poly v. artesia final

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SoCalHoops High School News

CIF SS Div. I-AA Championship
Artesia Beats Poly, 49-41--(March 6, 1999)

This game had been hyped and anticipated since the seeding committee released the brackets, and so far the Division I-AA tournament has played itself out as expected. It featured No. 1 Artesia, ranked No. 9 in the country by USA Today, and Long Beach Poly, the No. 2 seed Long Beach Poly. But only one of them could win, and for most of the game, in fact the entire first half, it seemed like no one wanted to. In a game filled with so many turnovers by both teams we literally lost track, Artesia managed to stay awake and focused long enough to defeat a Poly team that in no way resemebled the Poly team we've followed all year.

Poly was this year's champion of the perennially tough Moore League, and came into the game seekding it's fourth title since 1990, and its second in the past three years. Coach Ron Palmser's squad features leading scorer Wesley Stokes (5'-10" Jr. PG), who is averaging 13.8 ppg, adn leading reboundeer Shea Anderson (9.2 ppg, and 9.6 rebounds per game). Poly came into the game with a record of 24-6, ande since the end of the season has compiled tournament wins over Esperanza (79-55), Oxnard (65-46), Ontario (64-50), and Centennial of Corona (83-62).

Aretesia, who some people affectionately call "Team U.N." because of the large contingent of foreign-born players, is this year's Suburban League Champion and was also the defending title holder for the Southern Section Division I-AA. Last year Artesia made it all the way to the Southern California Regional Championship game in the State Tournament only to lose to Westchester by a single point at the buzzer. This year they are determined to get to Sacramento, and tonight's game, win or lose, was just one stepping stone on the way to Arco Arena on March 20. Aretesia was looking for their 5th overall title in 8 appearances in a CIF final, and it's second consecutive title in Division II-AA. They compiled a 30-2 record on the way to tonight's game, and in the playoffs, they've recorded playoff wins

Artesia came out in a 1-3-1 defense while Poly was in a 2-3 zone, and it would be the defining signature formatoin for both teams, as neither one could figure out how to get an offense going against the other. Artesia started Steffanson, Hazel, Kapono, Martinez and Aaron Hamilton, while Poly started Stokes, Kenny Wright, Shea Anderson, Joe Travis and Johnathan Harper. Despite some sloppy play from Artesia in the first 4 minutes of the game, the Pioneers led at the first TV timeout 7-4, and Hazel and Hamilton had 2 points each, and Jack Martinez had 3; Poly's four points were all from Joe Travis, who was fired up and like a monster in the paint. Trvais was keeping Kapono and martinez out on the perimeter effectively, and penetratinv on offense. With 1:58 to play, Kapono was fouled and hit both to extend the lead to 9-4. Fernandez came in for Steffanson and promptly hit for two, but Markee White came right back to score on a layup, and Artesia led 11-6. But then Amaury Fernandez hit another shot, a fall away jumper for three and Martinez scored on a layup and at the end of the first quarter, Artesia had 16 to Poly's 6 points.

In the first minute of the second quarter, Shea Anderson, squirmed, pushed and shoved his way in for two, but after a series of turnovers by both teams, Artesia scored twice more off steals and Amaury Fernandz baskets and Poly led 20-8 with 5:56 to play in the quarter. Joe Travis then hit a floating jumper from the baseline to finally take Poly to double digits, but behind by 10 points anyway at 20-10. Charles Jones then went to the line, hit one of two, to bring the score to 20-11 Artesia.then went to the line as kapono was fouled, and he made one of two to bring it to 21-11.

Travis was posting high, and looking to make the entry pass to Anderson down on the block, when Fernandez went over his back, to pick up his second foul of the game, and a few seconds leater, Fernandez picked up his thrid foul ;with 3:20 to play in the quarter on a charging call. With only 34.6 points on the clock, Shea Anderson was fouled,and made both to bring the score to 21-13. Just to cap the traveling for the quarter, Jon Steffanson, who traveled all the way from Iceland to be here, was called for traveling, and unbelievably, the score at the end of the half was Artesia 21, Long Beach Poly 13.

No, this wasn't a football game, despite the fact that both schools' marching bands were pounding away at each other from opposite ends of the Pond. This was a turnover-fest, a loose-ball, fumble-rooskie fair. We counted at least 20 turnovers in the first half alone, and both teams were equally guilty of infractions. We can see the headline in the Press-Telegram: "Aretsia downs Poly by A Touchdown".

