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SoCalHoops ARC Fall League News

Arenas Leads Team Havoc; H-W Loses To Milken;
Oak Park Beats Buckley--(Oct. 11, 1998)

Many observers of the fall ARC league get confused about the real purpose of the ARC Fall League, thinking that the outcome of these games counts for something. While they may "count" for pride, and to determine seeding in the ARC playoff tournament, a two day playoff that will begin on October 31 and end on November 1, that is not, in our view, the real purpose of this, or any other fall league. Indeed, the ARC Fall "season" lasts for only 5 games, and players on some teams come and go (even though the ARC rules stipulate that players have to be on a team roster to play), and many teams are composed of players from many different schools, not just high school teams in ARC jerseys. Nevertheless, pride and seedings do count for something. In our view, the real function of a fall league like the ARC fall league, like fall conditioning, allows players to get a tune-up for the up-coming season and to brush off the cobwebs, to get a check on just how competitive they'll need to become.

For those teams who will go on to play together during the season in high school, the league is a reality check on how much work remains to be done before the team will be ready to compete at a higher level and against better competition. For others, it's a sign of how far they've come from last year by playing summer ball. And for still other individual players who join together, it's just a time to work on their indivdual games in the context of a team setting and the league allows freelance players who just want to participate to keep their competitive edge.

We're not sure which category the Team Havoc v. Team Skywalkers game falls into, but it was a pretty good game, one of the best played today in the Fall ARC league. It seems that Gilbert Arenas (6'-4" Sr. SG) from Van Nuys Grant decided to play in the ARC league today, and he came out to lend a hand to Team Havoc, which features Matt Biernat (6'-4" Jr. PF) from Crepsi, Mike Grimes (6'-5" Jr. PF/C) from Crespi, Ruben Sanchez (5'-10" So. PG), Aason Tunney (6'-0" Jr. PF) from Crespi, and Greg Robinson (6'-0" Jr. SG) also from Crespi. Team Havoc played against the Skywalkers, a team from the Antelope Valley area which features players like Steve Norman (5'-11" Sr. G) from Highland, Jamal Flanagan (6'-2" So. F) from Antelope Valley Christian, Adam Rusozkowski (6'-2" Sr. PG/SG) also from Anteleop Valley Christian, Marvin Wright (6'-0" Sr. G) from Highland, Sir Doyle Duplechan (6'-2" Sr. G) from Highland (who gets our vote this season as one of the best names), Peter Beaudin (6'-6" Jr. F/C), Oliver Haworth (6'-0" Jr. G) from Highland, and Justin Tidwell (6'-8" Jr. F/C).

Observers noted that the game was incredibly intense, even though Gilbert clearly was a dominant factor in the tame. The Skywalkers had heard that Gilbert would be playing on Team Havoc, and they came out supercharged. Arenas wound up scoring 23 of Havoc's 62 points. The final score was Team Havoc -- 62, The Skywalkers -- 56.

Arenas scored in a variety of ways, and played great defense, rebounding very well, and working the inside along with Biernat and Grimes who spent most of the day under the boards. Biernat and Grimes also each scored 6 points for Havoc. Tunney also played a great game, scoring 16 of his 18 points in the second half. Tunney literally did not miss a shot -- his shooting percentage was 100% ! Greg Robinson made some key plays, had 3 assists and two steals. And Ruben Sanchez sank two 3 pointers in the first half leading to his 9 point contribution to Havoc's win. Sanchez also contributed 7 steals and 5 assists (mostly to Arenas).

The Skywalkers played heads up ball, especially Duplechan who had 10 points, and Beaudin who had 9. Beaudin played great at the low post position and Norman was very quick at the guard spot. In fact, the scoring for Skywalkers was very well distributed. A real team effort.

In other action, Milken, er we mean the "Blue Team" is turning out to be the surprise team of the fall, and they are now 3-0. The small Division V team which will play in the Westside League during the season, features some pretty good players who would do well at virtually any division. Milken will inaugurate its new gym on the brand new multi-million dollar Milken Community High School Campus located on Mullholland and Sepulveda, overlooking the San Diego Freeway, the city to the south and the valley to the north, won again.

