SoCalHoops Tournament News

City Of Palms: Mater Dei Loses, Will
Play For Third--(Dec. 23, 1999)

Mater Dei lost last night.  We've got the stats, but we weren't there, and thus didn't see it so we can't really give you our take on what happened, but we can do the next best thing, which is rely on those who were there.  This comes from the local Ft. Meyers paper, the Southwest Florida News-Press.  Remember, it's told from a somewhat Floridian point of view, but that shouldn't matter, right?:

Miami school tops its 3rd ranked team, Mater Dei, 72-56

By DAVID DORSEY
The News-Press

FORT MYERS - The Miami Northwest Christian School basketball team continued to win over the fans at the NationsBank
City of Palms Classic on Wednesday night by defeating nationally-ranked Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei 72-56.  "What I'm excited about is I think these kids have won the hearts of this community," Northwest Christian coach Anthony Pujol said. "It seemed like every time we made a shot, they were cheering. "This community has respected us, and they've been very gracious to us." 

About 2,400 fans filled the Bishop Verot High School gymnasium for the first semifinal in the Classic, presented by The News-Press. Northwest Christian's three-game tournament run has featured two victories against nationally-ranked teams and another against Florida's top-ranked Class 6A team.  "That doesn't mean nothing," Northwest senior guard Eddie Starks said of the rankings. "That's just a number."  During this tournament, Northwest has had everybody's number.  

The Eagles defeated Denver East, USA Today's 19th team in the Super 25 rankings, 80-49 in the first round. They followed that with a 72-56 victory Tuesday night against Fort Lauderdale Dillard, Florida's No. 1 Class 6A team.  Then they knocked off Mater Dei, the nation's sixth-ranked team.  And Northwest Christian, now 9-2, did all of this without its three tallest players. Rafael Luis, Andrey Arkhipov and Fabrice Tie-Bi, who are all 6-foot-7, have been out this week because of injuries.   In their absence, Northwest Christian's trio of senior guards - Starks, Jose Caraballo and David Christ - have continued their
prowess from behind the 3-point line.

Wednesday night, they combined to make 10-of-20 3-pointers led by Christ's 4-for-5 effort. "What I'm excited about is I think these kids have won the hearts of this community," Northwest Christian coach Anthony Pujol said. "It seemed like every time we made a shot, they were cheering.  This community has respected us, and they've been very gracious to us." 

Mater Dei junior center Jamal Sampson scored a team-high 18 points, but he picked up his second foul early in the game and had to be benched.   "Those kids shot the ball really well," said Mater Dei coach Gary McKnight, whose team fell to 9-1. "We've got to step up and play harder.They played hard, and I hope our group learns to play that hard." 

Starks, who honed his game while playing in New York City, said he moved to Miami last year to get away from the drugs that prevailed in his neighborhood. Starks also said he struggled academically in New York and wanted to get away from the city to concentrate on improving his grades.  He said he has, and now he's one of the nation's top Division I college prospects. 

Against Mater Dei, Starks scored 20 points. He made 3-of-6 from 3-point range, grabbed five rebounds and had two assists and three steals despite picking up four fouls.  "At first, he had to adjust to our way of doing things," Pujol said. "People were counting him out, saying that he wouldn't get his grades. This year, he has been a delight to coach." Caraballo, who moved to Miami from Puerto Rico two years ago, scored 36 points Tuesday night and followed that with a game-high 21 on Wednesday while playing in front of several family members who flew in from Puerto Rico. 

"I know it's not me, it's my teammates," said Caraballo, who had four steals and made 2-of-7 tries from behind the 3-point line."They're getting me the ball when I'm open." Caraballo said he's looking forward to tonight's championship.  "Every player does his job," Caraballo said. "We want to win this thing." Ballard coach Chris Renner and his players want to win this thing as well.  Although the Bruins defeated Georgetown Scott County for the Kentucky state title last season, they haven't forgotten losing to Scott County in the Classic championship game one year ago.  "It feels good to play in the championship game, like we always do," said Ballard senior forward Cedric Knight, who scored 12 points and grabbed three rebounds. "We can't underestimate them." Ballard paved its way to the championship by defeating Cypress Lake, Williamsport (Pa.) and Boston English. 

