SoCal High School & Prep Report

State Finals: Division II Boys'--Santa Margarita
Wins Title Over Montgomery--(March 21, 1998)

Santa Margarita came into this one 31-2; Santa Rosa Montgomery was 26-7. This was an amazing game for several reasons, the most notable of which was that it probably set a record for the number of free throw shots both attempted and made in a playoff game; SM probably set the record for the worst three point average, while Montgomery no doubt set at least two records: Most threes by a single player, and most made by a team. In losing 61-52 to Santa Margarita, Montgomery, as a team made 11 threes, and Joe Kelly had 6 of those, going 6 for 11. The Vikings made 11 of their 35 three-point attempts, and Montgomery senior guard Joe Kelly made six to tie a state championship record shared by Tracy Murray of Glendora/ UCLA, who set the mark in 1989, and Servite's Paul Stapleton, who equaled it in 1990.

The program notes to the CIF State Championship media guide said that this was "a surprise match-up to be sure." The big surprise was that "Most 'experts' penciled in defending state champion Dominguez long ago, but the Dons fell to rival Compton in the Southern Regional Semifinals leaving the field up for grabs. Santa Margarita took advantage of the opportunity by beating Compton, 60-50, to advance to is first title game. Not that the Eagles couldn't have done the same to Dominguez. This is a balanced team led by T.J. Williams (13 ppg) and Ryan Forehan-Kelly (14 ppg). Montgomery lost the league championship to Piner, but caught fire in section and regional play. The Vikings trailed St. Francis, 55-50 late in the fourth quarter when senior Trevor Lorz took over by hitting a pair of three-pointers and Montgomery ended up with an improbable win over St. Francis Mountain View (and Cinque Carey) in the Northern Regional finals. Lorz finished with a game high 25 points. Going into the game the high scorers for SM were Forehan-Kelly and Williams; for Montgomery it was Lorz (17.5 ppg) and Joe Kelly (16.7 ppg)."

Against that backdrop, and with the Arco Arena Friday night 8 p.m. headliner game set to roll against a sea of red and white Montgomery fans and only a small contingent of Santa Margarita fans tucked away in one corner of the arena, the game got underway. The rosters were as follows:

Both of these teams look remarkably similar. Except that SM is a lot taller and seems deeper off the bench. But as we found out last night, Montgomery is quick, perhaps quicker than SM; but not for 32 minutes of solid, exhausting basketball. And as it turned out, SM only went 8 deep last night, and Montgomery only went 7 deep the entire game.

At the very outset, Montgomery got the ball off the tip, but couldn't connect, and with only seconds gone, Craig Rice got fouled and was at line for two free throws, and he hit them both, putting SM on the board first. Trevor Lorz, from the perimeter hit the first of his 10 points, a two. Rohe, up top set a good high post, with Dekker McKeever setting the other post down low. Dekker is at least 4 inches taller than his defender, but he seems to be out of sync with the flow of the game, at least initially. With Trevor Lorz shooting from the perimeter again, it's now 4-2 Mont. The Montgomery coach keeps calling for 'motion, motion" , but the team just keeps running it inside-out; they shoot and miss. T.J. Williams playing point for SM gets the ball up court, and delivers to Dekker McKeever down low, who dishes to Rice, who fires it back to McKeever, who gets hammered on the shot. McKeever goes to the line, makes both and with 5:36 to play it's 4-4. Rohe is now guarding Lorz effectively, forcing the bad shot, which just misses. Next time down Joe Kelly hits a strange three which bounces in then out off the top of the rim, and then comes back down, but the shot just makes the mostly partisan Montgomery crowd go nuts. On the next possession, Ryan Forehan-Kelly is fouled, but hits only one of two, and its 5-7. Joe Kelley is on fire as he hits another three, and the crowd erupts again, but Dekker comes back with a nice turn around in the lane for two. Kelley is called for traveling, and SM comes right back so that Kelley can miss another three. McKeever scores again and with 3:09 to play it's 10-9 Montgomery.

Rohe, again posting up high, moves out to the perimeter, squares up and takes a shot, misses, gets the rebound, shoots, misses, shoots, misses, shoots again, and finally makes it. Most tenacious player on the floor. Montgomery gets the ball, and on the other end Rohe gets the board again; SM goes to an overload offense on the weak side with only McKeever and TJ on the ball side; the ball goes in to Dekker, who gets charged with the offensive foul. SM 11, Mont 10. SM then sets up running a double screen, with one man coming up to the elbow to shoot--TJ misses and the ball turns over to Montgomery. Both teams miss a couple of fast break layups and at the end of the quarter it's 10-11 SM winning.

