qbl first day scores

SoCalHoops Tournament News

Nike National Championships:
QBL Drops One, and Wins Another--(July 30, 1998)

Wayne Merino was right: He's presiding over a M*A*S*H* unit. QBL lost game No. 1 to Alabama 43-53, but they picked up the win in Game No. 6 over. . . (drum roll) the Arizona Stars in a two point overtime game, 67-65.

Jason Kapono is playing hurt; Jack Martinez isn't playing at all, and the rest of the guys are not scoring, including Kapono. We'll get right to the point about the first game: It was awful. QBL lost in the first game today of the Nike National Championships, 53-43 in a game in which QBL shot only 32.6% from the field, 18.8% from three point range (making only 3 of 16). This was not a pretty game to watch as only Kapono and Josh Kroeneke scored more than 10 points each, Kapono with 14 and Kroeneke with 12.

No other QBL player scored more than 10, and only Apolinar Fernandez got close, with 8. Three other players scored for QBL, but they combined for only 9 points, three apiece: Andre Hazel, Ash Knowlton, and Aaron Hamilton each only scored three.

There were some bright spots: Jason had 8 rebounds, all defensive; he also had four steals (but they were equalized by four turnovers), and he managed two assists. Not a great game for Kapono by any stretch.

QBL started Kapono, Kroenke, Ash Knowlton, Aaron Hamilton and Fernandez. Kapono played 30 minutes out of 32 (the game was played in 8 minute quarters). Kroenke played 24 minutes, Knowlton played 26, Hamilton played 16, and Fernandez played 23. At least it was mostly the same 5 guys who were either going to take them home or leave them standing by the side of the road.

Things didn't start out bad, and in fact, in the first quarter, QBL played Alabama even, and the score was tied 10-10 at the end of the quarter. Alabama started Rod Grizzard, Chris Pride, Thomas Emmitt, Chris White and Erwin Dudley. In the second quarter, it looked like Alabama would fade, as QBL outscored them 17-6, and they took a 27-16 lead at the half.

But in the third quarter, QBL faded, scoring only 10 points to Alabama's 16, and in the fourth QBL just about disappeared completely, as they were outscored 21-6 by the Alabama guys.

Alabama's final scoring wasn't all that much better than QBL, it was just a lot more balanced, as virtually everyone scored. Grizzard and Sidney Ball, who played great off the bench each scored 13 points. Grizzard had 2 threes, 5 field goas and shot 1-2 from the line. Ball had 5 field goals, 1 three pointer and was 2 for 2 from the line. Maruice Searight had 7 points, Chris White had 4, Dudley had 6, Thomas had 4 as did Chris Pride, while Mario West had 2 points (he played only 34 seconds!).

Neither team shot very well, percentage wise. We've already given you QBL's dubious achievement above; Alabama was not much better, shooting 39% from the field, 36% from three point land, and only 52 from the line. However, the bottom line was that Alabama simply scored more and played a better overall game.

In Game No. 6, the Arizona Stars took on QBL, and the Stars had the following lineup:

Doug Damore (6'-4" Sr. G) from Mountain View
Donnell Knight (6'-8" Sr. SF/PF) from St. Mary's
Hakim Rasul (6'-7" Sr. F) from Pueblo
Tommy Smith (6'-9" Sr. F/C) from North
Sammie Wade (5'-10" Sr. G) from Pueblo
Kevin Woodberry (6'-0" Sr. G) from Trevor Brown
Dominic Payne (6'-5" Sr. G/F) from McClintock
Daniel Sandell (6'-2" Sr. G) from Shadow Mountain
Ryan Haggerty (6'-10" Jr. F) from Saguaro,
Daryll Isaac (7'-0" Jr. C) from Peoria
Ryan Walcott, (6'-3" Jr. G) from Shadow Mountain

QBL added a little height, some Inglewood and South Bay guys, and some numbers for the second game:

Jason Kapono (6'-9" Sr. G/F/C) Artesia
Andre Hazel (5'-10" Jr. PG) Artesia
Brian Taylor (5'-9" Jr. PG) Inglewood
Marques Crane (6'-3" Fr SG/SF) Artesia
Josh Kroenke (6'-5" Prep F)
Malcom Heron (6'-3" So. G) from Artesia
Ash Knowlton (6'-0" Sr. PG) from Clovis West
Ryan Reyes (5'-11" So. G) from Gahr
Jon Steffanson (6'-4" ?? PG) from Artesia
Jesse Boyd (6'-7" Sr. F) from Mira Costa
Aaron Hamilton (6'-6" Sr., F) Artesia
Apolinar Fernandez (6'-9" So. F) Artesia
Noel Felix (6'-7" Sr. PF) from Inglewood

Boyd, Felix and Reyes did not play. The QBL roster also featured another player, Jabon Kelly whom we haven't heard of before, and perhaps it's just a misspelling??? But Jabon started, along with Kapono, Kroenke, Knowlton and Hamilton. In this one, Kapono played only 21 minutes out of 32, and the time among the players was more evenly distributed. Kapono scored 11 points, Kroenke scored 15, while Hazel had 5, Heron had 4, Steffanson had 3, Knowlton 2, and Kelly and Hamilton had one point each. But the big story for QBL was Apolinar Fernandez, who scored 25 points, on 8 for 18 shooting from the field, and 9 for 12 from the line, and 15 rebounds (9 offensive, 6 defensive)

Arizona's scoring was a little bit more balanced, with Rasul finishing with 15, Knight 14, Smith 11, Wade 10, , Payne with 6, Woodberry, Walcott, Isaac and Wallace with 2, and Hagerty with 1. Knight also had 3 steals and 2 assists.

In the first half, QBL jumped out to an 18-13 lead, and managed to hold that as the Stars came back and outscored QBL 13-12 in the second quarter, and QBL led 30-26 at the half. In the third quarter, the Stars looked like they would take it, jumping out to a 3 point lead, again outscoring QBL 17-11, but QBL came back and made up the two points to tie it all up at 57-57 at the end of regulation. In the overtime, QBL managed to hit that one extra shot, to win it 65-67.

The big difference in this one was really the free-throw shooting of QBL, which made 17 of 26 from the line, and the rebounding of QBL, chiefly Kapono who had 8 rebounds, and Fernandez with 15. The high rebounder for Arizona was Rasul with 6.

The original schedule had QBL scheduled to play the Houston Jaguars in the second game, so we're not sure what's going to happen to the schedule tomorrow, but as soon as we find out we'll post it up.