SoCalHoops High School News

Valencia Winter Slam: Chaminade
Loses To Chatsworth--(Dec. 17, 1998)

Yesterday marked the quarterfinals of the Valencia Winter Slam Tournament, and this was the schedule with the results in brief:

Littlerock 65, Santa Paula 37
Alemany 75, Birmingham 45
Royal 61, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 65
Valencia 100, San Fernando 75
Hollywood 69, Compton Centennial 63
Chaminade 42, Chatsworth 56

Now the story:

We've been listening to everyone tell us that Chaminade was "unbeatable" this year.  In fact, just the other night at the Sylmar v. Cleveland game, we listened to a certain very prominent sportswriter from LA's largest daily paper tell us with complete conviction and belief:, "I just don't think anyone can beat Chaminade this year."  This is a guy who sees alot of basketball.  Watching basketball and writing about it is his profession, how he makes his livliehood.  He doesn't enjoy being wrong.  But then this is high school basketball, where just about anything can and does usually happen. And it did last night.

Chatsworth 56, Chaminade 42--Last night in the Valencia Tournament, Chaminade ran into Chatsworth and Mark Cannon, who hit seven three-pointers and had 26 points in the game.  Four of those threes came in the second quarter, and Chatsworth jumped out to a 35-25 lead at the half.  Chatsworth outscored Chaminade 23-11 in the second quarter and that was about the difference in the game.  With the win, Chatsworth improves to 6-2, while Chaminade drops to 5-1, and it's getting tougher and tougher to find any unbeaten teams around the Valley-Ventura County region.

Chaminade is ranked No. 2 by the LA Times, and by the Daily News, and we're not sure if this loss will affect their ranking when the poll comes out next week, but we'd be pretty sure that Chatsworth (which wasn't listed on either the Times or Daily News preseason Top 10, but which was on our Top 10) will improve.

Now Mark is one of the nicest young men you'll ever want to meet.  Polite, well spoken, intelligent, a good student. And possibly a good D-II or D-I prospect.  But he also reads the papers too, and the fact that the Times left Chatsworth off their Top 10 was not lost on him, nor was the irony of the situation which, at the end of the game, found him being interviewed by the LA Times.  In response, Cannon told the Times reporter after the game, "This was a big game for us. This was about getting respect and being one of the L.A. Times' top 10 teams."

Of course, if Chatsworth is going to demand respect from the Times, they're also going to have to play a complete game, and not just three quarters.   In the third quarter Chatwsorth only scored one field goal and Chaminade held the Chancellors to three points in the period.   And still showing them little respect despite the win, the LA Times said this in their write-up of the game this morning, "Chatsworth was limited to one field goal in the third quarter and Cannon missed on two feeble three-point shots." 

"Feeble?"  Ouch. 

But at the end of the third quarter with the dismal shooting, Chaminade was still only up by two, 40-38.  And showing that both teams were equally capable of playing only three quarters, Chatsworth insured that there would be a bit of role reversal:  They began to hit all of their shots, scoring 18 points and while limiting Chaminade to just two points  themselves in the fourth quarter.  Two points.  Yeooow. We weren't there, but we're willing to bet Jeff Young went home last night and threw up.  He may not have even waited until he got home. If Chaminade has that kind of night again, they could be in serious trouble against some of their tough league opponents.  We're not sure quite how the wheels came off, but off they came. 

In the fourth, Cannon hit a three with just about 5 minutes left to play, and then added two more threes in the last 1:30 in the game to absolutely shock Chaminade. Of course, he didn't do it alone, and Ronald Ruffin had 16 points, while Chris Gayles had 2, Marlik Morris had 5, Adam Drell had 2, and Bobby Bowlin had 6.   For Chaminade, Clarence Mitchell and Cayce Cooke each scored 11, while Robbie Tanouye had 4, Darren Tarlow had 2, and Chaminade's frontline combo combined for 14 points: Scott Borchart (6'-9" So. C/PF) had 9 points while J.J. Todd (6'-10" Sr. C)--who has signed to play at UCSB next year-- had just 5. 

Hollywood 69, Compton Centennial 63--The Sheiks are for real and now more quality teams are discovering what we saw at the Manual Arts "We Care Classic".  Leon Robbins scored 17 ponts to lead Hollywood, and Vahe Melikian scored 14, while Gerald Collins had 5, Orville Allen had 5, Keilon Maddox had 8, Eric Hall had 2, Kenny Johnson scored 6, and Craig Banks had 6.  For Compton Centennial, Marquis Poole scored 19, Steve Sims had 16, Lawrence Smith scored 2, Clifford Skannal had 2, Keith Robinson had 6, Tyrone Lewis had 6, Lee Abair scored 10. The game was close all the way, and the diffrerence was Hollywood outscoring Centennial 14-12 in the first and 20-18 in the second.  Hollywood will now play Alemany in the semifinals.

Alemany 75, Birmingham 45--Devin Montgomery scored 15 points and Reny Maynard had 13 for the Indians in a quarterfinal victory.  The Indians will play two-time tournament champion Centennial, a quarterfinal winner over Hollywood. 

Quartz Hill 71, Eisenhower 70--Brady Chelette hit a three-pointer with three seconds left to give the Rebels a quarterfinal victory over previously undefeated Eisenhower. Chelette scored 21 points, including 12 in the second quarter, and Jason Tomlin had 19 points and eight assists for Quartz Hill (7-2). Trennell Eddings led Eisenhower with 24 points, finishing with three 3-pointers and Calvin Afualo and Bobby Wilson each pick up another 15 points for the Eagles who dropped to 6-1 on the year. 

Consolation Round Games:

Valencia 100 San Fernando 75--Eskias McDaniel scored 32 points and Valencia teammates Mark Sisson had 17 points and Royce Minor scored 15 as Valencia improved to 5-3 with the win over the San Fernando Tigers.  Roger Martinez had 20 points, Jason Tubbs 18, and Kaike Hernandez 15 for San Fernando, which has now dropped to 1-6 on the year.

Littlerock 65, Santa Paula 37--Travis Williams scored 14 and Tony Mayes scored 15 for Littlerock which held Santa Paula to just 13 points in the second half.  Gene Myuzett also had 12 for Littlerock, followed by  Dibene with 1, Berkeley 4, N. White with 5, Price 5.  Santa Paula's scoring was Colbreck with 17, Saldino 8, Guzman 5, Macias 4, and Rico with 4.  Santa Paula dropped to 6-4 while Littlerock improved to 5-2.

Ventura 80, Antelope Valley 64--Jeff Staniland tied a school record with 46 points and the Cougars won a consolation game in the Valencia tournament.  Staniland, who made 20 of 27 shots, matched the record set by Norm Cowgill during the 1960-61 season.  Others scoring for Ventura were Pabst with 5, Hall 2, Baurline 6, Peterson 5, Derse 7, Baney 6, and McSorley 2.  For Antelope Valley, Matt Parm had 16, Gill 3, Price 10, Ruszkowski 16, Brisco 9 and Garrett 4, 

Notre Dame 69, Royal 65--Dante Ward's basket with four seconds left sent the game to overtime, where the Knights (3-5) started with an 8-0 run in a consolation victory.  Ward had 19 points to lead the Knights.  Cody Pearson also had 16,  while Chris Williams had 12 and Mike Anderson finished with 11 points for Notre Dame. 

©Copyright 1998 All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
Contact: jegesq@SoCalHoops.com