SoCalHoops High School News

Jason Day: Preseason Scrimmage:
Artesia High vs. Verbum Dei--(Nov. 29, 1998)

Just like last year, SoCalHoops' correspondent Jason Day will be out and about all over SoCal checking out the action at a ton of high school games and he'll be filing reports throughout the season and posting them here at SoCalHoops and also over at UltraStudentAthletes Online since many of the players he'll be featuring play for USA's various teams.   This year Jason got off to a good start on Friday by taking in the Verbum Dei v. Artesia scrimmage held at Artesia.  Since this was a scrimmage, the score really is meaningless, and in fact, no one was officially keeping score, consistent with Southern Section Rule 1607.1, notwithstanding Jason's reference to a "score."  You can't keep someone from keeping the score in their head now can you?

Jason was also accompanied by Larry Gray, who in addition to his coaching duties and general organizing skills for USA's several basketball teams, also happens to be a great photographer, and he took several photos of the scrimmage all of which can be fournd at USA's site at this link.   And while the lighting was not ideal for photography (most high school gyms are terrible for taking pictures as we've discovered. . . Our favorite venues:  Pauley Pavilion, the Sports Arena, and The Pyramid at Cal State Long Beach, all of which have great lighting), the photos are still pretty good, and certainly better than nothing.   Here's the story:

Preseason Scrimmage--Artesia High vs. Verbum Dei
by Jason Day
Photos by Larry Gray

This past Friday, November 27th, we trotted on down to Artesia to watch a scrimmage between these two powerhouse, and high profile, programs.  Artesia, who missed a trip to the Division 1 state championship by a 1 pt. loss to Westchester, against Verbum Dei, the defending Divsion IV champion.

Verb boasts a team led by Marlon Parmer, a Senior point guard who I feel is as good as any point in the Southland, maybe the state. In the paint you have Senior big man Dalron Johnson, whose game, and stock, as really been on the rise for the past 18 months or so. Verb also has, Ricardo Suazo, Larry Davenport, Washun Dashiells, Kyle Jones, Larry Diggs, and Jamal Dean. And don't forget their coach former NBA star David Greenwood.

Dalron Johnson with the short J.

Artesia, of course, is led by all-everything Senior wing-forward, Jason Kapono. His "supporting" cast includes several players with D1 written all over them. JR PG Andre Hazel is as quick a guard as you'll see this season, he's got a tremendous defensive game, and is sporting a sweet long-range jumper this year. Sophomore forward Jack Martinez is back with the team and looks every bit as good as he did last year when he gained national attention as a freshman. Fellow Sophomore, and countryman, Amaury Fernandez, sat this one out while nursing a sore knee. SR Aaron Hamilton and Sophomore Marques Crane will also kick up much dust this year.

CIF rules prohibit "posting" the score in a game like this. You can't put it up on the score board. But, we connected with some folks at the table and found out that Artesia won this one 80-44.

The two JV teams scrimmaged before the varsity and both coaches had several JV players on the bench for the varsity matchup. In fact, both coaches took some long looks at their younger players. Greenwood played his starters sparingly for long period of both halfs, and Artesia coach, Wayne Merino rotated players alot too. This might explain the overall lack of crisp execution in this game. It was, after all, a scrimmage.

Johnson, Kapono, Martinez fight for the rebound.

Artesia led by 10 at the half 33-23. They would have been up by much more if Verb hadn't switched to a full court press that seemed to catch Artesia off guard and led to some easy turnovers. Up till then, Artesia was taking advantage of Verb's erratic play and turnovers.

I was surprised at how little of Verb's offense went through Dalron Johnson. He finished with 7 pts and it didn't look like the strategy had much to do with getting him the ball. I remember watching him last year when he tended to play on the wing alot. I thought he was fairly effective out there because he has a decent short range jumper, is a superior passer, and can put it on the floor from 15 feet or so. In this one he played the paint almost exclusively. Of course you have to consider the fact that Artesia's frontline is way bigger than Verb's and maybe Dalron playing there was a matter of necessity. Marlon Parmer, who will probably average 20+ pts. this year, could only manage 12 in this one. He didn't play the minutes he will in the regular season, and had Hazel in his pocket for most the game.

Aaron Hamilton (left) draws a crowd

For Artesia, Kapono was his usual self, shooting, slashing without the pill, rebounding, even leading the break. He finished with a game high 14 (5 in the 1st. 9 in the 2nd) and played the most minutes of the Artesia starters. Martinez while clearly a bit rusty, still finished with 10 pts. most from the line where Verb repeatedly sent him to prevent the easy layups he would have had. This kid is a dominant paint player, period. Aaron Hamilton finished with 12 and displayed the sweet outside J along with his great ability to slash to the rack with the rock. An outstanding defensive player, we expect him to be a big factor in Artesia's fortunes this year. Franklin Matos, a 6'3 PG/SG must have brought a smile to the Artesia staff as he finished with 10pts in a real good effort. Ryan Reyes, another youngster (SO) with a sweet outside shot chipped in 9 pts.

Yeah, it was just a scrimmage, but the talent of both of these teams was obvious. As the season gets underway, make sure you catch a few of their games, you won't be disappointed.

For some more flicks from this game, click here.

We'll be at the Compton Tip-Off Classic on Monday and Tuesday. We'll check out the Serra (USA players, Ryan and Randall Odums, Aerick Sanders) vs. Ayala contest Monday afternoon (4:30 at Compton City College), then head over to Lynwood (Keyawn Floyd and Jonathan Smith) to see them host Dorsey. Hopefully we'll have "photo features" on both contests on Tuesday.  On Tuesday we'll be back at CCC to catch Dominguez / Crossroads at 6:30 and Compton / Lynwood at 8:00. We should have 'photo features' on those two contests Wednesday.

Later,

Jason Day

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