Williamsport and English are both No. 1 teams in their respective states, and Ballard jumped to a 30-12 lead against English at the end of the first quarter. The Bruins shot 75 percent from the field in the first half and finished the game shooting 69 percent. "No. 1, we hit our shots," Renner said. "No. 2, we controlled the boards. We forced them into a bad shot percentage, which was one of our goals."  Adam Chiles led all scorers with 17 points as one of five Bruins to reach double figures in scoring. Brandon Bender finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, while Mac Wilkinson and David Bryant each finished with 11.  Raheim Lamb led English with 15 points. 

"We can't win this tournament, but we have to focus on going back home and finishing business," said English coach Barry Robinson, whose team fell to 3-1. Ballad improved to 9-0. At halftime with Ballard leading 60-30, the initial crowd of 2,400 dwindled to about 600. That, however, might not be the case tonight.  "They come at you with size," Robinson said of Ballard. "But if Miami plays hard, they're going to be in it. They've got some shooters - some of the best shooters in the tournament," Wilkinson said, referring to Christ, Caraballo and Starks.  "They're a small school playing against us," Renner said. "They are going to be pumped for us. We are not going to overlook them."

And since our friend Clark Francis of the Hoop Scoop has said that anytime we want to use something from his site to go ahead, we'll take him at his word on this one too, because he's got a lot to say about what happened at the City of Palms, including some news on what happened with the Mater Dei v. Northwest Christian game, and some other tidbits about why we haven't seen Harrison Schaen (6'-7" Fr. F) getting much playing time of late for Mater Dei, and how that's about to change.  Here's what Clark had to say about Mater Dei (including some other stuff about Ballard too):

Louisville (Ballard) KY did indeed win the other semi-final game late last night, 103-70, over Boston (English) MA, but that really doesn't begin to tell story of how well the Bruins have played all week at the Nations Bank City of Palms Classic in Ft. Myers, FL. Ballard is averaging 98.7 ppg in three games and last night they shot 69% (40-58) from the field. And if that weren't enough, three of the top four leaders - 6'1 Jr Adam Chiles (75%), 6'9 Jr Brandon Bender (62%), and 6'6 Cedric Knight (62%) - in field goal percentage in the tournament are from Ballard. So the stage has been set for what could be a great matchup night between Ballard and Miami (Northwest Christian) FL, but it will only be close as long as the Eagles can keep their star 6'3 Eddie Starks out of foul trouble. They also need to continue shoot the lights out, which is something they've been doing for three games now, as they have hit 34-74 3-point field goal attempts and knocked off two nationally ranked teams - Denver (East) CO and Santa Ana (Mater Dei) CA. While Northwest Christian is great in transition, their best chance tonight might be to shorten the game. We're not suggesting a total stall, but the four-corners offense can be a heck of an offense, especially when you're got guards as good as Northwestern Christian's Starks, 6'2 Jose Carabello and 5'5 David Christ.

The third place game also could be a great matchup, because Mater Dei head coach Gary McKnight tells us that his tremendous freshmen 6'7 Harrison Schaen will play tonight. Schaen, who ranks among the top five freshmen in the nation by the HOOP SCOOP, has been sick for the last week and, as a result, has only played one minute so far in the tournament. This could be huge, because Schaen so multi-dimensional, which could solve a lot of problems both inside and outside for Mater Dei. McKnight also points out that 6'11 Jr Jamal Sampson has only gotten nine shots in the last two games (he's a perfect 9-9). As a matter of fact, Sampson is the leading field goals shooter in the tournament, as he's hit 90% from the field. However, if we had to call, it we still have to give Boston (English) MA a slight edge, because they are so much tougher than Mater Dei.

If you want more information on the rest of the tournament, other than Mater Dei, visit the City of Palms tournament website, and click on bracket or look at the stats for other games. Each of the game scores on the bracket is hyperlinked to the stats for a particular game.  

For a look at what happened in their looss to NW Christian of Miami, here are the Mater Dei stats:

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