canyon loses big to south mountain day one

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Reebok Holiday Prep Classic: Canyon Anaheim
Loses To So. Mtn. (AZ), 79-36--(Dec. 18, 1999)

Bronze Cup Game: Game No. 14 Canyon (Anaheim) v. South Mountain (Phoenix, AZ) Durango Auxiliary Gym

We can't say were surprised that South Mountain won, but we are a bit surprised by the margin of victory, 43 points, which is a bit overwhelming. What happened? Canyon was just outshot, out-defended, and outplayed by a bigger, faster, quicker and better South Mountain team. South Mountain had four players in double figures (see box below) inluding Mike Mason the MVP of the game who had 16 points on 5-8 shooting, 6-12 from the line. Dante Branham also just killed Anaheim on the boards, getting 13 rebounds, (11 defensive).

For Canyon, it wasn't much of a game to write home about, and only one player scored in double figures: Darron Putnam with 12 points in 22 minutes, on (oooh this hurts) 4 for 21 shooting from the field and 2-12 from three point range. As Dave Benezra would say, "Full-metal jack-it." We don't mean to be unkind, but 4 for 21? The Canyon team as a whole needs to take some target practice: They shot 13 for 77 from the field (a horrible 16.9%) and only made 10% of their three point shots (5 for 47). Frankly, we didn't know a team could really shoot that much in a game. . . Jason Taylor, the next highest scorer had 8 points in 25 minutes of time. We won't give you all the rest of the shooting, but we will say that there were a lot of guys who missed a lot, including Jamal Taylor who went 0-13 from three point range and finished with just 1 point. The free throw shooting wasn't much better, and the team only shot 29.4% from the line ( 5 for 17). Time to settle down boys. . . .

Here's the box (from the Las Vegas Review-Journal):

South Mountain (Phoenix, AZ) 79, Canyon (Anaheim, CA) 36
Box Scores
South Mountain (79) - Walker 9, Moore 0, Coleman 4, J. Owens 5, A. Owens 4, M. Mason 16, A. Mason 13, Wade 2, Branhan 4, Jones 12, Russell 10. Totals 32 13-20 79. Canyon (36) - Klein 3, Taylor 1, Amador 1, Baranick 3, Waltz 0, Putnum 12, Taylor 8, Mclain 2, Burke 0, Miller 0, Lattos 2, Parker 0, Zimmerman 4. Totals 13 5-17 36. South Mountain 37 42 -79 Canyon 21 15 -36

There's not a whole lot else to say about this game, except that like UCLA and Gonzaga, maybe the Commanches can put it behind them quickly when they play Eldorado on Monday at 11:35 a.m. at the Durango Auxiliary gym.