Second quarter, and for the first minute and a half, there's no score, just some really quick motion offense which is otherwise non-productive but fun to watch. But then TJ hits a big three off a screen from Carson Palmer who comes into the game for Craig Rice, but only briefly for about 5 minutes in the second quarter--he did not play the rest of the game, and finished with 0 points, 1 assist and 1 rebound, and only one field goal attempt. But Joe Kelly is not done, and he comes back with the second of his 6 threes, and it's 13-14 with 6:06 to play as Leo Chatham fouls TJ who goes to the line shooting two, makes the first, makes the second, and it's now 13-16. Scott Baxter, in the game now for Arnerich, misses a layup (use the glass, use the glass), but then Dekker picks up his second personal, stopping the action momentarily. Montgomery gets the ball back and Lorz, who is feeding off the Kelly energy, hits his second three of the evening and with 4:36 it's tied at 16-16. With 4:14 to play SM misses the shot, recovers, and then calls a time out. De Busk has been screaming "motion" also for most of the quarter, and while the team is running picks and rolls, a double high post offense, and assorted other set ups, and he's obviously not happy. McKeever is active, but seems to be wasting a lot of energy dancing down low. As he put it during the post game press conference "It's very frustrating to try to rebound when the other team isn't giving you anything to rebound and all their shots are dropping in." And either McKeever is showing good footwork, or just plain frustration and inefficient labor. He seems dazed and confused, and if it truly is frustration, it's starting to show as Lorz shoots another three by challenging McKeever first to go in and then backing off to the outside where McKeever won't follow.

Following a McKeever score off a nice turnaround inside j, with only 1:47 to play in the half, the score is 19-22, but then Nick Galvan scores and Montgomery keeps it within one, at 21-22. Montgomery calls a 20 second timeout to set up a play, and Joe Kelly comes right off the timeout , steals the ball, and scores the layup to put Montgomerey ahead 23-22 with less then a minute to play. Montgomery is trying to keep SM from penetrating inside, and is playing a very effective 2-3 zone, and by and large it works, forcing TJ to shoot from the outside, but Rohe grabs the rebound puts it back and at the half it's 23-24 SM.

The big question of the half is "where is Ryan Forehan-Kelly?" The starter and sometime star is not really playing up to his potential in the first half, and at times it seems as if he too is becoming frustrated with Montgomery's ability to use the clock and the perimeter passing game. And the biggest surprise of this game, at least for those of us from SoCal is the shooting of Montgomery's Kelly and Lorz; while they're not burning up the score, they are seemingly scoring more efficiently than SM. Montomery is shooting 39.1%, while SM is shooting a fairly miserable 26.7 % from the field; SM is only 11.1% from three point range (1 for 9) while Montgomery is shooting 5 for 14, or 35.7 %.

Second half: Ryan Forehan-Kelly forces shot from baseline, and remains scoreless; Josh Burrus, a sort of Shantay Legans type of player, very tough, quick, and not overwhelmingly tall at only 6'-0", comes right back to give Montgomery the lead at 25-24. T.J. can't seem to find his shot either in the second half, and off the rebound which goes to Burrus, he transition fast break, Burrus hits the little J in the lane for the two. At 6:19, McKeever posts up, and does his turn around drop step thing, and scores, then grabs a rebound down on the other end and outlets to Forehan-Kelly, who finally scores. Rohe on the other end is playing great defense, but he gets a bit carried away and just about takes Trevor Lorz' head off. Lorz at the line for two, hits neither and it's 27-28 wth 5:15 to play in the third. Craig Rice is playing well, looking for the open cutter, handling the ball well, and generally one of the smarter players we've seen this year. Josh Burrus gets the ball down low, shoots, misses, grabs his own board, and then goes under and through for a spectacular reverse layup which brings the crowd to it's feet.

Ryan F-Kelly scores again, but then Joe Kelly scores too, and with 3:47 to play its 32-30 Montgomery. McKeever seems shellshocked, but then Forehan-Kelly hits for two from the baseline. Forehan-Kelly has the look of a mini-Tyson Chandler, and he's strong, tall and wiry, just not as tall as Chandler. He's not having a great game, but he's a great player nonetheless. Unfortunately for him, Nick Galvan of Montgomery is now getting into the three point act, and he scores a three to add to Montgomery's total. Dekker brings it back to 35-35 with an inside move for two . Tony Arnerich then hits for three (in fact only Josh Burrus didn't hit a three for Montgomery among the starters), from the left baseline, and it's 38-35 Montgomery with 2:18 in the third quarter. SM calls a timeout to regroup.

Off the timeout, Dekker goes up high to get the ball, and looking right at the glass, misses the layup. Joe Kelly then has the crowd on fire as he hits another 3, and with 1:42 to play in the third, it's 41-35, Montgomery's largest lead of the game. Forehan-Kelly brings ball in again to McKeever, who this time shoots an airball over the rim. The crowd is merciless "ariball, airball" and it's starting to bother him visibly, since McKeever isn't used to this kind of treatment and seeing so few friendly faces in the stands. Craig Rice is fouled on the drive, and hits two free throws, but then on the way back shoots an airball of his own to go with Dekker's. At the end of the third, Montgomery is leading 41-37.

