SoCal High School & Prep Report

13th Annual Simi Valley Tip-Off Classic:
Simi Beats Chaminade for Championship--(December 7,1997)

This was it. The Big Showdown. The game that everyone was touting as the game of the year. And the year has just begun. We drove over the hill in the rain from the Valley (yeah, the real Valley, as in SFV), leaving the Pacific Shores duty to our correspondent, in order to catch the headliner event: Simi Valley's Pioneers vs. Chaminade Prep's Eagles.

Two teams coached by former Cal Lutheran University alums, pretty evenly matched, even though they play in different divisions. The one, Simi, with not a single senior starter and the other, Chaminade, with only two senior starters. Both with a bunch of sophs and juniors and some very impressive looking freshmen.

Just to save you the agony, and in case you can't wait, Simi won, beating Chaminade 62-47.

The game was billed as a battle of the titans, Rafael Berumen matching up with either JJ Todd or Scott Borchart; the No. 1 ranked Valley team (Simi) against the No. 2 ranked team (Chaminade). The rankings are those of Eric Sondheimer of the LA Times. And while we're on the subject of rankings, Cal-Hi Sports has ranked Simi the No. 10 team in the State. And so by winning last night, Simi proves all the pundits correct. By not winning (notice we didn't say "losing"), Chaminade hasn't given up a thing. They got some great exposure, played a tough team, and will certainly grow from the experience. Even though at times it seemed like the wheels were coming off for Chaminade, it was really a win-win for both teams. Simi proves it's the best, and Chaminade, well, they were the underdogs, weren't they?

But before we get to the game details, a bit about how each team got there. Simi defeated a strong North Hollywood squad in the season opener, 76-50, in which North Hollywood's vaunted offense never really got going, and it's personnel were simply unable to contend with the much bigger and better shooting Simi team. In that first game, Brett Michel (pronounced "Mitchell)--(6'-6" So SF), scored 20 points and had 14 rebounds. Simi next knocked off Hart, 78-37, in a game which saw man-sized Rafael Berumen (6'-9" Jr C) rack up 20 points and 10 boards, and Brett Michel hit for another 17. Then Simi beat Newbury Park 72-54, in another game which saw Berumen hit for in excess of 20 points (24 in this one). Simi's 3-point shooting ace, Branduinn Fullove (6'-4" So SG), hit for 20, including 9 in the fourth quarter.

For their part, Chaminade beat Santa Barbara in the first round pretty easily, with freshman sensation Scott Borchart scoring 21 points and 17 rebounds. Chaminade then beat Santa Paula 76-62 in a game which saw Borchart do it again for 15 points, while Navy man Scott Long scored 29 points and 16 rebounds. Then Chaminade just creamed Camarillo, 71-57, in a game which had Borchart and senior Justin Stewart each scored 20 points and Justin Beach hit for 17. Seems like everyone's named "Justin" or "Scott" from Chaminade, doesn't it.

So this game was going to be a great one, with some great matchups too. And for at least the first 5 minutes nobody was disappointed, including the fans from Chaminade.

The Starters:

Game starts. Cayce Cook gets the tip, and brings it up court, where Long shoots and misses. Berumen, all 250 pounds of him just moves Scott Borchart out of the way, getting the rebound and outletting the ball to Fullove, who shoots and misses. Chaminade gets the rebound, and this time Long hits from in close. Chaminade up by 2. And for the only time in the game.

This game started and ended as a defensive battle, and it was a veritable rebound fest for these big guys. At times it looked like a volleyball tournament. To give you an idea of how tight these teams were in the first quarter, with only 3:40 to go, the score was tied at 4-4. That's right 4-4 ! It was not going to be an offensive showcase. At 2:11 to go in the first half, it was still only 7-4 Simi. But we were seeing shades of things to come.

Some impressions of those first six minutes: Long, who has signed a letter of intent to play at the Naval Academy next year, is a big guy, who knows how to use his body to penetrate on offense, and to establish position for the rebound on defense. But last night there were a whole mess of other big bodies getting in his way, including Berumen, who was matched up on Borchart on defense. Berumen plays savvy enough to shift over on the help defense and repeatedly cheated off Borchart to slam Long at the baseline. Berumen is just a huge guy, who has great footwork and knows how to move someone out of the paint and he also proved he's a pure shooter with a fine touch. But we'll get to the shooting later. For his part, Borchart managed to effectively shed Berumen when he would move off him to Long, and Chaminade's second points of the night (which tied the game at 4-4) were from Borchart on a nice inside lay-up which also drew the foul.

