SoCalHoops High School News

Buckley, USA Blue Rough Up
Harvard-Westlake At ARC, 4-D--(Sept. 28, 1998)

            Hey, it's "fall league" so these teams really weren't "Harvard-Westlake" or "Buckley".  Nope, the games instead featured an all Harvard-Westlake team known as the "Saracens," and an all-Buckley team known as the "Sherman Oaks Griffins".    But we'll call them by their school names anyway (even if we can see some coaches cringing.  Hey, we're not the CIF, and we can report that no school coaches were anywhere to be seen).   It seems that Harvard-Westlake's varsity team has decided to split into two squads this fall:  One portion of the team is playing in the ARC league at North Hollywood High and Poly High in the Valley, while the other portion of the team is playing down at Leuzinger High in the 4-D Varsity league.   This past Sunday, the Valley H-W contingent opened up at Poly against Buckley, a small D-5 school located in Sherman Oaks, while the "City" H-W contingent opened up against the UltraStudentAthletes' (USA) Blue Team.  And both H-W teams got roughed up a bit, and only one of them came away with a victory.

            The Valley contingent featured only a few varsity players, including Dan Kinzer (6'-8" Sr. F/C), and Charles Gillig (6'-7" Sr. F).  The team also featured a few players who will play JV, including Jon Venick (5'-11" Jr. G), and several incoming, rising freshmen such as Craig Weinstein (5'-10" Fr. PG), Teddy Boxberger (6'-4" Fr. F), and Robby Weisenberger (6'-0" Fr. G). There were a few other players we hadn't seen before and didn't catch their names. H-W was short several players and it was without the services of either Chad Garson (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF) who was out with a back injury, or Anthony Naylor (6'-4" Jr. F) who is out with a separated and torn shoulder.   Likewise, most of the other returning varsity players (Russell Lakey (5'-11" Jr. PG), Eric Geffner (6'-4" Jr. F),  Alex Minn (6'-1" Sr. G) or Todd Kurihawa (5-11" Sr. G) weren't there either.  And Alex Holmes (6'-4" Jr. F/C) was not on either team due to his football commitments.  But the guys they brought were not pushovers either.  It took them a while to get cranked up, but eventually they came away with the win, by three points over the young and quick Griffin squad

            The H-W "Valley-ARC" team faced Buckley. Only half of Buckley's players were returning varsity:  Adam Pastor (6'-0" Jr. PG), Jeremy Howard (6'-4" Sr. F/C), Sasha Rabhan (5'-11" Jr. SG), Colin Ward-Henninger (6'-5" So. F/C) and Mike Lalazerian (5'-11" Jr. PG/SG).  Also featured were several JV players who will be moving up this year, such as  Jake Scannel (6'-3" So. F), Simon Leonov (6'-2" Jr. PF), Mike Lalazerian (5'-11" Jr. PG/SG),  Alex Clancy (5'-10" So. SG), and freshman David Gale (5'-10" Fr. PG/SG).   Josh Ahkterzhad (6'-1" Sr. F) was injured and did not play.

            The game was somewhat of a shock to most in attendance as Buckley jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the first few minutes, and kept the gap up until just before the half, and at the half HW closed it to a tie, mostly on the fine shooting of Pastor and Howard, and on the fine rebounding of Jake Scannell and Ward-Henninger.  And freshman Gale had several great defensive plays, and dished and drove very well. Likewise, Gale's Valley Slam  and Maccabi teammate Craig Weinstein showed his usual grit and toughness as he drove several times and was responsible for at least two steals.

            And while HW was able to pull it even at the half, in the second half, Buckley again came out smoking with good perimeter shooting and pulled away, leading by 7 throughout most of the game, and with about two minutes to play H-W slowly but surely managed to pull it close, whittling the lead down to only two.  Buckley was plagued by foul calls and poor shooting in the final minutes, not to mention that Jake Scannell picked up his 5th personal, which also sent HW's big man Dan Kinzer to the line a total of four times in the last three minutes, H-W eventually tied it and pulled ahead by one on two free-throws by Kinzer following Scannell's last foul.

