iolani classic

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SoCalHoops Tournament News

Iolani Classic: Dominguez To Play
Oak Hill In Final Today--(Dec. 22, 1999)

Again, we want to thank the anonymous poster on our Men's Message Forum who alerted us to the Iolani Prep Classic website, because through that site, we've gotten some really good information on what's been happpening. And while the website has updated it's tournament bracket to show the final results from yesterday's games (and in turn, to show today's final schedule), they don't have the stats (or even the scores) listed from yesterday. So we had to find another avenue to learn what happened, and how Oak Hill and Dominguez will both end up playing each other in the finals of the Iolani Classic tonight at 8:00 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time (and for those who have difficulty figuring out such things, that's 11: 00 p.m. PST, and 2:00 a.m. the next day for Oak Hill). And this is a match which will also be a prelude to another rematch in early February, 2000 between these teams at the Nike Extravaganza to be held at the Long Beach Pyramid. Couldn't have scripted it any better if they tried.

But because the Iolani's website didn't have the details about the semifinals, we looked in some of the local Hawaii papers and other papers across the country in the home regions of the participants, including the D.C, Maryland and Arkansas medial and what we found surprised us a bit, particularly what the Maryland and D.C. papers had, and we discovered an interesting thing about the Montrose team: While USA Today has them ranked (as of the Dec. 21 poll) as the No. 8 team in the country, some of the other D.C. papers, who presumablly get to see Montrose on a more regular basis, in particular the Washington Post, had them ranked only as the 4th best team in the District of Columbia region (not the country) behind No. 1 Oxon Hill , No 2.DeMatha , and No. 3 Spingarn, and none of these teams, with the exception of DeMatha, is even ranked in the USA Today polls. But hey, it sure sounds fun to say the No. 8 team (Montrose) and the No. 12 team (Dominguez) matched up at the Iolani, doesn't it? In any event, here's what we know:

Dominguez 56, Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md) 37

From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "In the battle of nationally ranked prep powerhouses, Dominguez (Compton, Calif.) upset Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md.), 56-37, last night in the semifinals of the Nike Iolani Basketball Classic. Dominguez, ranked No. 12 by USA Today, was led by Tyson Chandler. The 7-0 center finished with 18 points, six rebounds, four blocks and a steal. "It's a difficult loss but Dominguez is one of the best teams in the country," No. 8 Montrose coach Stu Vetter said. "We couldn't execute our offense. When we had open shots, we weren't able to convert. "Of course, they have the big guy inside, which made it hard to penetrate and forced our offense away from the basket." The Dons' defense gave the Mustangs problems from the start. Montrose was held to 5 points in the second quarter. Chandler punctuated a 29-15 first half with a two-handed jam that roused the crowd at Iolani School. "Defensively we did a great job,'' Dominguez coach Russell Otis said. "(Montrose) is a good ball club, and to hold them to 15 points, that's very good. "The players are willing to do whatever it takes. They want to win. They want to be the top team in the country and they are showing that on the basketball court." Dominguez picked up in the second half where it left off in the first. Chandler's alley-oop dunk from Keith Brooks opened the third quarter on their way to the victory. Dominguez faces defending USA Today national champion Oak Hill, which is ranked No. 4, tonight at 8:00 in the championship game. Montrose was led by Marvin Lewis' 17 points."

And here's what happened in the other games:

OakHill (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) 89, Central (Ark.) 62--Oak Hill's five starters scored in double digits in rout of Central. Abdou Diame's 24 points led the Warriors. Central's Bruce Evans finished with 21 points, including three 3-pointers.

Provo (Utah) 65, Wilson (Florence, S.C.) 58 --Jacob Chrisman's 26 points helped Provo hold off a resilient Wilson squad. The Tiger's Darian Durant led his team with 16 points.

Washington Union (Fresno, Calif.) 79, East Anchorage (Alaska) 77--Preseason All-American De-Shawn Stevenson scored 45 points as the Panthers edged the Thunderbirds. DeShawn Ander-son added 24. Stevenson hit seven of his nine 3-pointers in the first half. East Anchorage's Peter Bullock finished with 20 points.

Radford 48, Iolani 45--Iolani was held to seven points in the fourth quarter. Sa Tanuvasa scored six of Radford's 10 points in the final period. Iolani's Bobby Nash had a team-high 11 points.

Roosevelt 40, St. Louis 39--St. Louis gave up 12 points in the second half in the losing effort. Van Dorsey led all Rough Rider scorers with 10 points. The Crusaders' Joey Borja finished with a game-high 12 points.

Baldwin 59, McKinley 41--Baldwin held the Tigers' offense to five points in the final quarter on its way to the victory. Kenneth Silva's 12 points led the Bears in scoring. McKinley's Jay-R Laforteza was the game's top scorer with 15.

Waianae 62, Kapaa 45-- Waianae outscored Kapaa, 36-27, in the second half to cruise to victory. Waianae's Jonah Nunuha finished with 12 points. Kapaa's Rhyan Greenleaf had 11 points.