SoCal High School & Prep Report

Tournament Report: Fullerton
Tribe Classic--(December 15, 1997)

Here's another one which was played last week and got little attention. Maybe next year, we'll have all the brackets forall the SoCal preseason tournaments. For now though, we'll have to be content to report on these after the fact.

In the Championship of the Fullerton Tribe Classic, played at Fullerton High, Canyon High of Anaheim, featuring big man Andrew Gaulden, beat Bolsa Grande 68-65.

Canyon's roster included, Andrew Gaulden (6'-9" Sr. F), Ali Goodman (6'-6" Sr. F), Scott Reed (6'-6" Sr. F), Justin Haney (6'-1" Jr. G), Neil Hammad (6'-3" Jr. G), Aaron Willis (6'-5" Jr. F), Donn Yu (5'-9" Jr. G), Roger Hogan (5'-11" So. PG), and Omid Eftekhari (6'-5" Jr. F). While there was a a good deal of controversy about Drew Gaulden joining this team, there was no doubt that he had arrived in this Championship game, scoring 16 points. Gaulden, who also plays for an AAU team (LA Rockfish) with players like Shantay Legans, has already committed to the University of New Mexico, signing a National Letter of Intent during the fall early signing period. He's a big 6'-9" and averaged 13.7 ppg and 9.5 rebounds at Esperanza High last season, and looks like he'll keep up that pace, joined by senior forward Ali Goodman, a big 6'-6" guy, who averaged 14 points per game last season and nine boards each time out. In the Championship game against Bolsa Grande, he had 18 points, while Reed had 10, Hammad had 14, Berco 2, Yu 6 points, and Willis had 2. Senior forward Scott Reed is another big 6'-6" guy who also played some low post and who did very well in the game. 6'-1" junior guard Justin Haney did not score. Junior Neil Hammad, a 6'-3" guard who averaged 11 points per game last season finished well above his average, and proved that he's going to be a big time scorer this season. 6'-5" junior
forward Aaron Willis was pretty much ineffective, but 5"-9" point guard Donn Yu was the man as he stole the ball with three seconds left to secure the championship victory.

Canyon, which is now 6-0, dominated the last five minutes of the game. Canyon had jumped out to a very early lead, and finished the first quarter leading 17-8; Bolsa came back a bit in the second, and at the half the score was 35-30, Canyon. In the third quarter, Bolsa, behind the great shooting of Duc Nguyen, who last year averaged 20.5 points per game, and who scored 27 points in this game including four three-pointers, Bolsa outscored Canyon 17-21, to bring it within one point, at 52-51. In the fourth quarter, Bolsa jumped out to a lead in the first 3 minutes of the fourth quarter, but Canyon just dominated in the end, outscoring Bolsa 16-14 in the final quarter. Bolsa used it's perimeter game effectively, hitting for a total of 7 three-pointers. In addition to Nguyen's 4, Doug Baughman,(6'-2" Jr. G/F/C) had 2 threes, while Sophomore Jon James (6'-3" So. C) had 1 three. Canyon's Hammad had 2 three pointers. But Bolsa never really had any answer for the 6'9" Gaulden inside, who proved he's ready to put himself on the map and maybe get the attention he deserves.

In addition to winning the Fullerton Tribe Classic Tournament Championship, Gaulden was named the tournament MVP.

Congratulations to Canyon High and to Bolsa, the runner-up.

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In other games played Saturday in the Fullerton Tournament, Rowland Heights Rowland beat Marina 86-74. Franklin Fortier scored a game-high 27 points to help visiting Rowland, which is now 7-1 win the third-place game. Scot Austin, Jeff Hung and Scott Rivera led Marina, which is now 4-4 with 21, 20 and 13 points, respectively.

In the Fifth Place Game, La Serna beat host Fullerton 65-59, on the shooting mostly of La Serna's Koch who had 28 points. In the Seventh Place Game, Savanna beat Brethren Christian 59- 55. Justin Miller's three-pointer at the buzzer forced the game into overtime, but lowly Brethren Christian, which is really better than it's record would indicate (they're only 1-7 now) only scored one point in overtime play. William King led Savanna, which doesn't have a record so far that's much better than Brethren's (they're only 2-7) with 22 points and Mark Watanabe had 10. Miller and Kevin Thomas scored 15 points each, and Chris Austad made four three-pointers.

Congratulations to all the participants and to Canyon, the 1997-98 Fullerton Tribe Classic Champions.

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