            With only 30 seconds remaining, Buckley brought the ball upcourt, shot and missed, was forced to foul the Saracens, again sending Kinzer to the line, and he calmly sank them both to give H-W the lead it never relinquished.  In what can only be described as a lapse in judgment on the part of the Griffin coach,  Buckley didn't call a time-out to run a play for the four guards the coach inserted into the game with only 20 seconds remaining, at least if they did, it didn't have the look of a play. And the last shot was taken by Adam Pastor, who was looking for a three, but who is really a fine shooter out to about 12'.   Unfortunately, three-pointers were not in his bag of tricks on Sunday, and he missed the last second shot, and HW grabbed the board and the win. 

            Among the top performances though in the game for Buckley were the fine shooting of Jeremy Howard, Pastor's driving layups and close-in J's, Jake Scannell's great defense and rebounding, and Gale's great ball-handling and passing with some pretty drives and dishes which occasionally were too much for some of his teammates to handle.  Gale also impressed with a tremendous inbounds steal off an inbounds pass from Gillig to Weinstein under the Buckley basket early in the second half.  Gale grabbed the ball, went up for the layup, and Weinstein fouled him, sending Gale to the line, where he calmly sank both free throws to give Buckley the lead and breaking the tie at the half.  

            Even though Buckley didn't win, they did put a scare into the H-W guys.  Ward-Henninger had 12 points, while Howard had 8, Clancy hit for two threes, while Pastor had 12 also.  Gale did not score a lot (4), but had at least 5 assists and three steals.  Scannell and Ward-Henninger led in the rebounding with 8 each.

           And if Buckley gave them a scare, the USA Blue team had H-W running for cover, as the "City" squad dropped their opening game  52-50 to USA, and these games were virtual mirror images of one another.  If H-W barely escaped in the last minute at ARC, they lost it in the last minute at 4-D. And while we weren't there for the afternoon contest at Leuzinger, our sources tell us that USA's Blue Team (formerly known as the "JV" team, but which now features a whole slew of upcoming varsity guys) played tremendously well. 

            In fact, our friend Jason Day attended the 4-D game, and has prepared a full report (with pictures too!), and the report is set out below.  It can, of course, also be found at Jason's other home on the web, UltraStudentAthletes.org.   Here's Jason's report:

4D Stars Fall League

USA JV-Blue Moves Up To Varsity Division,
Takes Out Harvard Westlake 52-50

By Jason Day

            The JV-Blue team played their first game in the Varsity Division of the 4D League against Harvard Westlake High's Varsity team. And once again, the Blue team lived up to their growing reputation as a very good and talented basketball team.

            The decision to move them up to Varsity after winning the JV Division of both the 4D Summer League and the 4D Labor Day Tournament was an easy one. It was also a welcome one from the viewpoint of several of the JV Division Coaches. Head Coach, Larry Gray, and Assistant Coach Bill Harmsen, have been waiting for the right time to move the team to the next level of competition and they see it as the easiest way to get the individual players ready for their upcoming High School bball seasons. Virtually every one of the Blue team members will be playing JV or Varsity for their school teams this year. After their performance in a double digit win against Southern Cal's #1 JV team last week, the coaches, and players, were convinced they were ready for the next level.

            So, who do they draw in their first official Varsity contest? Harvard Westlake. With Russell Lakey at the point, and greatly improved big man (6'-8" Sr C) Dan Kinzer in the paint. While we hear that some of this team was playing with a different version over at the ARC league, this was essentially HWL's starting Varsity squad. [Ed: Minus Naylor, Garson and Holmes].

            The Wolverines revealed their game plan early in the game. Get the ball to Kinzer in the paint. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Dan is at least 4 inches taller, and surely at least 60 pounds heavier than USA big man Otis Hankins (6'-4" So. C/F) from Inglewood High. And Kinzer was very effective early as he just pushed Otis all over the place to get position. Kinzer's got some pretty nice post moves so he scored early and often. He also showed a real nice short range jumper.

John Smith goes to work against H-W's Todd Kuriharwa.

