SoCalHoops High School News

CIF SoCal Division II Regional Final:
Dominguez 85, Fresno Edison 57--(March 13, 1999)

This game was a total wipeout, just a complete disaster if you are from Fresno, and if you are from Compton or a fan of the Dons, it was total domination, from start to finish.

If Tyson Chandler had a breakout game, this was it. He finished with 18 points, a team high, and he made those shots in a variety of ways:   Slam dunking, laying the ball in, fall away 15' jumpers, pretty high arcing shots, and he almost nailed a half-court shot at the buzzer at the half. . . almost.  Tyson was the consummate player tonight. He had 10 rebounds, 2 blocked shots, made 6 of 10 from the field, 6 of 9 from the line, and in general just did whatever he wanted to do.   And he had a stellar supporting cast, and in fact there wasn't a single player on the Dominguez bench who didn't play, and everyone played more than 2 minutes, including Joey Aubrey, who not only played 2 minutes, he scored the last basket of the game at the buzzer.

Dominguez threw everything they had at Edison, and it totally frustrated the Tigers, who had just witnessed their girls team being beaten by a phenomenal Brea-Olinda squad.  At least the girls made it a game, as Brea Olinda won 69-65 in the last minute of the game.  This one though was never close.

Dominguez went on a 10-2 scoring run which lasted for the first 5 minutes of the game.  They eventually extended the lead to 19-6 with about two minutes to go in the first quarter, and ended up breaking out to a 25-11 first quarter lead off of some very impressive play from Marcus Moore, who was being watched closely by San Jose State's Eddie Hill (the only college coach we saw in the house, and he had just come over from the Pump Shootout at Dominguez Hill), and from Tyson Chandler.  Of course Marcus was pretty self-conscious, and he managed to pick up 3 fouls in the first half, and ended up sitting for long stretches, which was just fine with Ron Jackson and Jaffus Haley who both alternated at the point for most of the second and third quarters.  And it looks like Keilon Fortune, who was a sometime starter at the beginning of the season, has been relegated to the third option at the point, at least for now, which is probably both a good and a bad thing.  Jaffus has better size and moves the ball well, but he's prone to getting his entry passes picked off, and he made consecutive turnovers in the fourth quarter.  However with the lead safely at about 35 points by then, coach Otis never even flinched.

Keith Kincade was also a monster tonight, scoring 17 points on 5-8 shooting from the field and going a perfect 7 for 7 from the line. Ronald Jackson scored 12 points, had 3 assists but committed 5 turnovers while Marcus Moore hit for 4, but he also turned the ball over 5 times.  Marcus did have a truly spectacular no-look pass, which had everyone, including all the coaches laughing because it was just so unbelievable, and that's probably Marcus' best attribute (his ability to pass the ball in the frontcourt).  Of course, he drives with his head down too much for our liking, but he's pretty darn effective, so it really doesn't matter if we like it or not.  Steve Moore was another bright spot for the Dons, coming into the game in the third period, he hit 3 of 4 from three point range and made 2 for 2 from the line for 11 points and we haven't seen him play better.  He was loose, having fun, smiling and generally enjoying himself.

We saw Edison play several times at the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic, and from what we saw then, the team that showed up tonight was a bunch of imposters.  They missed point blank layups. They missed free throws, they missed everything and anything.  It was awful. Really ugly to watch.  In fact so ugly, that about half the Edison crowd walked out before the end of the third quarter.   Edison brought their great jazz-marching band, and we would have liked tohave heard more, but they weren't playing after the half, at least not much and when they finally did, it was like a funeral dirge.

How bad was it?  Willie Johnson, who still managed to get 23 points in this fiasco, shot 8 for 26 from the field, 1 for 7 from three pont range and he made 6 of 7 free throws.  And he was the best.  Chris Lopez was neutralized right away by Chandler and Kincaide, and he picked up 3 quick fouls and sat for most of the second and third quarters, and when he came back into the game in the second half, it was over, literally and figuratively.

Oh, and if you read the program notes for this game in the CIF Program, the note which said that Edison's Richard Manning is "UCLA-bound" is wrong.  At least it's wrong to the extent it implies that he's going to UCLA to play basketball.  And neither is Willie Johnson.  Willie is going to Nevada-Reno to play football, and the only Ricky Manning who has signed a college National Letter of Intent is Ricky Manning, an Edison football player.  We can see how the CIF got confused, but the program notes are just wrong.

So Edison ends the season at 27-8 while Dominguez is now 31-3 and they will advance to the state finals where they will meet Sacramento Grant, which beat Chico 70-51 tonight in the NorCal Regional final.

Here's the scoring.  We've also got some photos of this one, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to put them up, because sleep beckons.

Here's the scoring by quarters:

The complete scoring for Dominguez (starters are indicated with an asterisk *):

The scoring for Fresno Edison was:

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