And more on those first six minutes. Justin Beach put up a three pointer which airballed, and the Simi fans never let him forget it for the rest of the game; same thing happened to Cayce Cook in the third quarter, and by the fourth quarter, every time either Cook or Beach even breathed on the ball the chant would go up, "airball, airball." We know that a lot of Simi fans will probably take us to task for this one, but c'mon, even we were embarrassed by the poor sportsmanship this demonstrated on the part of the Simi faithful. Next time, just give us all a break and leave that particular chant at home in the closet where it belongs. . . it's still just high school basketball after all, and these are just kids.

While the chanting didn't seem to really visibly bother Beach, his scoring never really got going, and he only finished the night with 2 points, in the face of very fine defense from Fullove and Michel. While this game might not have caused his stock to rise, it should not really drop at all because he did play just amazing basketball in helping Chaminade get to the finals, and we know he can shoot better than he did on Saturday. He did play tenaciously and aggressively on defense, and had at least 5 rebounds and one block that we saw.

And while we're digressing and before we get too deep into the game, a few words about Borchart of Chaminade: Get his autograph quickly. This guy is going places. Print up those Skybox cards now. Seriously. This kid is one of the best players of any class we've seen this year and he can play with any of the guys from Compton, Crenshaw, Dominguez, Westchester, anyone, and give them a game. He's got a very strong upper body, has deadly accuracy on his shot, can position himself well, and his only weakness we detected was that against a player who weighs about 250 lbs and is two years older and two inches taller, he was getting backed out of the paint occasionally. But then he seemed more mobile than Berumen for much of the game, and he proved to be almost as effective as Berumen was last night in the scoring department, with Borchart getting 10 points and Berumen with 13. Give him about two years and a few more pounds, and there won't be anyone around who can back him out of the paint.

Back to a tied game. Stewart has just this beautiful steal on a pass into the lane, and breaks down court, with only little Branden Foster trailing him. You guessed it, Stewart must have heard footsteps and missed the open lay-up, then kicked not only himself for missing but also Branden Foster who got the rebound, so Stewart draws the foul. At this point Boys comes into the game as does Shaun Michel. Boys is also huge and you can see why Simi was so glad to get him. He was a second-team All-League player last year at Buena where he was just a star, and he'll probably be a star on this team too if he can stay out of foul trouble. He will also need to improve his point production and play a bit smarter than he did last night, scoring only 5 points, but then this was only his fourth game of the year with his new squad and he seems to still be adjusting to his new role on this team. He was effective when he was in, which was not very often, at stopping the surging Chaminade run in the third quarter, but he drew some pretty cheesey fouls which were really unnecessary. In other words, we would have like to have seem him play more because we think he'll be a big factor down the stretch for this team in the playoffs.

We really want to like Justin Stewart, really we do. And except for a couple of plays (below) we think he's a great player. He's a very fine defensive player, with very quick hands and quick feet, and he had at least 4 spectacular steals last night, three of which converted for scores, and one of which did not (see above) He's got a nice j and a good lay-up move inside in traffic, but needs to show more concentration. Unfortunately, he had an "off" game offensively, scoring only two points. But he must have had 20 rebounds. And honestly, he was involved in two real bonehead plays last night, which seemed to typify Chaminade's plight.

On the first play, which was really not entirely his fault, Cayce Cook was given the ball after a rebound in the backcourt, and was looking to pass the ball to Stewart who was over at about mid-court on the left side, with Cook under the basket, both of them advancing upcourt. They look at each other for a moment, then Stewart turns and starts to run up-court in a sort of trot. Just as he looks away, Cook fires the ball over to him, and in the two seconds or so that it took for the ball to leave Cook's hands and fly towards the back of Stewart's head, which remained fixed straight up court looking at the Chaminade bench (all of whom were yelling at him to look for the pass), everyone in the house could tell it was going to smack him right in the back of the head. . . And it did. Good thing he didn't turn around, or he might have broken his nose. Turnover Chaminade.

