SoCal High School & Prep Report

Bell-Jeff/La Canada/St. Francis
Tourney: Pasadena Marshall Wins Final--(December 29, 1997)

Boy we wish someone had sent us the brackets and pairings on this one. The papers made it look like these were three separate tournaments. Well, they were, sort of. But then the winners of the "Regionals" met up last Tuesday, December 23, for the finals played at Bell-Jeff.

La Canada was a team on a mission, playing in the what was really two simultaneous tournaments during the holiday break: their own La Canada/St. Francis Boys' Regional Tourney, and in the La Canada/Bell-Jeff Regional Tourney. We haven't quite figured out the bracketing yet, and the reporting is a bit confusing as to who "won" the tourney, but in the finals in their own "region" it seems that La Canada was the "champion". They then moved over to Bell-Jeff on Tuesday night and played Pasadena Marshall. But more on that later.

In their game against Pasadena Muir, and with only 11 seconds to play, LC's Tim chung went to the line to shoot a one-and-one. Even though he had missed two free throws earlier in the game, he wasn't bothered, telling our correspondent after the game, that he and Matt Moore--the LA Times' Athlete of the Week-- had been praying together before games. So he believed he had a little something extra when he went to the line for this shot, and he cooly stroked it into the hole for the 65-63 win against Pasadena Muir.

Muir had a chance to tie the game up when Joe Bakhoum managed to drive his way to the hoop, but then he ran into 6'-7" Moore, and Moore was called for the foul. So Bakhoum went to the line, with no time left on the clock, shooting for two. But when the first shot missed, Bakhoum didn't even attempt the second; it was irrelevant since La Canada had won. Moore was named the "tournament" MVP with 28 points in the game.

In the other "Regional" championship, Pasadena Marshall beat Burbank Burroughs in overtime 68-63 on some key missed free throws. Burroughs led 56-54 with only 23 secons left to play, but Jeremy Cartee missed the first ft in a one-and-one. Amir Alexander of Marshall then scored with only 8 seconds left to tie the score in regulation at 56-56. Then, in overtime, Burroughs also missed another chance to seal the win by missing three free throw attempts with the score tied at 63-63.

Burroughs actually gave this game away, leading 56-50 with less than 2:00 to play in regulation. But Marshall was simply too tough, and Devarian Mackey hit for 21 points, while Miles Alexander score 17 to give Marshall it's fifth consecutive victory, which advanced Marshall to the Tournament Championship game, which was played last Tuesday.

In the final, the result was another overtime, but this time La Canada was on the wrong end of the stick, losing to Marshall 70-68 when Ian Sullivan, shooting the lights out with threes, just couldn't get a shot off in overtime.

Sullivan hit six of La Canada's nine three pointers in regulation. But in the overtime, Marshall went to a box-and-one against Sullivan, and he went scoreless in the overtime. La Canada also took another hit, this one to the head of Matt Moore, who was taken out of the game in the second quarter when he collided with a Marshall player, and became dizzy. And even though he managed to still collect 21 points, which was a game high, he still wasn't all there, managing only six boards during his limited playing time.

La Canada took a 66-63 lead in the overtime on a free throw by David Hudes with a little over 2:00 remaining, But then Marshall made all fou4r of it's free throws, and also had Davarian Mackey hit for a key three-pointer lat in the game for the 70-66 lead with only two second. Moore then took a length of the court pass, and slammed it, but obviously, unless he had realllllly long arms and was fouled from three point range, two points was pretty much unimportant, and Marshall pulled out the win, 70-68.

Congratulations to Pasadena Marshall, the Bell-Jeff/La Canada/St. Francis Tournament Champions for 1997.

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