buckley & harvard-westlake win

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SoCalHoops High School News

Monday Doubleheader: Buckley &
H-W Win Openers--(Nov. 29, 1999)

We went to two Valley area games tonight to check out the state of affairs for several Division V-AA teams (and one D-III team) and what we saw was impressive. Buckley v. Glendale Adventist in the first game and Harvard-Westlake v. Campbell Hall. Both home teams won, Buckley with a blowout and Harvard-Westlake in a game that was a lot closer than the final score of 76-66.

The first game we watched was Buckley v. Glendale Adventist at Buckley, and the Griffins in their home opener just walloped the Cougars, breaking a school scoring record in the process, winning by an astounding 74 point margin, 118-44. Shades of the Delphic League in which Buckley (and Providence, which was out in force scouting the game) used to play. . . Several players were impressive for the Griffins: Colin Ward-Henninger (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF) scored 33 points, all but three from the field, 4 assists and 6 rebounds. He was especially impressive in the paint and from about 12' in with some very nice spin moves and drives. Colin is getting very strong and his footwork has improved tremendously from last year, and he's also getting up and dunking in games now, starting to take his game above the rim which is nice to see.

David Gale (6'-0" So. PG), looking very quick and very much in control, hit for 10 points, including some very nice drives into the lane and several pull up jumpers, to go along with 10 steals defensively and 10 assists which might have been about 15 if a few more of his bullet passes had been converted. His passing and ability to see the court are impressive, and the balanced scoring attack showed why he's rated by many scouts and recruiting folks as among the best point guards in the sophomore class.

Alex Clancy (5'-11" Jr. SG), in an impressive display of perimeter shooting and running off the fast break, scored 24 points, all from the field, including 4 three-pointers to go along with a nice defensive showing with five steals. Clancy is seeing the court better than ever, moving the ball, and penetrating nicely.

Several others also scored in double digits also for Buckley and were instrumental in pulling off such a huge win Mike Lalazerian (5'-11" Sr. SG/PG) had 10 points, as did Simon Leonov (6'-4" Sr. PF), and Leonov also picked off five steals, impressive for a big wide-body guy; Murali Sivalingam (6'-4" Jr. SF) in his first varsity game, scored 12 and blocked three shots. Royal Weaver (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) also showed good ball-handling and control, and was very impressive driving through traffic, and he picked up 8 points, 8 assists and 8 steals. Michael Pakravan (6'-0" Sr. PF) also managed 5 points and a couple of steals to go along with 5 rebounds. Steven Broukhim (6'-4" Sr. SF/SG) had 6 points.

Buckley is playing so much better this year than they were at the same time last year, moving the ball well, playing smothering defense and scoring when they needed to. This game was all the more impressive considering the Griffins were missing two fairly productive players: Adam Pastor (6'-0" Sr. PG/SG) was out with a hairline fracture in his foot and is questionable for another two weeks and Jake Scannell (6'-3" Jr. PF) was also missing due to a family matter.

We'd write about some of the Glendale players, but honestly other than one of their shooting guards, who scored 16 of their 44 points, there wasn't a lot to say, and we didn't catch his name. They also had a nice looking big guy in the middle who grabbed a ton of defensive and offensive boards, but who had trouble scoring. We would have asked the coach for their names, but somehow, we just didn't think he'd want to talk to us after getting whacked with a 74 point loss. Call us silly, but we didn't think he'd feel much like talking to anyone. . .

Following the Buckley game (which was at 6:00 p.m.) , we headed over to Harvard-Westlake to see the Wolverines in their home opener matching up against Campbell Hall, another fine Division V-AA team, and since that game didn't start until 7:30 p.m. we caught almost all of the second half of the game, and that's only because we hung around the other gym at Buckley getting the stats and scores. We arrived just a few minutes into the second half, and Campbell Hall was leading by about 6 and looking impressive. H-W, honestly, didn't look that good at that point in the game, and Russell Lakey (5'-11" Sr. PG) was having a tough night, which was not particularly helpful for him since the Loyola-Marymount coaches were in the stands. We're not exactly sure, but we were told at the end of the game by the scorers table that Russell went something like 2-13 from the field, and had it not been for quite a few trips to the line, his numbers wouldn't have been that impressive: He still managed 15 points by our count. Which leads to an important observation: Surround Russell with some big men, almost any big men, and it allows him to do what he does best, pass the ball very well and it also takes the pressure off him a bit to shoot, giving him some additional breathing room. But with this H-W team, with no one bigger than Eric Geffner (6'-5" Sr. SF/SG) , the Wolverines will have trouble against any team they play which has size, which means just about anyone they'll see at the Best in the West Tournament. . . .

But enough prognosticating. . . .Harvard-Westlake won either because (a) they played better down the stretch under pressure (which is what the H-W folks will tell you) or (b) the refs gave them the game (which is what quite a few Campbell Hall folks said to us). We think it was a little bit of both. We've seen bad officiating before, but this had to be some of the worst in the history of the Southern Section. Really. Just wait for Eric Sondheimer's story about the game tomorrow. . . we'll bet that at least somewhere in the story he mentions the quality (or lack thereof) of the officiating.