Last week, they beat Buckley in a very tight game by 5 points. And today, they beat Harvard-Westlake by 13 points. But for the absences of Alex Holmes (which is a very large absence), Russell Lakey (5'-11" Jr. PG), Alex Minn (5'-11" Sr. SG), Chad Garson (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF) who remains in rehab, Anthony Naylor (6'-3" Jr. F), and a couple of others, this team featured more of the varsity players than in previous weeks. Dan Kinzer (6'-8" Sr. F/C), Eric Geffner (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF), Todd Kurihawa (5'-10" Sr. SG), Chris Hooks (6'-1" Jr. SG), and a couple of JV's like Jon Vennick (6'-0" Jr. G) and a freshman or two including Craig Weinstein (5'-10" Fr. PG/SG) were all there. From what little we saw of the game, it looked like Milken was doing a tremendous job of switching up the defenses, and H-W never quite figured it out. H-W would go to a perimeter swing type of motion offense, and Milken would smartly switch in mid-stream to a zone; then H-W would run a zone offense at them and they'd immediately switch back to man-to-man. H-W also had trouble shooting, while Milken was hitting everything in sight.

In the following game, Division V-A Buckley, er, um, we mean S.O. Griffins, were matched up against Oak Park's varsity, er um, we mean the "Eagles." We didn't catch the names of the Oak Park players, but Buckley was pretty much hopelessly outmanned under the blocks, as neither Jeremey Howard (6'-4" Sr. F), Colin Ward Henninger (6'-5" So. F/C), Jake Scannel (6'-3" So. F), or Simon Leonov (6'-2" Jr. F) could move Oak Park's three huge rebounders out of position. Buckley also suffered from poor first half shooting, but cut the deficit to only 9 points at the half on a fine offensive effort by Alex Clancy (5'-10" So. G) and some timely scoring from Howard, and then came out blazing in the second half, only to ultimately go cold again in shooting. Basically, Buckley was unable to convert off the transition, while Oak Park got just some incredibly lucky put-backs off of what many call "garbage scoring" but which is really just the result of out-rebounding and out-working an opponent, and Oak Park is to be congratulated on their fine defensive and offensive rebounding effort. Buckley basically ran two separate squads in and out of the game in 8 minute increments, with the first squad today featuring a three-guard offense with David Gale (5'-10 Fr. PG/SG), Adam Pastor (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG)and Sasha Rahban (5'-11" Jr. SG) up top, and Jake Scannel and Colin Ward-Henninger working the high and low posts. Buckley's normally effective flex-cut motion offense just never got going, the guards were unable to penetrate, the forwards didn't cut through, and the usually good shooters, Ward-Henninger, Gale and Pastor were ice-cold for virtually the entire game. In the second squad, the guard combo of Clancy and Mike Lalazerian (5'-11" Jr. SG/PG) was more productive and had a much better day than did the other squad. They really stepped up and in the second half provided most of the offensive output, along with the fine rebounding and free-throw shooting of Colin Ward-Henninger, and some timely scoring from Howard. But ultimately, the good penetration effort of Oak Park and their fine scoring frontline was too much for the Griffins, as Oak Park pulled away.

In case you're interested in seeing some great action next weekend, here's the schedule:

Sunday October 18, 1998	Time	Location
The Bank v. Saracens	9:00 a.m.	N
SO Griffins v. The Park	11:00 a.m.	P
Team Havoc v. Blue Team	12:00 p.m.	P
CV v. Hoopshooters	1:00 p.m.	P
Eagles v. Sherman Oaks	6:00 p.m.	CM
ARC Razorbacks v. Skywlakers	7:00 p.m.	P
Pasadena v. NH	8:00 p.m.	N
TO v. Monsters	8:00 p.m.	CM