Second play. Just reverse the first one. Stewart just sky's for a defensive rebound under the Simi basket. He looks at Scott Long, and Long looks at him for a split second, but then Long turns to run up-court. Everyone can see that Long is not looking for the pass. Everyone except Stewart that is. Stewart fires it off and. . . boing. . . it hits Long in the back of the head. Turnover Chaminade.

We really do have to give Chaminade's coach Jeff Young some credit though for remaining calm in a crisis. And towards the second quarter this was turning into a five-alarm emergency. Aside from the absolutely terrible job done by the refs. Yes Jeff, while we realize you can't criticize the refs publicly (CIF rules and all), we can-- they were awful, missing hack after hack, travel after travel, and mostly against Chaminade. Not that it might have turned the game, but it sure seemed like Chaminade couldn't even buy a foul. There was one notable call in which Borchart got a rebound, and Berumen had his arms wrapped over and around Borchart's shoulder; the two players were facing in opposite directions, and Berumen had clearly gone over the back, and didn't even have his hand on the ball. . . The call? Jump ball. Amazing. Astounding. Ridiculous. Throughout the bad calls and the out-of-sync mistakes, and the sometimes ineffective shooting, Young remained composed, calm and always under control. He did have to lecture the refs a few times (we cringed once when it seemed like he might draw a tech, but he simply walked away from the situation).

Back to the game. The first quarter is about to end, and it's 11 to 6. Chaminade is still in the hunt. Then, with 1 second on the clock, and the buzzer about to sound, Simi's freshman shooting guard Shaun Michel lets fly an NBA three. Swish. The daggers to the heart are starting to come out. Simi now leads 14-6.

Second quarter: Simi pulls out the big guns. Fullove scores on a lay-up, and a foul shot. Score Simi 17, Chaminade 6. Young puts Cook and Robbie Tanouye (5'-8" Jr. PG) in together with Cook, figuring that if he can't get them with height, he'll kill them with speed. But it's not working. Next play down, Simi scores again, draws a foul (which doesn't get converted), then Chaminade looks for the score, but only gets one on the line after the foul. Chaminade scores on a lay-up by Borchart on which the freshman just powers by the bigger and heavier junior Berumen. Score 19-9.

Pretty soon, after trading baskets a few more times, it's 22-13 with only 5:12 remaining in the half. Brett Michel sinks a very long three, Long scores in the paint and a bunch more baskets are shot. With 3:00 minutes to go in the half, Simi now leads 30-17. Cayce Cook comes storming back, pulls up for a very sweet three-point J, just burying it, to bring the score to 30-21. Berumen then scores, and is fouled. 1:19 to go and it's 34-21. One more foul shot for Simi, 35-21. Cook then brings the ball up, feeds it to Borchart inside on a very nice entry pass, and he's fouled, missing the shot, but he hits the free throw. Score 35-22. Chaminade's not out of it by any means. They're playing them tough, even if they do seem to be outnumbered and out-gunned.

Then another dagger to the heart. Again. This time its Angelo Mossesso (6'-0" Sr SG).

Mossesso's got the ball over on the right side. Only one second showing on the clock before the half. He lets it fly from way behind the three point line.

Boom. Swish. Score, Simi 38, Chaminade 22.

First half scoring:
Chaminade: Long 6, Borchart, 6, Tanouye, 2 (free throws), Cook 3, Chirba four free throws.
Simi: Mossesso 3, Berumen 7, S. Michel 3, Branden Foster 3, Kurt Mjoen 6 (2 from the field and four free throws), B. Michel 5 (one three pointer and two free throws) and Branduin Fullove 10 points (8 from field and two from the line)

We hope that adds up. If it doesn't blame that nice stat girl from Simi. Or was she from Chaminade? Anyway, she was nice.

