war on the floor day finals

Inglewood won it all at the War on the Floor in the Championship bracket, by defeating Alemany 73-34. Here's how they got there:

In the first round, Inglewood defeated LA Marshall, 62-53 (see below); then they pulled Harvard-Westlake, which had just beaten Crespi, 49-46.

The Harvard-Westlake game was actually a very close game, one that could have gone either way in the second round quarterfinals of the tournament played on Saturday morning. Harvard-Westlake was fresh off their Friday 11:20 a.m. win against Crespi, a game which saw two of the top finishers in the Mission League go at it again for the first time since several of their respective teammates either graduated or transferred out to other schools. Harvard-Westlake was ultimately successful in beating the Celts 49-46, as Russell Lakey (6'-0" Sr. PG) again did what he usually does best, score: Russell led all scorers in the Crespi game with 26 points, but he was followed closely by his opposing counterpart, Andrew Moore (6'-0" Jr. PG) who just exploded for 22 points, hitting five three-pointers along the way, and college coaches would be well-advised to check this young man out this summer. We're not certain exactly where he'll be, but we'll try to find out if he's going to either Pump West Coast All-Stars or to Rim Rattler; wherever he might be, he's a tough, tenacious, defensive-minded scorer with good hands, nice court vision and good lateral quickness which gives him good on-ball defensive capabilities. Andrew was complemented by Pat Cassella (5'-11" Sr. PG) who didn't score a lot, but who managed to distribute the ball nicely. He was mostly defended by Craig Weinstein (5'-10" So. SG/PG) who scored 10 in the Crespi game.

Inglewood had a little easier time of it against Marshall Fundamental, beating them on Friday in the 4:00 p.m. game 67-53, and it was one of the first games which saw DeAngelo Collins (6'-9" So. PF) really assert himself; in fact, it was one of the first games he played in during the tournament. And if DeAngelo had a great game scoring 17 points, Deverion Macky (6'-5" Sr. PF/SG) had a pretty awful game, scoring only 6 points. Of course, Inglewood was looking a lot better with Teddy Fletcher (5'-10" Jr. PG), who scored 19 points, including 4 three-pointers. Inglewood was pumped, and they were slowly coming together, and looking for a tough challenge from the Wolverines.

On Saturday morning at 10:10 a.m., the Inglewood v. Harvard-Westlake game got going, and Inglewood was in fact challeged by the Wolverines, who again saw Russell Lakey go off for 21 points, and a lot of assistance from Chris Hooks (6'-2" Sr. SG), who scored 10 points. Hooks is a better defender than he is a scorer, a strong, decently quick player with quick hands who probably could use a little improvement in making on-court decisions, but who would make a nice small D-I program player somewhere. Eric Geffner (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) had 4 points, not a great outing for him, but he was one of the defensive sparks on the team, and he had about 9 rebounds. Eric is an intriguing player, a good rebounder with a sort of funny looking shot under the boards which goes really high off the glass, but it usually drops, so who really cares that it looks funny. Coaches should also check him out because with a good weight and strength program, and perhaps a year of red-shirting, he can be a definite contributor at the college level. Craig Weinstein had 8 points in this one, Brian Coffey (6'-1" Jr. SG) scored 2, and Spencer Torgan (6'-3" Sr. PF), who is a football player had 4, while Kelechi Ogbunamiri (6'-4" Sr. SG/SF) had 2 points. Harvard-Westlake had a number of other players on the bench, but they are a very young team, in need of some time together this summer, and they'll get it as they will continue to play together at tournaments in Palm Springs and possibly Servite's tournament again this year.

As for Inglewood, well, DeAngelo Collins (6'-9" So. PF) wasn't the leading scorer in the game, but he came darn close with 20 points,, but the real difference in the game was some of the scoring inside and outside from Teddy Fletcher at the point who had 12, Anthony Davis ((6'-2" Jr. SG) who scored 8 (yes, he's the same Anthony Davis who not more than two weeks ago was over at Fairfax playing for the Lions in the LA Watts Summer games, and he's not to be confused with the other Anthony Davis (6'-3" Jr. SG) who was enrolled last year at LA Locke HS, but who played this past week for Cleveland HS, but that's another story). Inglewood was playing without Brian Taylor (5'-10" Sr. PG), who was injured this past season, and who is apparently still out and will remain out for the summer according to Inglewood coach Pat Roy, but they've got a lot of new faces. Terrell Stovall (6'-2" Jr. SG) is a thin, quick athletic player who is an excellent on-ball defender; Jason Perry (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF) also is a great defender, with good speed who can move the ball in the open floor and put the ball in the basket. Larrell Washington (5'-8" So. PG/SG) is very young, reasonably quick, but he'll need at least another season before we can tell if he's got the necessary stuff to be a good college prospect. Phillip Given's (5'-10" Jr. SG) didn't see a lot of time, but he did manage 3 points; Ed McKenna (6'-3" Sr. SF) is a stocky, strong player, with a decent shot, who can also score on the break, and he's got a good handle; in this game he finished with 6 points.

