SoCalHoops High School News

Manual Arts' "We Care Classic"
Second Day Partial Results--(Nov. 25, 1998)

We managed to make it over to the "We Care Classic " at Manual Arts yesterday, and saw  about half of two games before we had to leave to make it over to the Sports Arena for the USC v. Long Beach State game.   We saw the second half of the Hollywood v. San Pedro contest, and Hollywood just give San Pedro a real butt-kicking. Even though San Pedro managed to close the gap a bit in the fourth quarter, Hollywood still managed to win convincingly 75-61.  We didn't catch all the names on the roster for either team, and really didn't hook up numbers for all of the players; we'll try to get a roster tomorrow.

San Pedro had several really good players, including Oscar Abrons (6'-1" Sr. SF) and Todd Sanchez (6'-0" Sr. SG/PG). We didn't see  Ian Dixon(6'-7" Sr. PF/C) play all that much, maybe a couple of minutes in the second half, but we were still impressed with his game, and with San Pedro overall, and especially Andy Gallego (5'-9" Sr. PG) who is one of the quickest and most athletic players around. He's very smart, has a great handle, and best of all, he plays relentless defense, with extremely quick lateral moves, quick hands, and great leaping ability, and we saw him pick off at least three cross-court passes with great jumping and timing.  He's a big time player and worthy of a look or two by some good colleges. 

And Hollywood was not half-bad either, and we're guessing that Michael Miller saw a different team than the one we saw today.   Or maybe it was just that San Pedro and Hollywood, both Division 3-A schools, rose to the level of their own competition and just aren't capable of competing against a team like Manual Arts, which could very well be one of the top 10 teams in the State this year.

In the second game, we saw LA High absolutely struggle, to the point of first half desperation against a team from Monroe which also must have been a group of entirely different guys than the ones Michael Miller saw on Monday.  Sure, Monroe lost badly to Fremont, which according to Mike was "outclassed"  by Fremont, which might also be among the top 20 or so teams in the state, but they weren't  so outclassed by the LA Romans.

Monroe actually beat the Romans, by two points, 57-55.  This was a close game all the way, for two reasons:  First, LA was absolutely in disarray, trying to depend solely on their running and gunning, without any real semblance of a half-court offense, or the sense to pull back on the fast break when the numbers weren't there, and secondly, because they never reacted to Monroe's patient, athletic high post offense. Had LA played more calmly, and had they thrown a zone defense at Monroe's "four-high" offense, things might have turned out differently.   But they didn't, and Monroe won.

And while it was close throughout, 22-21 Monroe winning at the half and 39-38 LA winning at the end of three, the game actually came down to the last seven seconds.  Monroe had taken what everyone thought was the last shot, with the score 54-55, down by one. The shot missed, and and Brian Naff (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF) of LA grabbed the rebound.  Trying to let the seconds tick off the clock, he stood at the baseline, dribbling the ball, but either managed either to dribble on the line, or stepped out of bounds just before the buzzer sounded.  A bit of confusion ensued, but the refs, believing that the game hadn't ended, instructed the timekeeper to put one second back on the clock.

So with one second remaining,  Monroe inbounded the ball, all the way back beyond the three point line where Eric Serna (6'-7" Sr. SG/PF) stood, and he managed to catch the ball and shoot it, and miraculously (for Monroe that is) the ball went into the hole and Monroe had won, 57- 55.   Serna had 28 points and 12 boards, and was just a monster, helped along by Palofax Roberts (5'-9" ?? PG), a very skilled but youngish looking player, with a great handle, excellent court vision, and tremendous hops and defensive ability.  He's really a fascinating player to watch, understands the game, and can run the team very capably.  We didn't really see any of those "first game" jitters for Monroe that Michael must have seen, and it will be interesting to see what they do tomorrow against Gardena. 

We didn't get the stats because we had to leave, but we did get a call from a friend who had some of the numbers for LA. Scottie Stern (6'-4" Jr. SF/PF) who was playing out of position the whole night (he's really a two), managed to recover from a dismal first half, and he scored 17 points, dished out 8 assists, had 4 steals and grabbed 8 rebounds, all in all a pretty decent game. The first half for Scottie though was just awful, and even though the team was frustrated, he'll have to learn to play through it, because he's obviously a lot more talented than some of his teammates, who were unable to hang onto some of his passes. Roger Flowers (6'-3" Sr. SG) also had a miserable first half, but managed to put together a few runs, and came away with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. Brian Segbefia (6'-1" Sr. SG) who really has no business at the point, but who played that spot for most of this game because of Kenny Johnson's (5'-10" Jr. PG) injury (he's sprained his ankle, the same one he had some ligament damage on this past summer).  This team had better get another point guard quickly, or they will be suffering the effects of Johnson's absence well through December.  Segbefia is a very quick player, with a decent handle, but really limited court vision, and he tended to push the ball so quickly up the court that he never saw the open man standing out on the wings.  Segbefia did manage 9 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals, but likewise, he must have had a dozen turnovers, a lot of them not entirely his own fault, as just about everyone on the LA team failed to cooperate in moving the ball smoothly and with patience.

Of course, we missed the biggest game of the evening, and we haven't seen Manual Arts in a game situation yet this year. We had to get over to the Sports Arena, and so we'll have to take our report a day late and a dollar short on the Arts against LA Jordan. Hopefully, we'll have some news on this one later, but we're willing to bet that Manual Arts beat LA Jordan. . . by a lot.

Here's today's (Wednesday's) schedule:

4:00 p.m. Gardena v. Monroe
5:30 p.m. LA Jordan v. Hollywood
7:00 p.m. Fremont v. LA High
8:30 p.m. Manual Arts v. San Pedro

And remember, if you're able to get over there even earlier, there will be a "Magnet Conference" tournament, featuring at 1:00 p.m. Middle College Magnet against Elizabeth Street Magnet, and at 2:30 USC-Mast against Downtown Business Magnet. 

See you there.

3:00 p.m. 11/25/98 Update:

We just saw the results from yesterday's games which were posted by Mike Miller at WCH, and here's what he has for yesterday's scores:

2nd Round:

Hollywood 75  San Pedro 61
Monroe 58  Los Angeles 57
Fremont 60  Gardena 54
Manual Arts 111  L.A Jordan 44

We'll take his word for it, but then that sort, kinda changes the story about what must have happened at the end of the Monroe-LA game, since the two-pointer that missed with only seconds on the clock would only have tied the game. Oh well, in the end it's all the same, and Monroe won and LA didn't .

See you there.

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