lasalle h-w loss

SoCal High School & Prep Report

La Salle Tourney: Harvard-Westlake
Loses to Pasadena Marshall--(December 29, 1997)

This one is being played at both Temple City High and at La Salle over in the San Gabriel Valley. It continues through tomorrow, Tuesday, December 30, 1997. We would have been there for the first few rounds, but we were stuck out at sea, drinking Margaritas and enjoying the warm Mexican sun. :- ) Thus didn't get to see some of our favorite players and coaches in the region, including Howard Abrams of Montclair Prep, Dave Enowitz of Reseda, Steve Goldstein from La Salle, and all their players. But we've got reports. Oh yeah, we've got reports. And not all of it is good news, especially if you're a H-W follower.

The top teams in this tourney were Harvard-Westlake, which had lost only one game in Vegas to Long Branch, to finish ninth in the Vegas tournament overall. Also playing here is Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, and Montclair Prep. While the LA Times and Daily News initially predicted that H-W might be challenged in the opener by Mid-City Magnet, a tough team we saw at the Arroyo tourney, which beat Ruben Douglas and Bell-Jeff pretty convincingly, they were one game off. H-W was challenged all right, but by Pasadena Marshall instead, in the second round of play.

After beating Mid-City Magnet in the first round game, Harvard-Westlake lost a tough one in the semi-finals of the La Salle tourney, to Pasadena Marshall 71-59. Actually, this was not the first time these teams have met, and they played once during summer league play, and the result was not much different then (although it wasn't as well publicized, and certainly didn't mean anything then. . . after all it was just summer league).

H-W, which had been undefeated in 32 games up until they lost to Long Branch in Vegas in the 21st Annual Reebok tourney, a run that stretched over the reign of the Collins twins, Rico Cabrerra and Ryan Smiley, just couldn't pull this one out of the hat, and they were beaten by a team that had already knocked off two other top-10 regionally rated teams, including No. 8 ranked (by Sondheimer again) Burbank Burroughs last Monday (December 22) and No. 10 La Canada on Tuesday (December 23) in the Bell-Jeff/La Canada/St. Francis tournament. Pasadena Marshall, which won it's seventh in a row, and improved to 9-3, took charge early, and were never really threatened by No. 4 Harvard-Westlake, which dropped to 10-2 on the year. Brandon Marshall and Brian Holifield led four Eagles in double figures with 16 points each.

The loss was nothing to create a panic about, and if folks think back to last year, H-W lost three games with the Collins twins present. There's still plenty of room for success, and the season is not really yet even underway. We think that H-W is simply tired, because they sure weren't executing the way they are capable of performing (as they did against Dos Pueblos, for example in the Thousand Oaks Rotary Finals).

Marshall employed a 3-2 zone and a box-and-one mostly trying to isolate out Victor Munoz and Russell Lakey, and it was pretty successful, and Marshall was able to take Harvard-Westlake out of its game by consistently applying inside and outside pressure on the ball. The Wolverines committed 24 turnovers and shot 34% from the field. The LA Times remarked that the H-W team performed poorly, "looking every bit the team it is was supposed to be with only one returning starter." We're not sure that's quite accurate, but nevertheless, H-W didn't play well.

HW was plagued with a rash of turnovers, and normally good outside shooters looked tentative and bothered by the box-and-one D. Again, the Times was pretty critical of the H-W play: "When the Wolverines did get a shot off, it was routinely an airball or rejected by forward Miles Alexander, who finished with seven blocks." Lakey more often than not appeared to be the focus of the box and one, and he was definitely bothered by it.

H-W's coach Greg Hilliard commented after the game: "We didn't play well because we didn't finish the shots we had. We became reluctant on our shots." This was pretty much what we saw with this team in the Long Branch game in Vegas, and when they are either tired or pressured, they are capable of either rising to the occasion, or becoming tentative and turning over the ball. We're sure that with time as this team comes together that they will gel and that as Lakey gets experience he'll not be a pressure-sensitive, but for now, H-W has got a lot of homework to do.

In the game, H-W trailed by as many 16 in the second quarter, tried time after time to connect with three-pointers to get themselves back in the game, but made only four of 25. "Three-point shooting is what we've been living and dying with all season and we died with it today," Hilliard said. Neither Munoz nor Lakey, nor Alex Minn were able to really get their strokes down, but HW was able to pull off a 13-0 run to pull to within 34-29 at the half. But the start of the second half was strikingly similar to the start of the first: Harvard made only three of its first 12 shots and turned the ball over seven times in the third quarter, allowing Marshall to get even further out of reach, and by the end of the third, the score was 51-36. All-American McDonald's nominee Victor Munoz didn't do anything to improve his national stock portfolio, and made only seven of 17 shots, finishing with 18 points. He didn't have a great game, but still managed to handle the ball well and push it up the floor. The only difference this year is that he's got to adjust to becoming more of a selfish player, and a better shooter. The Collins twins just aren't there for him to dump the ball to in the post, and even though HW has some pretty big guys, such as Alex Holmes, Pat Biggerstaff and Dan Kinzer in the post, they're not the same caliber as the Collins twins. That's certainly not meant as a criticism, because we believe they're good players, just that they're not quite in the same league; but then most players aren't and the Collins twins were the exception rather than the rule at this level. Even though Holmes had a pretty good first half, and helped with the 13-0 run, scoring 10 points in the first half, center/forward Alex Holmes did not make a field goal in the entire second half and finished with only 12. Russell Lakey, only had 10 points.

In other second round tournament games at La Salle:

Montclair Prep rolled over Reseda 67-41. Jed Hall scored 20 points and Jules Thompson had 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Mounties (9-3), who built a 33-15 halftime lead and coasted into the semifinals. Kevin Bentley added eight points and 17 rebounds for Montclair Prep.

Notre Dame 60, La Salle 48. Joe Donnelly had 17 points and eight rebounds for the Knights (7-3), who built a 10-point halftime lead and played the host Lancers even the rest of the way in a quarterfinal game. Chris Williams had 13 points and 12 rebounds for Notre Dame.

Montebello 81, Village Christian 63--Paul Tait had 27 points, but the Crusaders (3-5) fell in a consolation game.