DSII315.htm

SoCal High School & Prep Report

CIF State Playoffs: Southern Region D-II Final:
Santa Margarita Beats Compton 60-50--(March 15, 1998)

Compton has never played in the State Finals. They won't be going this year either. 21 points from Deandre Moore weren't enough. And Tito Maddox' 13 points didn't do it either. It's always been a question which David Hamilton will show up; at the beginning of the season, it was the cocky, sharp and outrageous David; then came Vegas and the Reebok Holiday Challenge and the few weeks after and when the wheels seemed to be coming off, and David had a lot of time to think while sitting on the bench. Then during the season which counted, Hamilton played well generally, frequently the team's high scorer. But a little less than two weeks ago, only 4 days before the Southern Section Championship game against Santa Margarita, David Hamilton was involved in a drive-by shooting, wounded and no doubt psychologically shaken. Notwitstanding any of that, Hamilton scored 27 points in the losing effort, and Compton ended up as the Southern Section runners-up to Santa Margarita.

And yesterday, the wheels also came off again as Hamilton only scored 5 points, had 7 rebounds, and played for 25 minutes. But the wheels not only came off, they were missing, as Hamilton missed the bus on the way to Pauley and didn't show up until later, complaining that he had a cold and didn't feel well. "We just wern't focused at all" was how Rod Palmer put it, and it was fairly obvious to all who were in the house at Pauley. The Tarbabes fell behind early and never caught up in a 60-50 loss to Santa Margarita in the CIF Southern California Regional Division II championship game.

Hamilton finally showed up about 30 minutes late, looking sick and coughing loudly and heavily during the warmups, and he seemed to have difficulty getting his breath and getting up and down the court. We're guessing that with the events of the last several weeks, Hamilton can't wait to get going and make his way down south to the relative peace and quiet of Auburn.

Santa Margarita, on the other hand, played reasonably well, and with better intensity, and as a result they are headed to Sacramento for Friday's CIF state championship game against Northern California champion Santa Rosa Montgomery. Santa Margarita (31-2) led, 14-8, after one period and had the lead stretched to as many as 13 points in the second quarter. Moore cut the disadvantage to eight points at halftime after hitting a 3-pointer and layin in the final 54 seconds. Carson Palmer, came off the bench for SM to contribute nine key points in the first half but, aside from Ryan Forehan-Kelly, the Eagles' starters were mostly not very effective. Compton, which finishes the year at 28-7, came out in the second half with Tito scoring on back-to-back baskets. At that point, Santa Margarita led by four, 28-24. SM then called a time-out, and managed to not lose it's cool. Following the TO, Jake Rohe made four consecutive free throws and, after a Hamilton free throw, Dekker McKeever threw down a dunk to give Santa Margarita a 34-25 lead.

Compton made one last run; they were down, 51-39, when Maddox hit consecutive 10-footers and Moore canned two free throws to make the score, 51-45, with 1:35 remaining. On Santa Margarita's next possession, T.J. Williams drove and bounced in a contested 8-footer at the shot-clock buzzer. The Eagles then finished the game from the line. Santa Margarita finished 18 of 24 from the free throw line, including 11 of 12 in the final period. Rohe made all 10 of his attempts and Craig Rice was four for four. Compton, on the other hand, was four of 10 from the line.

The Eagles led Compton by eight points Saturday at the break at Pauley Pavilion. Santa Margarita appeared intent on making its first trip to a state basketball final. The Eagles beat Compton in nearly every statistical category, including rebounding--35-29---, turnovers--Compton 11, Santa Margarita eight-- and free-throw shooting. Santa Margarita, with Rohe sinking all of his 10 tries in the second half, made 18 of 24 free throws. The Eagles were better from the field too, making 19 of 48 field-goal attempts (39.6%) to Compton's 21 of 61 (34.4%). Santa Margarita took a 4-0 lead 53 seconds into the game on a basket by Forehan-Kelly and a rebound and lay-in by center Dekker McKeever.

Moore, who has signed to play at Vanderbilt, led all scorers with 21 points. Guard Tito Maddox, who missed all 11 field-goal attempts in the first meeting, scored 13 points Saturday. DeBusk likened his first trip to a state final as being equivalent to "getting married and watching your child being born."