USA showed the poise that has made them the talk of this league.  Bottom line: no lead is safe against this team. Where they used to get rattled or down on themselves if things went bad early, now they just adjust. And what is really impressive is that most of the time the adjustments come from the floor, not from the bench. 

USA starting PG, Randal Odums (5'-6" So. PG) from Serra got the team running their very effective motion sets early and that led to easy baskets that kept the game relatively close. The HWL big men (yeah, there were two more of em) had a hard time protecting the basket from the USA cutters, so layups were the order of the day. When they were effective defending the paint, USA's outside gunners, Twaine Waite (6'-1" Jr. SG/F) from Carson High, Andre Johnson (6'-0" Jr. SG) from Carson,  and Ronald Gray (6'-2" Jr. SG/F) from Taft,  went to work and dropped the J.  Still HWL led for the whole first half and were up by a few point at the break.

            In the second half, these two teams played as good a game of high school basketball as a fan could ever want to see, with Harvard Westlake looking to establish the inside power game, and USA running at every single opportunity. It was the USA point guard play in the second that really made the difference however. Lakey had been quiet for most of the game, and sought to step it up a bit. He's a terrific ball handler who can and will drop the dime to the open teammate at every opportunity. In this game he decided to showcase his outside jumper, a pretty rainbow (ala Lou Wright over at Westchester) shot that can be deadly accurate. The good news, however, for USA was that it wasn't falling, but he kept shooting it anyway.   And even better news for USA: They managed to grab the long rebounds off those long missed shots, and ran the other way with them.  And in the half-court game, USA was perhaps a bit overmatched, but in the open court the USA guys can run with anybody. When USA wasn't out on the break, its point guards (Odums, John Smith (5'-6" Fr. PG) from   Lynwood, and Robert Cave (5'-8" So. PG) from Santa Monica Crossroads) pushed the ball up the court very effectively and got USA into their half court sets early. That led to several great looks to streaking wing players who finished with nice layins or short jumpers.

            Smith, USA's super frosh, came off the bench and had another spectacular game. Not a lot of points (4) but at least 8 assists, 3 steals, and 3 boards.  When Smith wasn't giving Lakey and company fits, Cave was showing the impressive handle and strong defense. 

Andre Johnson for 2 of his 17 pts.

With about 1:30 left in the game, USA was up by 4. Coach Gray signaled for a slowdown offense to run the clock. The team worked the ball very well on the perimeter then moved it inside to Gray who took and missed the shot. He took it a little early and Harvard took the rebound down the court and scored. Then USA turned it over and HWL tied it at 50 with 22 seconds on the clock. USA took a time-out, and the coaches told them to be patient since 22 ticks is a long time and their offense had been working very well. As they brought it up the court they went into one of their motion sets and worked the perimeter to make the defense move from side to side. Andre Johnson slipped into the key area and got a pass with 8 secs. on the clock. Johnson, who had his third or fourth MVP performance in a row with 17 pts. and at least 6 boards, elevated and pulled the trigger.  Nothing but net. USA up 52-50. 

            HWL pushed it hard up the court but could only manage an awkward shot from the perimeter. It missed, USA rebounded, game over.

            Once again the big three for USA scoring-wise was Gray, Waite, and of course Johnson. Ronald finished with 14 but made his major contribution helping Otis double team Kinzer. He's a real strong kid and did an effective job of "bodying" big Dan. Waite had a quiet 10 points, but they were key points.  He ran the floor and moved so well without the ball, that just about all of his points were on layups. Also running the floor and finishing with the sweet layin were Kenneth McCullum (5'-11" S0 G) from Fairfax, and Senian Norman (5'-10" Jr. G) from Inglewood.   McCullum had 5 pts to show for some great work without the ball. Norman was his usual "pesky" self on D.  They don't call them "The Thief, and "The Other Thief" for nothing.

            Hankins continues to improve in the post, with his confidence in playing the "big men" growing with each game. He will not be intimidated in the paint, and pulled down about 7 or 8 boards today. Kinzer had his hands full with Otis and Ronald. A tribute to Kinzer's ability and a testament to USA's effort.  This was a great win for the USA Blue team, and a great basketball game period.

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