SoCalHoops Tournament News

Oregon Holiday Invitational: The Big
Action Is Up North--(Dec. 20, 1999)

While a lot of SoCal based teams are playing in Las Vegas, the real action on the West Coast is up in Oregon, and the only team from SoCal up there is Redondo Union, which got a first round victory on Saturday against Churchill, a young team from Oregon, by a score of 73-50.  If you want to see the game stats, you can check them out at the Official Oregon Holiday Invitational website.  The Redondo game details and stats are located at the link (as is Redondo's team profile).   According to John Tawa, who also posted this report on the message forum, Andrew Zahn was unstoppable. He scored 12 of his 21 points in the first half as Redondo built a 40-17 halftime lead and cruised. Ryan Mollins had 13 points, Dijon Thompson 12 and Walter White 11 for the Hawks, who shot 51% from the field and forced 22 turnovers. Redondo next faces Beaverton Monday at 4 p.m. before a likely showdown with nationally-ranked Jefferson of Portland.  John wrote, "I just saw Redondo Union won their first round game in the Oregon tournament by 13 points. They may face the best team in the country if they meet Rice of New York in the later rounds. That would be a major test for the boys from the beach. I saw two of their games in the Pacific Shores tournament two weeks ago and so far it looks like they are going to be awesome this season. They certainly have the size. Andrew Zahn should have an All-American year. UCLA would be lucky if he ends up in Westwood."   Well, we're not going to express any opinion on the latter sentiment, except to say that the Bruins will need a couple (at least one) really big guy down in the blocks when/if Moiso and Gadzuric leave, as they are expected to, and it seems for now that the UCLA coaches have told Andrew that they might offer him this spring, particularly if Josh Moore (7'-1" C) from New Jersey isn't qualified for admission (In a side note, Moore is currently living here in SoCal with a certain club coach, who is getting him some SAT tutoring in the hopes that he'll qualify. . . more on that later).   In any event, Zahn is now on hold with the rest of his recruiting, and as we reported sometime ago, he's decided to keep Washington State and USC waiting for his decision.  But it's nice to see the big guy having a good senior year and doing well at the tournament.

Others who have had big first round games included West Linn (Oregon) which beat Westview 77-69, and Portland Jefferson which beat Redmond.  Some of the guys scoring well for Jefferson were Antone Jarrell (6'-7" Sr. SG/SF), who you'll recall played for the Pump N Run Gold team this past spring and summer, along with teammate Brandon Brooks (6'-0" Sr. PG).  Antone had 22 points, on 9-15 shooting, while Aaron Miles, another top point guard on the West Coast,  had 11 points and 5 assists for Jefferson. Brandon Lincoln had 9 points on 4-5 shooting, while John Tinnon had 8, and Michael Lee also had 8. Brandon Brooks, coming in off the bench had 4 and 1 assist, while Billy Hold had 8 points, and Eli Ware finished with 5, on 2 for 2 shooting. Jefferson won 88-58, and they outquicked and outshot Redmond, which was led by Mychal Wagner and Bryan Steed with 14 and 13 respectively.

Rice just killed Lake Oswego (Oregon) 83-38, and despite the fact that super shooter Salim Stoudamire (6'-3" Jr. SG) is also listed on the Lake Oswego roster, he didn't play in the game, which might account for at least another 20-30 points which LO might have had (and maybe more) if Salim had been in the game.   Southern Lab, with Traveyon Scott (6'-1" Sr. PG) and Nick Anderson (6'-6" Sr. PF) had no trouble either dispatching another local team, Sunset, by a score of 66-41.  

Oh, and by the way, if you want to talk about "live action" stats, these guys have really got it going on.  Forget about the non-existent Rivalnet vaporware "net radio broadcasts" which were promised from the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic "official" site (hey, the Las Vegas Review Journal also has quicker and better information, as do we with stats and scores almost immediately after each game) but which never materialized.  These guys up in Oregon, through Promax Event Management and Athletic High, have been providing real live, honest to goodness instant stats as the games are taking place. That's right, they have live stats from each game as it's being played, and the stats refresh every 30 seconds.  Really cool, and it's certainly something most major tournaments should look into doing.

Besides the live stats, they've got detailed information on just about every player and team with full photos, rosters, and notes.  And the game results from all the games.  What more can you ask for if you can't be there in person? 

Every team's roster and picture can be highlighted, in particular, the three big teams from the USA Top 25 are Rice, NY,  Jefferson (Portland) and Southern Lab, LA, and a look at their rosters and personnel tells you why these are some of the highest rated teams in the country.  Rice, for example, has a roster that a lot of Colleges would be envious of:  Four 6'-9" players, one 6'-8" and don't stop there, how about a guy who is 7'-2" and can really play.   That's what you get with Spencer Longmare, Mark Wilson, Kyle Cuffe, Frank Gathright (all 6'-9"), Shakeem Mithcell (6'-8") and Shagari Alleyne, the big 7'-2" guy.  The rest of the teams can be accessed through these links to the Oregon Holiday Invitational site:

The full tournament bracket, with current results, and access to full historical stats (as opposed to the live stats) can also be accessed at the official website.

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