with the stars. The play was sloppy, but it was still fun to watch. Several of us sitting at the press table (who shall go nameless. . . and no, Tracy Pierson wasn't in on this) were taking bets on whether and how long Coach Roper would be able to hold his temper. Those who bet he'd get a technical won the bet, with only 17.9 seconds remaining in the game (eerie isn't it? 17.9 seconds in the third, a T got called too). Apparently, Coach Roper couldn't contain himself, and he blasted out onto the court when a ref didn't call what he thought was an obvious foul. Of course, Verbum made the technical free throw, and the game, was for all intents and purposes over anyway.

So Verbum Dei wins it's 21st Southern Section title and second seeded Crossroads fails to win it's 8th title. Verbum has got to be one of the leading favorites to win the State Title this year, and we'd be surprised if anyone knocked them off, although we'd bet that the seeding committee will somehow look to match up the Eagles with Horizon in the Southern Regional finals. We'll be watching, and we'll see you there.