DII313.htm

SoCal High School & Prep Report

CIF State Playoffs: Southern Region
Division II Semifinal Details & Results--(March 13, 1998)

Compton 67, Dominguez 54

Compton High last night avenged its loss to Dominguez from last month's Artesia-Poly Winter Classic by winning against the almost-Tayshaun-Princeless Dons last night by a score of 67-54 in the CIF Semifinals. Domingues will now face Santa Margarita in the Southern Regional Final in Division II of the State Championship playoffs, in a rematch of the last week's Southern Section Division II-AA final, which was won by Santa Margarita four days after David Hamilton was wounded in a drive-by shooting which killed another boy sitting in Hamilton's car, an even which many believed caused Compton to completely lose its focus and ultimately the Southern Section title. But now they've got a chance to redeem themselves, and Santa Margarita gets the chance to prove that it was worthy of the title.

Compton had managed to do fairly well standing in the shadows of their more prosperous rivals, the two-time defending Division II state champion Compton Dominguez. But many believe this is the most important win for the Tarbabes' since the school won the 1969 Southern Section title. And for the Dons' postseason life ended short of the state championship game for the first time in four seasons. Dominguez, which entered the game No. 1 ranked in California just isn't used to losing on its home floor. Dominguez assistant coach Victor Martin said he believes its Dominguez's first home loss since they were defeated by Lynwood in February of 1993, more than 5 years ago.

Dominguez came out without its best player, Tayshaun Prince, and never really got in sync. Prince tried to play on his injured left knee, entering the game with 1:04 left in the first quarter, but he saw only 3:56 of playing time and missed two 3-point attempts. Prince did not return and did not score. Compton led, 15-9, after the first quarter and 34-20 at halftime. The Tarbabes' biggest lead was 17 points and Dominguez never got closer than eight. Michael Carson led Dominguez with 12 points. Dominguez' Jaffus Haley made two free throws with the score 32-18 to bring Dominguez back to within 12 just before the half, but Compton took the momentum into the locker room when Terry Hosendove canned a 15-footer with a second left to bring the score to 34-20.

Compton opened the second half by stealing the ball off a Dominguez turnover and then scoring on a 15' j by Tito Maddox. Dominguez tried to fight back, and got to eight points a couple of times in the third quarter, but every time Compton would run the score back up. At then end of three the score was 49-39, and this time, without Prince, there was nothing Dominguez could really do. After the teams traded baskets to open the final quarter, Moore, who finished with 22 points then took over. He drained a 3-pointer from the right wing, made a free throw and, after two free throws by Haley, fed Ray Ross for a layin and 57-43 Compton lead. Hamilton finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

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Santa Margarita 68, Redondo Union 60

Santa Margarita won't get the chance to play Dominguez in the finals on Saturday in the CIF Southern California Division II Regionals; instead they'll play Compton, which surprised Dominguez in it's game. Last night The Eagles won their second round State Regional playoff game, defeating Redondo Beach Redondo Union, 68-60, in front of an estimated 1,900 at Santa Margarita. Ironically, Redondo, which ends its own season at 29-4, lost to Dominguez in last week's CIF-SS Division II-A final.

So, for the second time in two weeks, Compton gets another crack at the top team fro Orange County, a team which defeated Compton, 71-57, in the CIF Southern Section Division II-A championship game last week. The Eagles improved to 30-2 and reached the 30-win level for the first time ever in the school's 10-year history. They got the win on the strength of 20 points by forward Ryan Forehan-Kelly and 15 by guard T.J. Williams; Dekker McKeever scored 13 and Jake Rohe added 12. They got victory No. 30 the same way they got the other 29: Quick defense, good rebounding, balanced scoring, fine shooting and aggressive play. And they also played their own brand of smothering, trapping defense, a Santa Margarita trademark.

SM jumped out to a 17-14 lead at the end of the first quarter, and then exploded both offensively and defensively, trapping on defense and scoring on O, outscoring Redondo 22-10 in the second quarter, to take a 39-24 lead at the half. But Redondo Union also proved that they were no patsies either, as they erased the halftime deficit by going on a 19-3 run to start the third quarter. Redondo guard Marcus Moore, who had 20 points, and shooting guard Brian Morris, who hit for 12 points before fouling out, managed to get 14 of those 19 points. Redondo had trouble during the first half dealing with the Santa Margarita press in the first half, threw it's own aggressive man-to-man defense at SM in the third quarter, and it worked, forcing SM to rush its shots, and generally miss most of them. For the quarter, Redondo did in the third to SM what SM had done to it in the second, outscoring them 21-10, to bring the score to 49-45 at the end of the third, Santa Margarita ahead.

Santa Margarita then adjusted, and during the fourth quarter, they extended their 4-point third quarter lead to 11, 63-52 with 1:39 left to play, and then never let the Sea Hawks get closer than five points after that. In addetion to his 13 points, SM's Dekker McKeever had eight rebounds, and spent most of the game neutralizing Redondo's center Andrew Zahn (6'-9" So C), who was Redondo's highest average scorer coming into at 20 points per game, scored only nine, but he managed nine boards. Zahn only scored three points in the second half. Redondo shot 63% on the night hitting 33 of 52. Santa Margarita made 23 of 56 shots from the field, including an impressive 8 of 15 from three-point range.

The final scoring for Redondo was Hoffman with 15, Stauffer 2, Zahn 9, Morris 12, Moore 20, and Kittel 2 point. For Santa Margarita the scoring was done by Rohe with 12, Forehan-Kelly 20, McKeever 13, Williams 15, Rice 6, and Kramer 2. There were 16 three-pointers made in the game, with each team at 8: Redondo's threes were by Hoffman 3, Moore 3, and Morris 2; Santa Margarita's 8 were hit by Forehan-Kelly who made 3, Williams 2, Rice 2, and Rohe 1.