biw626.htm

SoCalHoops High School & Prep News

Best In the West Continues--(June 26, 1998)

Today's schedule for the Best in the West Tournament is as follows:

Artesia v Winner of Compton/JW North-- 5:30 p.m.
Inglewood v Winner of Poly--6:45 p.m.
Bishop Montgomery v Washington-- 8:00 p.m.
Dominguez v Fairfax--9:15 p.m.

These games are all at Artesia High located at 12108 East Del Amo Blvd., in Lakewood. It's pretty centrally located between all the major freeways so you really shouldn't have too much trouble finding it.

Yesterday Inglewood beat Fontana to advance and will play Poly. Inglewood has Noel Felix (6'-7" Sr F), Brian Taylor, (5'-11 Jr G), Skip Esene (6'-6" Sr F), Gerrod Jenkins (6'-6" Sr F) and Marvin Isaac (6'-3" Sr G). They're still pretty good, even without Bradley Jackson. And no further word on his situation yet at CSUN or prep school. The word continues to be that he will be permitted to take the final he skipped and if he passes it, he'll be a graduate and then, we guess, he'll be stuck with his LOI at Northridge. Sheesh.

Dominguez beat Crossroads byh a single point in the final seconds on a great drive by James Jackson (5'-7" Sr G). This was the Crossroads varsity (Isaiah Fox, Mischa Taylor, Felipe Williams, Chad Gordon, Devrin Anderson, et al)--Crossroads other team, which turns out to have been the JV's were over at Harvard-Westlake in the Summer Tipoff Classic. Tyson Chandler, the two Keiths (Kincade and Brooks) and Keilon Fortune all played well.

Washington beat Mater Dei in overtime and therefore got the right to play Bishop Montgomery. Washington features Antoine Parker (5'-10" So. PG) and Lewis Woods (5'-10 Sr. SG), Nemiah Campbell (6'-4" Sr F) and Eugene Moore (6'-6" Jr F). Mater Dei was missing some players, but still had Jamal Sampson who has transferred from Westchester, Mike Bayer, and Christian McGuigen.

Bishop Montgomery also advanced yesterday by beating Clovis West. BM featured Brian Pruitt (6'-4" Jr F), Gabriel Hughes (6'-9" Sr C) (younger brother of Cal-bound Solomon) Tony Booker (6'-5" Sr F), and Derrick and Errick Craven and a bunch of other guys we don't know yet.

Artesia, as we all know, features Jason Kapono, Jack Martinez, Apolinar Fernandez, Andre Hazel, and whether they play Compton (Tito Maddox) or JW North, it's going to be a great show. And the final game, between Dominguez and Fairfax should be a great chance to see how well Fairfax will do in the post-Flinder Boyd era with Joe Shipp, Stanley Thorne, Ismael Torres, Scottie Stern, and Jason Morrisette, and whether they'll have anyone big enough or strong enough under the boards to counteract Tyson.

The tournament will continue throughout tomorrow, and into the evening. So you'll have to decide what to attend, this, the Watts Summer Games, or the IntenseCity Classic at Santa Ana College. Tough choices.