montclair prep loses to smoky hill day one

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Reebok Holiday Prep Classic: Montclair Prep
Loses To Smoky Hill 77-64--(Dec. 18, 1999)

Bronze Cup Game: Game No. 6 Montclair Prep v. Smoky Hill (Aurora, CO) at Durango, Auxiliary Gym

What's going on?!! SoCal teams are losing all over the place, and this, the first game of the day in the Bronze Cup Tournament was no different, as Montclair Prep lost to a good Smoky Hill team from Aurora, Colorado. The Mounties trailed early in this one and at the half they were down by 8, 40-32, and they never made it back up again, as smoky Hill outscored them 37-32.

Montclair stared Andre Freeman at the point, Will Sheslow at the two, Eric Kaufman (who is also really a combo guard), Jesse Bronner and Josiah Johnson. Others got into the game, but the big news in this game, at least for Montclair Prep in a losing cause, was Josiah Johnson (6'-8" Sr. SF)--actually he's 6'-7 3/4" but his dad, Marques wrote to chastise us for saying that Josiah was only 6'-6", as he had just measured him. . . whatever . Joe had 29 points and was the leading scorer in the game, shooting 9-22 from the field, 2-4 from three, and a perfect 9-9 from the line. He also had 2 offensive and 3 defensive boards, only 1 foul and 1 blocked shot in 32 minutes, which means he never sat down.

Others scoring for Montclair Prep came from Will Sheslow (6'-1" So. SG) who had 10 points, going 3-13 from the field, 1-3 from three point range and 3-4 from the line. Sheslow also had 2 assists and 2 turnovers to go along with 1 steal in 29 minutes of game time. Andre Freeman also had 10 points, but no assists, shoting 4-6 from the field, 0-1 from three and 2-2 from the line. Freeman had 1 rebound 1 turnover and 1 steal in 17:40 of playing time. Jesse Bronner had 9 points, going 4-10 from the field, 1-2 from the line, and he had 10 rebounds (6 offensive and 4 defensive) and he played 31 minutes of the game. Jason Goss had 2 points and only played 3 minutes, and Justin Goss had 4 points in 17 minutes.

The difference in this game came down to shooting from the field, assists and free throws, as Montclair shot only .44% from the line while Smoky Hill shot 85% (17-20). Likewise, Smoky Hill had more balanced scoring overall, with four players in double figures: Johnnie Jones (Game MVP) had 17, Matt Carroll had 16, Jon Babineau had 13, and Olasupo Jegede had 11.

Not a terribly auspicious start for the Mounties, who will next play the loser of the Bellevue v. Chaparral game on Monday morning at 10:10 a.m. at Durango's Auxiliary gym.