The second half didn't start out much better for Poly, with Wesley Stokes making a pass across court which could only have been caught by a player 10' tall with a 60" vertical. Artesia did a little better, with Kapono hitting two free throws in the early seconds, and then with about a minute gone, he scored on a layup to bring the score to 25-13. With 5:23 to play in the third, Joe Travis finally scored another layup, to bring the score to 25-15. Stokes was fouled and made two to bring Poy to within 9 at 25-16, but Ryan Reyes came right back with a baseline 15' jumper. Poly countered with a basket on a put-back of a Wesley Stokes floater by Markee White, adn the score was 25-18. Kapono hit another two free throws and with 3:16 to play in the quarter, it was 27-18, and starting to resemble a basketball game. At 2:56 Shea Anderson fouled Martinez, who hit only the front end of the two and it was 28-18. Martinez then hit for another two, and it was 30-18. Kapono hit a sweet jumper in the lane, adn Travis scored again for Poly and with 25.9 to play in the quarter, the butterflies for both teams seemed to be disappearing.

Neither team seemed able to play against the zone defense the other was throwing up, and no one, and we mean no one, was finishing. Stokes was making beautiful passes, but no one was able to catch them, not Shea Anderson, not Johnathan Harper, not Kenny Wright, and not Charles Jones, who fumbled a beautiful one just before the end of the quarter.

The best entertainment of the evening, and we mean this seriously, was the two little kids who came out on the floor durijng the break, wearing adult shorts, shooting free throws to win t-shirts. It was a lot better than watching the game, and we think the majority of the fans in attendance agreed as both of the kids made their shots, and won. Sign them up now.

Kapono drove the lane, Shea Anderson hit two free throws at the beginning of the fourth, and with Travis moving well and defending, martinez' shot got blocked but Kapono came right back with a baseline three pointer to make the score 38-25 with barely more than 5:00 to play. Shea Anderson again went to the line, and made two to bring it to 38-27, Artesia.

With 5:00 to go in the game, Stokes finally hit Anderson with the ball on the transition, and he slammed home a thunderous dunk, which finally ignited the crowd, but it didn't do much for the Poly scoring, which onoy moved up by two to 38-29. Fernandez put in another two, and Johnathan Harper came back with a three, followed by Martinez scoring two but missing the foul shot, and with 4:13 to play it was 42-32. Stokes jacked up another rainbow three pointer which ariballed. The next series had Kapono hitting Martinez in the lane with a no-look pass and Martinez hit another two to make it 44-32 Artesia. After a tv timeout, Shea Anderson hit a quick two and Poly immediately called a full timeout, since time was becoming a factor at 2:47 to play and a 10 point lead for Artesia.

Poly was able to manage a steal after both teams burned about a minute, and Wesley made the layup, and Poly again called another full time out with 1:47 to play and the score at 8, but Jason Kapono got a beautiful back door feed from Ryan Reyes to bring it back to 10 at 46-36. Wesley wasn't going to go out without a fight though, and he stole the ball again from Artesia's Hazel and made the layup. The only problem for Poly was than the nesxt time down, Hazel got fouled, made them one of two, and Poly was again behind by 9, but this time there were only 40 seconds remaining. Stokes had the ball for Artesia, and was attempting a drive, but had the ball stripped by Fernandez who went the length of the floor, and as was typical for this game, he missed the slam dunk. Sheesh.

With 22.0 seconds remaining, the score wass 47-38, and it was in fact over, even if Joe Travis did have a chance to cut it to a seven point game as he went to the line. He made the first, then missed the second, and the refs awarded the ball to Poly. But on the inbounds, the ball went to Stokes on the right high side, and he attempted a cross-court pass which was intercepted by Kapono who was fouled on the way down. He hit both free-throws, to bring the score to 49-39, and Shea Anderson managed a shot with 1 second left, a slam dunk, and it was over.

Artesia had won again, Poly had lost, 49-41. Cut, print. Now on to the State Tournament. And maybe Poly should check with Inglewood to make sure that the real guys show up next time.

We'll have the final total stats later. We wanted to get this up as quickly as possible, so stay tuned.