Who played well for H-W: Craig Weinstein (5'-11" So. PG/SG) had 16 points, including a couple of clutch three pointers down the final minutes in the fourth quarter. He pushed the ball well and looked pretty good. John Karravas (5'-10" Sr. SG) had some absolutely amazing three pointers and he hit for 16 points as well (at least that's what we counted after Eric Sondheimer filled us in on the first half scoring). He's lost a ton of weight and played very well for someone who has taken a year off from basketball.

Eric Geffner (6'-5" Sr. SF/SG) had 20 points, and it's true, he's one of the hardest working guys out there. Eric is the kind of player who doesn't make it look easy, and at times he was struggling at the defensive end of the floor and was the recipient of more than a couple seeming phantom calls for throwing elbows. Human Interest Angle: Here's the best part of this game--Eric and Hassan Bassiri (6'-0" Sr. SG/PG) are best friends off the court, and while they didn't spend a lot of time guarding each other, this game was, as several of their family members pointed out to us "for pride." Two great kids having a great time on the court.

H-W had a bunch of guys on the bench (and who got a few minutes) up from the JV's (Robby Wizenberg, Drew Firestone among the ones we recognized), and they also had this one kid, whom we were told was a football player who was the biggest guy on the team at about 6'-5" or 6'-6", but he didn't play, at least not that we saw in the second half. All in all, H-W is well-coached, and stays cool under pressure, which should work to their advantage against bigger teams, but they will admittedly have trouble against anyone with any kind of true inside presence, which means a team like Chaminade. They will also have a rough time playing in the larger combined version of the playoffs in a single Division III (Division III-A has been eliminated this year because of a low number of schools at that level, and combined with III-AA, i.e., teams like Pomona, La Canada, Bishop Montgomery, Notre Dame, and even Crespi, which has moved up from last year's D-IV-AA).

Campbell Hall: Very impressive for a V-AA team. Robert Locke (5'-11" Fr. PG) played well, under control, until the pressure really started with about four minutes left to play in the game. At the end of the third quarter, the game was all tied up, 45-45, and into the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, it looked like Campbell Hall would win. But down the last four minutes of the stretch, Campbell Hall became a bit unnerved and the young point guard made a few mistakes, something he'll undoubtedly learn from. We don't mean to say that the loss was ultimately his fault, because it wasn't and there were enough other errors by the rest of the team to go around, including several missed key free throws by both Hassan Bassiri and Jesse Foster, including the front end of a one-and-one that could have put CH within 4 with just under a minute to play.

Hassan Bassiri (6'-0" Sr. SG/PG) looked good, and it will be fun to see him match up against some of the other D-VAA talent, including the backcourt at Montclair Prep (which was out in force scouting the game). Hassan is an excellent slasher to the hole, has a good crossover and he did a very good job tonight of coming off screens to hit some big three pointers. As we mentioned above, he scored 26 points tonight, and it could have been more than 30 if he hit all his free throws.

Jesse Foster (6'-8" Sr. SF/SG) is one of the better and more agile guys in the Valley region and possibly in D-V-AA this year. He finished with 21 points that we counted, and as we said, if he had finished some key free throws, it might have been about 25 or 26. Jesse gets into the paint and scores, and he can dunk, although he missed a costly one tonight off a fast break where a nice easy over the rim finger-roll would have worked equally well. Jesse is definitely a college player, the only question for him, at his size, will be whether he can bulk up enough to become a D-I player. He made some excellent plays, athletic, but physically, he's all knees and elbows, and will need to add muscle.

Aaron Kerr (6'-0" Sr. SG) hit some key three pointers and he's very active on defense, sometimes a bit overactive, at least with these refs tonight he was, although candidly some of the calls against him in the fourth quarter were kind of cheesy. He's a very nice player at the D-V level, and really adds some defensive intensity. Kerr had 11 points that we counted, and he's a lot better than we had remembered him from last year.

Michael Womack (6'-2" Sr. G/F) didn't score any that we saw (he had 3 in the game by the time we got there), but he's an integral part of the offense, setting nice picks, rebounding, and moving the ball with good passing. Several other guys played, including Greg Drobnick (5'-10" Sr. SG) who scored 4 points, although candidly, we didn't see him out there. Devaughn Nixon (6'-0" Jr. SG) also looked smooth out on the floor, but he's also young and will need to get experienced, particularly against a good pressure defense, which was one of the things H-W was doing well late in the game.

We're certain that we're forgetting a few guys, but hey, we were there just spectating, so we'll fill in the stuff tomorrow from the box scores if we missed anything. But the bottom line is that Campbell Hall, with a little more close game experience and some wins, will be very tough to beat come playoff time. Brian Haloossim was right when he told us that his team is good: They are, and they will be one of the contenders for a Southern Section title in their Division. Of course first they'll have to get through a very tough Delphic League, which won't be easy. And H-W has to get through the Mission League too, which isn't going to be easy either. But it will be fun watching. See you there.