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SoCalHoops High School & Prep Report

An EBO Memorial Day Recap
From A Reader--(June 5, 1998)

We've been trying to get information on the EBO Tourney for the last week, at least some reliable information since Mike Miller didn't attend this tournament. One of our readers on the message forum, however, posted a small recap, and while it principally relates to the Central Cal Sports Express team, you will get a flavor for the tournament and what occurred by reading this.

According to Frank Burlison's article last week, the best prospects at the adidas/Elite Basketball Organization Hoop Summit II in Fresno were juniors Brett Nelson (6-3, St. Alban's, W.V.) and Carlos Boozer (6-8, Juneau, Alaska, Douglas), and sophomore DeShawn Stevenson (6-4, Fresno Washington Union). What Frank's article didn't say was that the tournament was won by Oakland Slam'N'Jam, featuring Andrew Gooden, Justin Davis, Jason McGlaston, and Jovan Harris, by a score of 75-56 over Central Cal Sports Express. IEBP I had upset EBO I in the quarterfinals, but then CCSE beat IEBP I in the very next round.

Here's what our reader had to say:

"The Central Cal Sports Express team is really very good. At the EBO Fresno tournament they played four games. The first was against Hayward, 10:30 am on Saturday at Fresno Central against the Hayward All-stars. In the second CCSE took a 21 point lead. With about 8 minutes left in the game Hayward started a run and point-by-point worked themselves back. CCSE made the mistake of thinking they had already won and so the intensity slowed down. Hayward didn't have a guy over 6'4" and that didn't matter since they caught CCSE with free throws. Hayward went something like 20 of 20 free throws. With 2 minutes left they tied the game and CCSE eventually lost by 3 points, 81 to 78. John Hoffart 6'10" had a great game with 15 points and 10 rebounds, along with 6'11" freshman Philip Johnson who also played well, with 9 points and 6 boards. JR Allen had 10 points and 5 boards and Torey Harper had 12 points and 5 boards.

"CCSE's second game was against Rockfish III at 4:30 pm on Saturday. Alex Jenkins and his brother play for Dos Pueblos as well as the Rockfish III team. The Rockfish game was pretty much a blowout, and Rockfish never got close, losing by 33 points, 89 to 56. BJ Ward ran the point and was tough, getting 5 points, 5 assists. Danny D'Entremont had a team high of 15 points, 5 boards, and 3 steals. Al Williams had 11 points, 4 assists, 4 boards, and 1 steal.

"On Sunday at 9:00 a.m. CCSE played Gridley, which is a high school team. They had matched up previously in March at the Pump Shootout. CCSE ended up winning the game by 58 points, 115 to 57. Benny Gracia and Eric Watkins played well as did Terrance Dunn and Tony Freeman.

"With the win, in pool play, CCSE was 2-1, since Hayward won all their games both teams advanced to the winners bracket of the tournament. EBO looked the hottest going into the final 16, which didn't get started until 9:00 p.m. for CCSE. The game was played at Edison High. The game before the CCSE game was EBO v. ???, and EBO (Boozer, et al) won by 30+ points. The next game was CCSE v. San Jose, an athletic team with no real big guys. CCSE went on to win in the first round by 10, 90-80. So CCSE made it to the "Great Eight" of the EBO. On Monday morning at 10:30 am, CCSE played Pump N' Run I. Pump I is big and they have a good, solid team with Gil Arenas, Nate Hair, and Mike Dunleavy. CCSE however jumped out to a very early lead, 19-4. Pump called a time out to make some changes and by half they were up a few points. In the second half CCSE made a strong run and won the game by 9 points 65-56. Gilbert Arenas, Mike Dunleavy and Nate Hair all were there and played very well. The Pump big guys did not do very much (JJ Sola??) but between Sims, Bo Segburg and Carr they only had 8 points combined.

"So CCSE made it to the "Final Four". This meant that CCSE played IEBP I on Monday at 12:30 pm. IEBP had beaten EBO in the last minute of the quarterfinal game which was played right before the 12:30 game with CCSE. This was the biggest upset of the tourney, and was pretty much unexpected. In the CCSE game, IEBP was up by 8 at the half. Al Williams, Danny D'Entremont, and Tony Freeman were the top scorers for CCSE in this game. John Hoffart, Philip Johnson, Torey Harper, Joey Wallace and JR Allen played well defensively and CCSE eventually won, but I'm not sure of the final score.

"This meant that CCSE was in the EBO Finals, to be played at 4 pm on Monday against Oakland Slam N'Jam. This was quite an upset since most people familiar with these teams figured it would be EBO and Oakland. CCSE eventually lost to the best team in Northern California 75 to 56."

There, now you know.