fairfax loses to roswell

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Reebok Holiday Prep Classic: Fairfax Loses
To Roswell, 63-51--(Dec. 18, 1999)

Millenium Cup Game: No. 2 of the day. Fairfax v. Roswell (Georgia), at Durango, Main Gym

Glad we weren't there to witness it (we stayed in LA for the day, as did just about everyone we know. . . Tracy Pierson and Greg Hicks were at UCLA today, as was Larry Gray and and our photog buddy Jason Day, Pat Barrett was also at UCLA with Josh Childress and Keilon Fortune--who obviously isn't with the Dominguez team in Hawaii. . . but that's another story). Etop Udo Ema, Frank Burlison of the Orange County Register, Dave Nahabedian of Networkx Scouting, David and Dana Pump. . . all at UCLA. We're not sure who was in Vegas today, but a lot of the usual crowd stayed home at least until the games get going in earnest on Monday in Vegas.

In the meantime, whether we were there to see it or not, and sad to say, the Fairfax Lions dropped their first game of the tournament to a team from Roswell, Georgia, which shot the lights out when it counted.

Fairfax had entered the tournament as one of the favorites to win the Las Vegas Millennium Cup, and after falling behind early, the Lions went on a 20-0 run to take a 43-37 lead with just more than eight minutes to play against Roswell (Ga.). But Fairfax was late coming out of a timeout, allowing Roswell's 6-10 center, Patrick Ridley, to score an uncontested layup to end the run. Fairfax then was called for a technical foul for protesting the call, and Brian Watts made both free throws to pull the Hornets within two. On the ensuing possession, Chris Reis scored to tie it, as Roswell went on a 12-0 run of its own to push the lead to 49-43. Fairfax never led again and lost, 63-51.

Fairfax trailed at the half 23-25, and never could quite catch up as both teams scored 28 points in the second half. Kris Lowe of Roswell shot 7 for 18 from the firls for 15 points and was named the game MVP. And Roswell also did very well from the line, shooting 80% in the second half (12-15). Roswell had four guys in double figures while Fairfax had only three. For Roswell, Brian Watts had 14, James Pattman had 11 and Chris Reis had 14.

Roswell outplayed Fairfax in just about every category, including fouls: Roswell had just 12 fouls called on them in the entire game while Fairfax got whistled 21 times. Roswell had 39 rebounds to 31 for the Lions. Fairfax only shot 3-10 from three point range, and had 11 turnovers in the game compared to only 8 for Roswell.

Individual scorers for Fairfax were:

Ishmael Torres 2 (21 minutes, 1 assist), Fernando Sampson 3 (6 minutes, 1 assist), Marqui Jones 13 (16 minutes, 1 assist, 1 turnover), Kevin Bell 0 (1:56 minutes), Aaron Mims 2 (10:58 played, 2 assists), Evan Burns 6 (25:04 played, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 3 blocks), Scottie Stern 0 (13:31 played, 2 rebounds, 1 assist), Fowzi Abdelsamad 1 point (18:14 played, 4 assists, 5 turnovers, 1 steal); Jason Morrissette 11 points (28:16 played, 3 assists, 3 turnovers, 2 blocked shots, 1 steal) Craig Smith 11 points (18:32 played, 1 assist, 8 rebounds); Daniel Malwah 0 (1:35 played), and Alex Bausley 2 (2:22 played).

For the game, Fairfax shot .422 from the field (19-45), .300 from three point range (3-10), and .667 from the line (10-15). Roswell shot .408 from the firled (20--49), but shot slightly better from three point range, .500 (3-6), and went 20-29 from the line, .690.

Fairfax next plays again on Monday at 3:50 when they'll meet Stratford, from Houston, Texas, which lost in the first game of the day in the Millenium Cup to Pleasure Ridge 58-44

A note for all of the games: They are played under Nevada rules, which means they are halves, not quarters.