Oh, and the weekend was not a total loss for Harvard-Westlake, as they also won the consolation championship in the Best in the West Summer Shootout.

Inglewood thus advanced and faced Notre Dame in one of two semifinals at the War on the Floor. Notre Dame had, the night before, defeated Buckley by a score of 47-41. Really, that was the actual final score, even though the board read 47-39 at the end of regulation, because when they tallied the official sheets at the end of the game, there was a difference between the board and the sheet of two points, and evidently the timer missed two free throws. Really. We didn't believe it either, but when we got the stats off the sheet, the totals confirmed it. Now lest we be accused again of favoring one team or another, let's be clear about this: Notre Dame deserved to win the game against Buckley fair and square; outplayed them, pressed relentlessly in the first half, and just out-athleted the smaller D-V team. But in fairness also to the Buckley team, they played a great second half, outscoring the Knights 25-11, and that was no small feat because by the time half time rolled around on Friday night in the second round playoff game, Buckley was down by 20. Especially impressoive was the excellent play of Cody Pearson (6'-3" Jr. SG), who managed 13 points in the first half, but who didn't play at all in the second half. He was on the bench holding his hamstrings and it looked like he might have been injured, but after the game he told us that he had leg cramps and just couldn't play, which of course really hurt. Cody indeed seems to be maturing and playing more under control. Also impressive was Mike Luderer, the recent Crespi High transfer, who had a couple of very big games before this one, who managed 12 in this game. Buckley's guards were not very effective in the first half, and other than a nice three-pointer from David Gale (5'-11" So. PG), and some good moves around the basket by Colin Ward-Henninger (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF), Buckley never really got the offense going until the second half, when Gale hit another 8 to finish with 11, and Ward-Henninger finished with 12; Mike Clancy had 10 for the Griffins, Adam Pastor had 2, Simon Leonov 4, and Mike Lalazerian had 2. For Notre Dame, Travis Johnson (6'-4" Sr. PF) was pretty much a monster in the paint, but he fouled out, collecting 6 fouls (yes the officials allowed each player one more foul than regulation in this tournament), and only 2 points. Other scorers for Notre Dame were Lutz with 2, Barvich 6, Benton 7, Hennessey 1, and Hungerford with 4.

So Notre Dame advanced and met Inglewood, and as bad as Notre Dame beat Buckley in the first half of their game, well, that's how bad Inglewood beat Notre Dame, as Inglewood broke out to a 20 point lead midway through the first half, and Notre Dame was never really able to cut into it, and ultimately Inglewood won by that same 20 point margin, 63-43. .

For Inglewood, Anthony Davis, a strong 6'-2" shooter who also likes to slash to the hole, was particularly effective, driving, dishing, and he scored 10 points, including a couple of very pretty j's from outside. Teddy Fletcher, was like a man on a mission, and he's one of the fastest point guards in SoCal this year, somewhat reminiscent of James Wright this past season. Teddy scored 14 points, mostly off of fast break layups, but he can also pull up for the j about 7' out in the paint and just stick it, and he's also an excellent three point shooter with great range and accuracy, and we'd predict that he'll be a top college prospect by the end of the summer. We'd expect to see him this next week at the West Coast All-Star camp, and he may also be there the second session, and if college coaches are looking for a little speedster who can run a team and score, then you should check out Teddy.

The other scoring for Inglewood in the game against Notre Dame was Otis Hankins 1, Ed McKenna 11, Anthony Johnson 4, Phillip Givens 3, Larrell Washington 1, and DeAngelo Collins 13. DeAngelo didn't score a lot, but he must have also had about 18 or 19 rebounds, and even the presence of Travis Johnson, all 260 lbs of him draped all over DeAngelo couldn't really slow him down. Oh, Travis fouled out in this one too about midway through the second half, which again didn't help Notre Dame's defense. Notre Dame did manage some good performances Luderer, who again scored 12 points, but Cody Pearson, perhaps still bothered by leg cramps, only managed 9 points. Barton had 4, Ruben Sanchez (5'-11" Jr. PG), played well, distributed the ball, dished, but didn't shoot a lot and thus wasn't a scoring factor either did manage 2 points and played about as well defensively as anyone else on the team. Hennessey had 1, Lutz 2, Johnson 2, and someone we hadn't seen before whose name we couldn't read in the book (Fig?) scored 3 Oh, and Rob DiMuro wasn't talking at all after this game.

