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SoCal High School & Prep Report

Southern Section Playoffs: Division III-A Chaminade
Defeats Bishop Montgomery 80-68 For Title--(March 8, 1998)

Bishop Montgomery had a chance to win a CIF Southern Section Divisional title for the first time in 30 years. Only one problem: The Chaminade Eagles stood in their way. And it was not just "the Eagles", some faceless, nameless collection of players, but a very specific group individual, consisting of some the top talent in SoCal. Names like Scott Long, Scott Borchart, Cayce Cook, Justin Stewart, Justin Beach.

And yesterday, it was Scott Long's turn to step up and be the star. And he didn't disappoint Chaminade fans or Coach Jeff Young. Long, who has signed a letter of intent with the Naval Academy, scored a game high 35 points.

Long was just too hot for BM, as Chaminade captured it's first sectional title ever, improved to 27-1 and won its 24th straight game. Long shot an amazing 10 for 13 from the field, and made 14 of his 17 free-throw shots, as second seeded Bishop Montgomery fell to 21-7 for the season. Long hit 15 straight points from the midway point of the third period through the early minutes of the fourth quarter.

Both teams will qualify for the CIF State Southern Regional Playoffs, and one of them could still be looking at a berth in the State Championship game which will take place on March 21st at the Arco Arena in Sacramento. We'll have the seedings for the Regionals later today; games start on Tuesday, and Chaminade probably has earned two home games with the win.

It wasn't only Long though, even though he was the most visible. Cook, Chaminade's junior point guard, scored 14 points, and also added a game-high 11 assists. Bishop's coach Doug Mitchell told the Daily News "Controlling Cook was at the top of our list. We wanted to contain him and make him beat us with his jumper, but his presence out there dominated the game." Mitchell also told the Daily Breeze/Evening Outlook "We knew they were a good team, obviously. their record doesn't lie. We knew we were going to have to play a good game and shoot the ball well to win."

But Bishop didn't really do that. Their two leading scorers this year, forwards Marvin Perez and Brian Pruitt were just shut down by the press of Chaminade. Perez, who averages 13.8 wen 0 for 9 from the field and did not score in the game; Pruitt normally averages 13.4, but he managed to collect only four points on 2 for 7 shooting from the field. All was not lost for Bishop, as Tony Booker, who averages 12.6 per game, managed to do better with 15 points, and Errick Craven, a freshman, finished with 22 points, hitting 5 of 10 shots from behind the three-point line.

Cook though, like Long, had a great game, passing well, in fact better than ever, getting the ball inside to Borchart and Long. Chaminade connected on 51.2 percent of their shots (22 of 43) from the field and hit 35 of 44 from the line, 79.5 percent.

Chaminade jumped out to a 20-8 lead by the end of the first quarter, and never really looked back. Bishop did manage to pull within 3 at 28-25 on two free-throws by Bishop's senior forward Lawrence Lee, with only 2:22 remaining in the half, but Chaminade didn't budge and eventually with a minute left before the break, Long hit a three and Borchart a two, and another Long 2, as Chaminade regained the momentum and extended the lead to 35-25 with a minute before the half. Chaminade took a comfortable lead of 35-27 into the locker room at the half.

Chaminade then took complete control, scoring the fist five points of the third quarter, to extend the lead to 42-27. Bishop managed to stay within 8 to 14 points the rest of the game, but they were never able to close in. In the fourth quarter, the Knights twice managed to bring the lead to nine, the last time when Craven hit a final three to bring the score to 65-56 with 3:29 left. But then Chaminade finished the game off by scoring 13 of the next 15 points from the line.

The scoring for Chaminade was as follows: Justin Beach had 6, Cook 14, Long 35, Borchart 16, Stewart 2, Lawson 2, and Cichon 5. Long had three three-pointers.

For Bishop Montgomery, Pruitt had 4, Peace 2, Errick Craven 22, Booker 15, Singleton 1, D'Oyen 1, Derrick Craven 2, and Lawrence 7. As mentioned, Errick Craven had 5 three-pointers.

This has been a dream season for Chaminade, and for coach Jeff Young, who started with the program four years ago, the same time as his seniors Long and Stewart; Justin Beach is a transfer, but he's been no less instrumental than the others. Congratulations to Chaminade, the 1997-98 Southern Section Division III-A Champions, and to Bishop Montgomery, the runners-up.