SoCal High School & Prep Report

Beverly Hills Tourney Update:
Agoura Beats Canoga Park --(December 10,1997)

Agoura beat Canoga Park, 77-67, in an up-tempo game in the first round of the Beverly Hills boys' tournament on Tuesday. Hamilton defeated Culver City, 83-74, and so Agoura and Hamilton play at 5 p.m. today at Beverly Hills in the second round action.

Agoura coach Bill Sanchez told a reporter from the LA Times that he's a bit concerned about Hamilton's style of play, which yesterday featured plenty of running, and a lot of slam dunking: "We don't play like this out in Ventura County," Sanchez said. "Maybe with Channel Islands but they have a more structured defense."

In Agoura's game with Canoga, Agoura controlled throughout the first quarter, leading at the half 17-8. In the second quarter, Agoura built the lead to 29-15, and then kept pounding away for 16 points in the quarter, but Canoga scored 22, and at the half Agoura only had a three point lead with the score 33-30. In the third quarter, Canoga tied it up and went ahead, but Agoura came back to take the lead in the fourth quarter 64-63 with 4:34 to play on a fast-break layup by Marcus Helfman. Nick Aguirre drove down the lane a minute later put Canoga within a point at 68-67. But Agoura finished the game with a 9-0 run.

Even though they won, Agoura is probably right to be a bit concerned about the game with Hami, a much more physical team. And if Agoura's shooting is like it was yesterday, they could be in trouble. Despite making 32 of 65 shots, Agoura missed several easy layups and turned the ball over 18 times against Canoga's full court press. Helfman collected 25 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots. Paul Saunders added 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Brandon Meyer had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Charles Harper, Carloes' brother, was one of four of Canoga's regular starters who were initially benched at the start of the game for missing practice. Harper was allowed to play and came in midway through the first quarter and finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Aguirre had 13 points for Canoga Park.

Here's the scoring:

Canoga: Ferguson 0, Lasley 0, Hernandez 0, Sandoval 3, Aguirre 13, Bell 11, Freeman 7, Belgarian 5, Harris 10, Harper 18 and 12 boards

Agoura: Heffman 25, 10 boards and 7 blocks, Lepisto 4, Meyer 13 and 10 boards, Dianella 3, Patterson 10, Saunders 15 and 10 rebounds, Kohan 4, Lewenshohn 3.

Canoga Park's record drops to 1-5 on the season, while Agoura is 2-0 on the year.

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