Inglewood thus earned the right to advance to the Championship game against Alemany which was played at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday night. We managed to catch Alemany's other games in the playoffs, and from what we saw, we were very impressed. Alemany is a team on which just about everyone is either 5'-10" or 5'-11", and they've got only one or two guys any tall, and several who are much shorter, but they play together as a team, are very well-disciplined, well-coached by Darryl McDonald and his three assistants (two of whom also coach the jv's and the freshmen), and what they lack in height, they more than make up for on the floor with either sheer athleticism or just plain heart and guts. Really, they play a very clean game, no cheap shot fouls (like some we had witnessed from other teams in the tournament), and they seem to know where every player is on the floor at all times. Here's the roster:

Reny Maynard (5'-10" Sr. SG)
Robert Harrick (5'-10" Jr. SG)
Evan Cline (5'-11" Jr. SG/SF)
Rick Claussen (5'-11" Jr. SG)
Derrick Goodman (5'-7" Sr. PG)
Brandon Robertson (5'-10" Jr. G)
Mark Laquidana (5'-9" Sr. G)
Ryan Kanowitz (5'-10" Sr. G)
Bryan Joseph (6'-0" Sr. F)

Alemany also had another player whose name we didn't catch, but we think it was Manny, and they were also missing two other players, Casey Claussen (6'-2" Sr. F) and Steve Smith (6'-1" Fr. SG/SF), and we understand that Steve was out of town playing at the AAU nationals with his 14-U ARC team, but we couldn't get any confirmation on that. We really like Reny Maynard, who is one of the most deceptive-looking players on the floor. To look at him you'd never guess that he can go off in games for scores of 28, 33, and the like, really high numbers, but he's also the type of guy who does the little things that seem to make everyone else around him play better; things like diving on the floor for the loose ball, hitting the closely guarded jumper, defending on and off the ball and moving well without the ball. Maynard only managed 6 points in the final but he played very well throughout the tournament, and if there was an "all-tournament" team (there wasn't) he'd be on it.

DeAngelo Collins (6'-9" So. PF)
Teddy Fletcher (5'-10" Jr. PG)
Jason Perry (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF)
Terrell Stovall (6'-2' Jr. SG)
Otis Hankins (6'-5" Jr. SF/PF)
Phillip Givens (5'-10" Jr. G)
Ed McKenna (6'-3" Sr. SG/SF)
Anthony Davis (6'-2" Jr. SG)
Larrell Washington (5'-8" So. PG/SG)
Anthony Johnson (5'-1" Jr. G)

Inglewood was, as we mentioned above, also missing Brian Taylor (5'-10" Sr. PG) who could be one of the best points in the entire West Coast, and Inglewood was also without the services of Ray "Ray Ray" Reed (6'-0" Fr. G) who also played on Pat Barrett's 14-U AAU National Championship team with guys like Harrison Schaen, Travon Washington, and Travonte Nelson, so you know that by the time the regular season rolls around, Inglewood is going to be even better.

And they were clearly the better team in this one, and it was close for only about 10 minutes, and then the hammer just got dropped on the Indians' collective heads, as DeAngelo had 17 rebounds and 4 blocks in the first half. Really, this one turned into a no-contest game by well before the half, and it's to Alemany's credit that they were able to hang with one of the best D-II teams in SoCal for even a little while, especially considering that Alemany is a D-IV team playing in a D-III league with teams like Notre Dame, Harvard-Westlake, Crespi, Loyola, St Francis, and with D-III Southern Seciton Champs, Chaminade (who were up at Santa Barbara at the UC "team camp" along with about 60 other teams from the region, but that too is, as they say, another story). At the half, the score was starting to get a bit out of reach, and Inglewood led 32-15.

Here's the final scoring figures, and one look (if the heights on the rosters didn't give you a pretty good indication) at the figures will tell you why Inglewood won this game:

Inglewood scoring	Alemany scoring
Teddy Fletcher--9 Ed McKenna--17 Otis Hankins --2 DeAngelo Collins--12 Anthony Davis--15 Terrell Stovall --7 Jason Perry-- 11 Larrell Washington--0 Phillip Givens--0 Anthony Johnson--0	Reny Maynard--6 Byron Joseph--7 Ricky Claussen--4 Sterling Steagle--4 Ryan Donquitz--4 Derrick Goodman --2 Brandon Robinson--0 Mark Laquidana--2 Leonard Heath--0 Evan Cline--4

All in all, it was a great tournament, lots of fun, and we got to see some good teams play well, some teams which had been very well-publicized prior to the tournament struggle, and some other teams who no one expected much from actually play pretty well.

So, a good time was had by most, if not all, and we can't wait until next year for War on the Floor, the 5th edition. We also want to thank coach Bort Escoto of Sylmar High, Coach Ralph Turner of Canoga Park High (which ended up hosting some first round pool play games and first round playoff games), former coach and now-AD from Chatsworth Fluke Fluker, and the rest of the great folks (including lots of former players who were working the event)