SoCalHoops ARC Fall League News

ARC Fall League Playoff Update
& Sunday Schedules--(Oct. 31, 1998)

Today was the first day of the ARC Fall League Playoff, and there were a couple of surprises.  Here's what we know about the games, both from word of mouth and from what we saw:

Game 5: [Note, this was actually the first game played at 1:00 p.m.  Why it was game 5 is a mystery to us, except that the Monsters, who actually played in the fifth game of the day, are the top-seeded team).  This was the Skywalkers v. Hoopshooters-- Didn't see it, but we know the Hoopshooters won it.   They will play the Moorpark v. Eagles (Oak Park) game, and we're betting on Moorpark to have won that one.

Game 2: Notre Dame beat the ARC Razorbacks by about 20 points, and Cody Pearson (6'-2" So. SG/PG) and Dante Ward (6'-0" Sr. SG) just took over, controlling the game from start to finish. Cody drove, shot and penetrated very well,  and Ward just pounded the shots in from the perimeter, hitting about 6 threes.  Chris Williams (6'-8" Sr. C/F) who has verballed to UMKC, played well, posting, rebounding and blocking a number of shots. Notre Dame will play the winner of Game 7, which was Harvard-Westlake over Milken; the ND v. H-W game, a Mission League preview matchup (without the football players who will join both teams during the season) will be at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.  

Game 3:  S.O. Griffins (aka Buckley) beat Team Havok, which was playing without Gilbert Arenas who was reportedly over at Cal State Northridge practicing and shooting around with some of the college players who will be playing on the Double Pump California All-Stars teams.  The Griffins were led in scoring by Jake Scannell (6'-2" So. F) who was just hitting everything from the top of the key.  Colin Ward-Henninger (6'-3" So. F/C) also played well, getting some key points off good dribble penetration and he rebounded very well. The guard play was led by a quintet, David Gale (5'-10" Fr. SG/PG), who had 11 points, including three threes, Alex Clancy (5'-10" So. SG), Adam Pastor (6'-0" Jr. PG) who had 12 points, and some very nice slashing drives and short j's; Mike Lalazerian (5'-11" Jr. SG/PG) and Sasha Rahban also played extremely well, with Mike effectively penetrating and Sasha using his good defensive skills and shooting on the perimeter.  Jeremy Howard (6'-5" Sr. C) was especially effective on transition, and finished well.    Havok tried, and kept it close, especially on the fine shooting of Ruben Sanchez (6'-0" So. PG/SG) who finished with 14 points, including two threes and 100% shooting from the line (6 points).  Kenny Mason (6'-0" Sr. PG/SG) must have had 10 steals off sloppy passing from the right or left side to the top of the key, and each time he broke free and downcourt, but either blew the layup or was forced to pull up for a j with Gale or Pastor getting back to fill the lane. Kenny is cat-quick on defense but today just lacked a solid shot, and we didn't see him hit more than one or two all day.   The Griffins will play North Hollywood tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.

Game 4: Moorpark v. The Eagles.  Didn't see it, and really don't know the results, but we'd bet it will be Moorpark, given the way Todd Tomlinson (6'-0" Jr. SG) and Sean Corkery (6'-0" Sr. PG) have been playing lately. The winner of this game will play the Monsters, and we're also assuming that they won their game at 5:00 p.m.  against CV, which last week forfeited it's game.

Game 1:  Monsters v. CV--again, didn't see it, but Adam Drell (6'-6" Jr. PF/C) and Richard Harrison (6'-4" Sr. PF/SG) have been tearing it up this fall, and we'd be very surprised if they lost today to CV.

Game 6:  North Hollywood v. Thousand Oaks.   This was a forfeit and TO didn't show. North Hollywood will play the Griffins tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.

Game 7:  Saracens (Harvard-Westlake) v. Milken-- While Milken beat H-W during the regular season, this one was all H-W, as Russell Lakey (5'-11" Jr. PG) drove, dished and missed more shots than we could count, which was very uncharacteristic of him, and it probably got him so upset that he just had to go out and turn on the defensive part of his game, getting at least 12 steals that we counted.  If the O isn't working, try the D.  Russell was able to hit from the inside off the penetration dribble drives, and he had about 8 points in the first half off of some very sweet fall-away jumpers in the lane, but in the second half he just jacked up a bunch of threes and none of them fell.  Dan Kinzer (6'-8" Sr. C) played well and Charles Gillig (6'-5" Sr. F) also had some nice put backs.  Eric Geffner (6'-5" Jr. SF/SG) also managed to grab about 8 rebounds and had some nice moves under the basket.  Chris Hooks (6'-2" Jr. SG/SF) and Jon Vennick (6'-0" So. G) played good defense, forcing several turnovers, but the big plays really came from Craig Weinstein (5'-10" Fr. SG/PG) who normally plays the point, but when Russell was there, moved over to the two spot, and he buried a couple of threes and played great defense. Milken was tough but this time they just couldn't pull off the win.  Daniel Greenberg (5'-10" Sr. PG) played great, hustling and diving for loose balls and penetrating well.  We'll have a preview on the Milken guys soon, and they are a remarkably cohesive team, pretty talented, and will probably take the Westside League this year.

Game 8: This was the Pasadena (Marshall Fundamental) vs. The Bank (aka Burbank). We stayed through the first half, but then left just after halftime, and Pasadena was firmly in control with Deverion Mackey (6'-2" Sr. SG), an exceptionally long-armed and athletic shooting guard with tremendous hops and Chris Bennett pretty much controlling the game, although we hate to predict the outcome of this one because Burbank was streaky, and they were hot for a stretch during the first half where they led.

If you want to see some great action, check out the Sunday games.  All the games are over at Poly High School in Sun Valley.   From just about anywhere, take the Hollywood (170) Fwy North, and exit at Roscoe, and head East.  The first light will be Whitsett; turn left, go a block and turn right, and the gym parking lot will be on your right just past the baseball fields.   The games start at 9:00 a.m. and will run through to 6:00 p.m. when the Championship will be played.  Don't miss it. 

We've also included the schedule and the results from Saturday's games.  The winners are highlighted in red.

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