mont303

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Southern Section Playoffs: Division V-AA
Montclair Loses In Triple OT--(March 3, 1998)

Unbelievable.

Really. Just unbelievable.

Pacific Hills beat Montclair.

Not once, but what seemed like several times.

Actually this was a game nobody wanted to win. After 2 1/2 hours of basketball, after a triple overtime, Pacific Hills finally got the win, beating Montclair Prep 83-82.

Not because they wanted to, but because both teams just ran out of time and gas.

Unbelievable.

Both teams had several chances to win it outright. At the end of regulation, Jed Hall fouled Conrad Adamczak sending the 6'-5" Pacific Hills center to the line. The score was then 64-63, Montclair. Conrad shooting two, 12 seconds on the clock. He missed his first shot. Still 64-63 Montclair by one. He hits the second one, tying it up 64-64. Montclair thenbrings the ball up court, gets it to Montclair's Kevin Bentley, who drives the lane, and. . . gets tied up. Jump ball. Pacific has the possession arrow. Pacific ball. They bring it up the court with only 7.6 seconds remaining, giving the ball to Pacific's 5'-9" point guard Brandon Owens, who does his best Tyus Edney impression, pushing the ball up, and . . . ohmigod. . .he's got a clear lane. But instead of driving in for the layup and the win, he jumpstops at the top of the key, and fires. . . a brick.

Buzzzzz. Overtime.

First overtime. Rocky Steryo, Montclair's three-point shooting ace, who by that point in the game only had three threes, fires from the top of the key above the line, and hits a three. 67-64 Montclair. Then Pacific's Rodney Harry, Pacific's 6-5' Anthony Garrison look-alike lays one in for two. 67-65 Montclair. The teams then trade baskets for the next several minutes and with 1:04 remaining, Jed Hall is fouled, hitting two free throws, bringing the scored to 73-70, Montclair ahead. Hall then makes another two pointer, a putback off a missed Steryo shot, to bring the score to 75-70 with only 14.3 seconds to play in the first overtime.

But then the unthinkable happens. Someone leaves Conrad Adamczak alone on the perimeter, and gets the ball, shoots the three and makes it. A three. 75-73 Montclair still winning. Montclair brings the ball out under the Pacific basket. 1.6 seconds on the clock. Unbelivably, Montclair turns it over, and Pacific's Ryan Abrahams, who turned out to be the hero of this game, shoots, misses, gets his own rebound, and then puts it back in. . . 75-75 at the buzzer.

All that in 1.6 seconds.

Unbelievable.

Second overtime.

This time, the teams don't trade baskets, they trade turnovers. A whole slew of them. 2:00 gone in the overtime period and still no score. But then finally a foul comitted by Jules Thompson on Branden Owens, and he makes them both, putting Pacific Hills ahead 75-77. A bunch of other possessions later, and with almost all of the last 2:00 minutes gone from the overtime, the score was still 75-77. Kevin Bently also during the next ensuing possession, picks up his fifth personal foul and gets to watch the rest of the game from the end of the bench. Actually Bentley committed several great plays, and he also had some real bonehead stuff, including a technical for taunting which everyone, even the girl in the snack bar out in the hallway, saw coming a mile away, because Bentley just couldn't keep himself from taunting and talking it up with Adamczak and Harry.

So back to the second overtime. Montclair has the ball with 17.1 seconds remaining. They call timeout, Howard Abrams and his coaching staff call a play. We're all thinking it would be a three with Rocky Steryo, and sure enough he's looking for the ball. But instead it goes to Montclair's Carlease Clark, who drives, and unbelivably misses the layup.

But then just as unbelivably, Clark gets his own rebound, and taps the ball back in with only 3.1 seconds remaining. 77-77. Pacific takes a last desperation shot, which misses.

Bzzzzz. Triple overtime.

In what turned out to be the final overtime, Jeff Hull of Montclair goes to the line, and makes the second of two free throws to bring the score to 78-77. Rocky Steryo then picks up his second personal sending Charles Pagan (5'-9" Jr. PG) to the line, who makes them both, bringing the score to 78-79. That score is answered by Jeff Hull who penetrates the lane for two; Pacific Hills comes right back as Harry scores on a layup to bring the score to 80-81 with about 2:30 to play. On the next Montclair possession down the floor, Conrad Adamczak commits his own bonehead play, and he too fouls out with 26 points for the night, Pacific's highest scorer. The foul sends Conrad to the bench and Jed Hall to the line shooting two.

Unbelievably, he misses them both.

Then with 1:24 to play, Jed Hall blocks a shot by Harry, gets the ball off the block, and outlets the ball to Steryo, who brings it up court; Hall is running way ahead and goes to the left wing, where he gets the ball from Steryo who can't get an open look for a three. Steryo passes to Hall, who. . . travels.

Unbelivable.

Turnover, but then a Montclair steal, and there's Montclair coming back down the floor. This time, when Steryo's two point shot from the baseline misses, Jed Hall is there as the hero for the putback, and with about 1:00 to play, Montclair takes the lead 82-81. So Jed is now the hero.

But then with 35.7 seconds remaining on the clock, Ryan Abrahams hits what turns out to be the most important shot of the game from over on the left hand elbow, bringing the score to 82-83 Pacific Hills. But it's still a one possession game. Montclair brings the ball up court. They can't seem to penetrate, and between Brandon Owen and Charles Pagan, Steryo can't get an open look at the basket. with 3.4 seconds remaining on the clock, Montclair calls a timeout to run the final play of the game.

All of us are thinking, get the ball to Rocky. Get the ball to Rocky. But that's not what happens.

Unbelivable.

Instead the ball goes in and Jed Hall is the one taking the last shot of the year for Montclair. He misses. Buzzer.

Montclair Prep has lost and Pacific Hills has won. 82-83.

We didn't get all the scoring or the rest of the stats, because frankly, there was too much bedlam in the gym, and we were dying to just get out of there. We do know that Rocky Steryo had 32 points, the game high, and Conrad Adamczak of Pacific had 26. We'll find out who else got what tomorrow.

Unbelievable.

Just unbelivable.

So Pacific Hills moves on to the finals in Division V-AA. We'll find out who else won first thing in the morning.

See you all later.