4th quarter--Joe Kelly hits a floating j from 15'. Montgomery gets the ball back after SM fails to score, and scores. SM calls a timeout after the turnover and with less than a minute gone from the final period it's 43-37 Montgomery. After the timeout, Montgomery gets the ball back, and makes a decision to try to use the clock, going into a waiting game offense, in what looks more like a half-court standaround offense, but 6:41 is an awful lot of time left to play, and it's way too early to go into a stall. Joe Kelly is fouled, goes to the line, misses the first, makes the second and it's 44-37. T.J. brings the ball up, but then he fades inside to McKeever who kicks the ball to Rice who hits the three, then McKeever makes just a huge block on Scott Baxter to reject the shot at the other end, and the crowd boos, and then they get even worse when Burrus travels on the inbounds. Yes indeed, a partisan crowd.

Dekker McKeever blocks Leo Chatam's shot

T.J. starts to take over, and getting frustrated with the seeming inability f his other teammates to score, he drives the lane, pulls up for the short J, misses, gets the rebound, goes up again, makes the shot, and is fouled, and suddenly it's 44-42 with 5:40 to play. Yeah, the stall was really the wrong move with that much time left on the clock, and it seems to have affected Montgomery's ability to regain the flow of the game. But it's not stopping Lorz, who hits another three, which is answered by Forehan-Kelly, with a two; T.J. comes right back off the steal, scores a drive in the lane off the coast-tocast and with 4:47 to play, Montgomery calls a timeout. Montgomery misses the shot and T.J. has it going, and hits the three and at 4:13, SM is, for the first time in three quarters, in the lead 47-49. You can feel the momentum shift, and the crowd is getting a bit quieter and more disquieted at this latest turn of events. McKeever hits a putback in the lane and with 3:46 to play, the score is 47-51 SM.

Scott Burrus comes into the game, gets the ball on the inbounds at mid court, and drives past the whole SM team, who look like they don't believe what he's doing, and he scores making it 49-51. Rice is then fouled on the other end, hits one, then misses the other, and Montgomery recovers the rebound. Lorz shoots a three but misses, and SM gets the ball. McKeever kicks it out to Rice to TJ, to Rohe who shoots but misses. Montgomery gets the ball, Kelly shoots, misses the long two, and then SM comes right back and TJ is fouled by Kelly, goes to the line, hits the first, misses the second and then Tony Arnerich hits another three in the corner. With 1:39 to play it's 52-53 SM and Montgomery calls a timeout.

On the inbounds, McKeever posts up high, kicks out, and the ball comes back to him, he shoots, and is fouled, which has the crowd of NorCal partisans going nuts. McKeever knocks down the free throws and with 1:00 to play its Montgomery's game to lose, they need a three to tie. Arnerich shoots and his shot is blocked by Rohe, then Lorz shoots a three point airball. With 37.3 to go, McKeever misses them both at the line after he's fouled, and Montgomery still has a chance, and the ball.

Joe Kelly gets set up for the shot, but then he has to rush it as Rice plays really tight defense on him, and his shot goes in and out. SM gets the ball and it forces Montgomery to foul with only 22.0 remaining, and TJ goes to the line, shooting two. He makes the first, , and with the game slipping away the score is now 52-56. SM is on the verge of winning it's first ever state title. De Busk pulls everyone off the line, and TJ makes the second. Joe Kelly takes what looks like more than an NBA three, misses badly and McKeever gets the board gets fouled and makes the shots, and its now 52-59. With 6.3 to play, SM gets the ball back again, but it's too late, and both Jerry De Busk, Tom Fitchie, the Montgomery coach, the fans, and even the players realize it's too late. With 22 seconds on the clock, De Busk pulls all the starters, and Steve Pearce comes into the game along with Steve Tashjian and grant Brown and Parker McMannes for their final hurrah, and to win the game.

The final score was Santa Margarita 61, Montgomery 52. SM shot only 33.3 % total from the field, but did a bit better in the second half, making 40.7% of their shots, hitting 11 for 27; on the other hand, Montgomery didn't shoot as well, hitting only 34% in the second half (11-32).

Dekker McKeever was the high scorer for SM, with 20, and he also had 14 rebounds. Jake Rohe had 8 boards and 4 points; T.J Williams scored 17, while Ryan Forehan-Kelly had 12 points; Craig Rice had 6, and Kelly Kramer had 2. For Montgomery, Arnerich had 6, Burrus had 8, Joe Kelly had a game high 23, Nick Galvan had 5, and Trevor Lorz had 10.

Congratulations to Santa Margarita's Eagles, the 1997-98 State Division II Boys' CIF Basketball Champions.

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