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SoCalHoops High School & Prep News

SoCal All-Stars Play ARC For AAU 13-U Championship--(July 5, 1998)

Here's some additional information a friend of ours tipped us off to concerning the AAU 13-U Championships, being played in Memphis. Today is the finals, and it's going to be an all-California final. The Southern Cal All-Stars are hoping for a second straight title. But they probably least expected to be playing the ARC Razorbacks. SCA plays out of the Orange County-South LA County area, while the ARC Razorbacks are based out of the American Roundball Corporation's North Hollywood High School venue. And interestingly enough, in the older age groups (17-U) ARC and SCA have merged their teams into a single unit for this summer's big tournaments, including the adidas Big Time in Vegas next month. And the best thing about this game is that Harrison Schaen used to play for the ARC team until Pat Barrett saw him play in another ARC-SoCal All-Stars game last November. Ahh, well.

Our friend sent us the following article from the Commercial Appeal, a Memphis area newspaper:

The defending 12-and-under national champion SCA team used their height advantage to withstand Second Presbyterian in the first game of pool play last week. Against fifth-seeded Memphis Bellevue last night, SCA had to go with it's outside shooting game to win a 66-50 victory in a semifinal at Wooddale.

"I think we underestimated them, their quickness and speed," Wesley Washington, a 6-1 guard who scored a game-high 20 points, told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "Everybody was stunned because they were so short. Everybody thought that since we were the No. 1 seed, we were going to have an easy road, but they gave us a challenge."

That set up an all-Southern California final at 2:30 p.m. today at Wooddale High. The top-seeded All-Stars meet the ARC Razorbacks, 74-52 winners over the Milwaukee Running Rebels in the other semifinal.

Early on, it looked as if Bellevue might upset the favored All-Stars. The War Eagles surprised SCA by taking a 6-2 lead before point guard Brandon Wright (team-high 11 points) picked up his second personal foul. SCA then went on an 11-0 run and led, 13-9, at the end of the first quarter. The War Eagles rallied to close it to 18-16, but Rayshawn Reed hit consecutive three-pointers and Bellevue never came closer than seven points again. "When they made their runs, we came back and weren't patient on offense," Bellevue coach Don McConnell said. "They're very athletic and can jump. You can't let a team like Southern California have two and three shots if you want to win the ballgame."

Despite the height advantage with 6-6 Harrison Schaen and 6-2 Trayvon Williams (10 points each), the difference for the All-Stars was the play of slashing guards like Treyvante Nelson (13 points) and Washington and the team's shooting from three-point range. "We knew they weren't going to give up," All-Stars coach Pat Barrett said. "They're small, but they played hard and aggressive. I knew our big guys would play well on the inside, but it was up to our guards. We can shoot the three-pointer, but we like to go inside. We just don't shoot it a lot. It was nice to see them fall down."

To capture its third consecutive national age-group title, SCA will try to beat the Razorbacks for a third time this year. It won't be easy. The Razorbacks have a similarly athletic team. Led by the 18-point efforts of Derrick Williams and Richard Cobbs, and a tough point guard in 4-10 Horace Wormely, the Razorbacks halted any championship hopes of the Running Rebels. Not to mention confidence. The Razorbacks, who beat the No. 2 seed Charlotte (N.C.) Nets on Friday, finished sixth nationally last year and second a year before as 11-year-olds. "We knew we were the underdog in this," said Steve Smith of the Razorbacks. "But we knew we could win."