arc0606 championship

socalogo.gif (8739 bytes)
SoCalHoops Spring League News

ARC Spring League Championships:
Skywalkers and Hype Squad Win--(June 6, 1999)

Just a quick note on this: The ARC Spring League Championships which were held today at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High School in both of the varsity divisions, and man, did we see some good basketball, and some ugly basketball in the two different championships. The first game featured Harvard-Westlake vs. the Hype Squad, and the second game was the Skywalkers v. North Hollywood. Two completely contrasting games.

First up was HW (the Saracens) against the Hype Squade. HW had Russell Lakey (5'-11" Jr. PG), Chris Hooks (6'-2" Jr. SG/SF), Eric Geffner (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF), Craig Weinstein (5'-10" Fr. PG/SG), Teddy Boxberger (6'-4" Fr. F), Robbie Wizenberg (5'-11" Fr. SG), Chad Garson (6'-3" Jr. SG), Brian Coffee (6'-0" Fr. SG/SF), a smallish point guard named Austin (we don't know the last name, but we know he's a freshman, and Jon Vennick (6'-0" So. SG); The Hype Squad featured Steve Moore (6'-4" Jr. SG) from Domginguez, Andre Monroe (6'-0" Sr. SG) from Santa Monica, who reportedly will play baseball instead of basketball next year, either at Long Beach State or with the Toronto Blue Jays organization, Derek Issacs (6'-1" Jr. SG) from Venice who reportedly will transfer next season to Bolsa Grande, Glen McGowan (6'-7" Sr. SG/SF) from Venice who will attend prep school in the fall, Bim Okunrimboye (6'-0" Sr. PG) from Sonora who will either attend Winthrop, Montana State or prep school, John Kendrick (5'-10" Jr. SG) from Santa Monica, and Carlos Arroyo (6'-6" Jr. F) from Bell-Jeff.

This game was a blowout from start to finish and the Hype Squad dominated early and never trailed. At the half, they led 50-22, and had they let not their defense down a little, the final score would have much worse than the 85-51 final. Even though Andre Monroe is slated to become a baseball player, he'd do well to reconsider his basketball options as he lit it up this afternoon with 4 three pointers and a total of 18 points; Steve Moore also hit for 19 points, including 3 three pointers, Glen McGown had 22, including 3 threes and several impressive slam dunks. About the only real bright spot for H-W was Russell Lakey, who scored 15, and impressed with some excellent ball handling. Unfortunately, because of ARC rules concerning substitutions, having 10 players on a squad can actually be a hindrance, because each player is guaranteed 16 minutes of playing time, and the coach had to rotate platoons; this didn't allow the best combinations on the floor at the same time, and the result showed in the score, although frankly we don't think any coaching decision could have really overcome the physical mismatches in this game. We were really impressed with Arroyo, who didn't get to play varsity last year because we hear his former high school coach refused to certify his transfer to Bell-Jeff despite the fact that his parents had moved to the Los Feliz area close to Burbank. Carlos is a big, strong, agile player, who can post, has an excellent handle, and would make a nice three at the college level if he had a reliable jumper; at the high school level, especially division V, which is where we hear Bell-Jeff will be next season as a result of further enrollment declines, he can be a dominating player. We were also impressed with the shooting touch which Derek Issacs seems to have developed over the last few months. Derek was reportedly sick last year and didn't play at Venice, but has been working out steadily with Bob Gottlieb, and it's showing: He finished with 22 points, and 3 threes.

As painful as it was to watch the Hype Squad v. HW game, it was equally entertaining watching the Varsity I championship with the Skywalkers (a team of mostly Antelope Valley Christian guys) taking on what we're told was essentially the entire North Hollywood varsity (which we're also told, is pretty much the entire Northridge Knights' 17-U AAU team, minus a few guys). The Skywalkers had Kevin Johnson (5'-7" Jr. Quartz Hill), Jamal Flanagan (6'-2" Fr. F) Antelope Valley Christian, Matthew Nurse (5'-10" Jr. PG) Antelope Valley Christian, John Loftin (6'-2" Jr. G/F) Antelope Valley Christian,
Oliver Haworth (6'-1" Jr. G) Highland, Michael Kennedy (6'-6" Jr. F) Antelope Valley Christian, Tony Johnson (6'-0" Jr. G) from Quartz Hill, and Jeremiah Nurse (5'-7" 7th grade G) who will attend AVC in the fall as an 8th grader. We didn't see Peter Beaudin (6'-6" Jr. F/C) Antelope Valley Christian, who we were told had a groin pull and couldn't play. North Hollywood had William Kim (5'-9" Jr. PG), Nathan Stern (6'-2" So. SG/SF), Kenny Hauser (6'-4" So. SF), Eric Roller (6'-3" So. C/PF), Dominic Johnson (5'-10" So. SG ), David Danipour (5'-11" So. F), David Hernandez (5'-9" So. PG) Yan Karim (6'-2" Jr. F/C), and Gus Ruiz (6'-2" Jr. F), a transfer from Reseda.

While not the same sort of physical mismatch as the prior game, this one started out sort of lopsided too, as North Hollywood broke out to a huge lead, at times leading by as many as 22 points. But the Skywalkers, who got to the Championship by beating a fine Santa Monica (Bay Cities) team at the buzzer in the earlier semifinals by just a single point, had a flair for the dramatic, and in the second half, largely on the shooting of Matthew Nurse, Jeremiah Nurse and Tony Johnson, led a remarkable comeback, and took the lead in the game with just seconds to play, and ultimately hung on for the win. Really, it was one of the most remarkable comebacks, as the Skywalkers, just shot themselves back into the game in a period of a couple of minutes. And young Jeremiah, the seventh grader is going to be an excellent player; he already defends, can shoot the ball, and is very quick, and we can't wait to see him at the D-V level in a couple of years when he gets to high school.

We're told that the winners of these divisions of ARC will also play again next week against several other teams from outside the area. We don't know the details of all the games, but we do know that the Skywalkers are slated to play against Nogales' varsity next Sunday at 7:00 p.m. at Poly HS in Sun Valley. We don't know if we'll be able to catch that game, but we'll try.