SoCalHoops High School News

Best In The West Day One Results: Game No. 15
Palisades Beats Laguna Creek In OT--(Dec. 27, 1998)

Palisades 52, Laguna Creek 49 (OT)

We knew there would be at least one close matchup in the first round of this tournament, and this was it. And it took 5 periods for Palisades to come out on top as the Dolphins seem to have shaken their miserable performance in the title game at the Beverly Hills Tournament we witnessed two weeks ago. Steve McMaryion (6'-4" Jr. G/F) played great, but didn't shoot so well from the field; he did however,  make 10 free throws and collected 13 points overall.  Eric Alvarez (5'-9" Jr. PG) also scored well, with 8 points, and he's so quick we're sure he gave some of the LC players nightmares yesterday. He hit for two of three-pointers but his real forte is defense and he's very good with on ball defense. Alonzo Wimberly (6'-4" Sr. F) had 2 points while Iem Chukemerije (don't ask us how it's pronounced, but he's a 6'-5" Sr. F) had 6.  But the real story for the Dolphins was the scoring of 5th year senior Edward Estaven (5'-10" Sr. PG/SG) who scored 14 points on the night, including 4 of Palisades' six overtime points, while holding Laguna Creek to just 3 points in the overtime.  Reggie Fritz (6'-3" Sr. G/F) also had 10 for Pali.

Laguna Creek's scoring was, as one would expect, led by big Joe Kirchofer (6'-9" Sr. F/C) who has already signed to play at Stanford.   Everybody knows his story by now (i.e., 1500 SAT, 4.0 GPA, etc, etc) but we thought we'd repeat those stats again.  Oh, he also had 16 points in the game, and some key blocks.  Joe is very active in the paint, mobile, powerful, and it's really a shame his team didn't win this one, because we'd have liked to see him matchup against Tyson Chandler in the winner's bracket.  Oh well.  Others' scoring for Laguna Creek were Richard Cook (6'-0" Sr. G) who had 8, including 2 three pointers, richard Halleem (5'-9" Jr. G) with 4, Jumaan Cowan (6'-5" Jr. F) who had 13, and Brent Gearhart (6'-3" Jr. F) who had 9, including 2 of Laguna Creek's 3 overtime points.  

Here's the scoring by quarters:

Palisades moves on to play Dominguez tomorrow int he winner's bracket second round game at 2:40 p.m. in the East Gym at CSULB;  Laguna Creek moves on to the consolation bracket, and will play San Pedro (which lost to Dominguez) at Lakewood High on Monday at 8:50 p.m.

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