The half-time entertainment: Here's a tip for the folks from Simi at the Tom Harmon Gym (we wonder why it's called that since as far as we know the school wasn't around when Harmon, a football great, went to High School, but maybe we're wrong. . .I'm sure someone will jump all over this one and tell us): The tip---get some better food, and a better system for serving it. Cold hot dogs do not a meal make. And a line out the door doesn't cut it either. Especially when you've got this cute little "No Hamburgers" sign over the door, and the gendarmes try to confiscate any food brought into the gym. Really, take a tip from the folks at Compton College. Most basketball fans who take the trouble to buy food, are generally coordinated enough to get it from their hands to their mouths without letting it drop all over the floor. Most people aren't slobs, especially when they overpay for bad food at a high school sporting event. So here's the plea: Let my people eat ! The reason for our little diatribe? We hadn't eaten before the game, and waited until the half for food. Big mistake. As a result, we spent the first few minutes of the second half watching from the doorway, downing a warm Coke and a cold dog. Mmmmm, good.

Back to the game. So Simi is down by 16 at the half. Without reliving the entire third quarter again, suffice it to say that Chaminade hangs in there and by the end of the quarter it's 51-34, and Simi's only gained a one point advantage. Cayce Cook had one of the prettiest passes we saw in the game during this period, splitting the defenders. But he also made a terrible decision, trying to split Fullove and Boys on the dribble, and Fullove just flicked the ball away for the steal.

We also don't want to forget Branden Foster as long as we're on the subject of point guards. This guy didn't score a lot, in fact he only hit one three pointer all night in the first half. But he's got rockets on his feet and is a very quick passer, who can effectively push the ball up the floor and distribute it to the guys who really can score: Fullove, the Michel's, Berumen. In other words, he's a real point guard, a true pass-first type of guy who sees the opportunities and lets the others create. We had heard that Simi was concerned about the point position after the end of last season, but they've got nothing to worry about with Foster. Other than the lack of scoring, he played a fine game.

And as long as we're trying to remember players, what happened to JJ Todd, Chaminade's 6'-10" secret weapon. Actually he was more "stealth" because we can only recall him getting in briefly and not really making much of an impact. We're pretty certain that as the season unfolds that we'll be seeing more of him, because a guy that big, with size 20 shoes is hard to misplace.

Back to the game. The fourth quarter doesn't really get any better for Chaminade, but they do make a run at it, playing Simi pretty much even for the first couple of minutes. Then, with half the quarter gone, and with just over a shade more than 4 minutes remaining, Cook pulls up for a j and suddenly it's 51-40, and only an 11 point game. On the next possession, Stewart atones for the last time he stole the ball and attempted a lay-up, and this time makes it, and with 4:00 showing on the clock, it's now 51-42, a 9 point contest. But no sooner does Cook hit the shot, and he's pulled for Tanouye, who's fouled by Foster while bringing the ball up the court. Chaminade is now in the bonus, and Tanouye makes the front-end of the 1-1, and it's 51-43, and the crowd is really getting into it. He misses the second, and then Berumen lets us all know that he's not just an inside banger: He gets the ball just inside the three point line over on the right side, and. . . swish. A beautiful set one hand shot. Score: 53-43. Chaminade's still in it, but time's running out.

Then the daggers come out again. Fullove hits a long 3, and it's now 56-43. But Long comes back and answers with a pull up J in the lane, for two and it's 56-45. Then Stewart makes that errant pass, and turns the ball over. 1:52 to go, and it's still 56-45. Long gets fouled, misses the front end of the 1-1, but gets the reprieve when Chaminade gets the rebound. But then the wheels come off. Chaminade shoots, misses, and Fullove hits another three, and it's now 59-45, and in the last minute of the game, Simi scores three more points, and Chaminade scores once more, for the final of 62-47.

The final scoring looked like this:

Shaun Michel was named tournament MVP. Props to him.

Oh yeah, and in the other game, which we really didn't get to see because we got there with only a few minutes left in the game, Newbury Park took third place in the tournament, defeating Camarillo decisively 86-58.

More importantly, last night's Championship game proved that it's still very early in the season for both of these teams. While Simi is clearly the more polished, both teams will do a whole lot of damage this year, and we wouldn't be at all surprised if both teams end up making it deep into the playoffs and challenging for State Championships in their respective divisions. Both teams have got some things to work on, but for now the Simi Valley team can claim bragging rights to the 13th Annual Simi Valley Tip-Off Classic Championship. And Chaminade can be proud too as the runners-up for staying tough, never letting the crowd rattle them and for showing true character and courage. Congratulations to both teams from SoCalHoops.

And in our book you're both still Nos. 1 and 2. But we're not saying which is which. Yet.

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