SoCal High School & Prep Report

21st Annual Reebok Las Vegas Prep
Classic: H-W Loses to
Long Branch--(December 20, 1997)

It was the battle of the state champions, California against the New Jersey Champions. Harvard Westlake (Studio City, CA) lost to Long Branch in the opening round 61-69 in a game that HW was winning by 3 points with 1:00 remaining in the game. H-W turned over the ball 4 times in the last minute on several nervous mistakes by its two guards, and basically took itself out of the game. Long Branch, which trailed by as much as 10 with 6 minutes in the game, and which trailed by as much as 15 during the first half, set up a great play to win the game in the last minute. With the score Harvard 61, Long Branch 59, and 1:00 showing, HW had the ball out under LB's basket. LB put on a full court press, and Russell Lakey got trapped on the left side in the backcourt, turned to pass the ball to another HW player behind him, and threw the ball wide and out of bounds. LB called time out and taking the ball out under their own basket set up a "picket fence" , with all the LB players lining up along the free throw line. The HW defenders all set up between a LB player and the basket, and when Nick Brown of LB dropped back to the three point line (actually about 5 feet behind it, there was no one there covering him, and he hit the NBA three to put LB ahead 62-61 with only 47 seconds to play. On the next HW possession, Lakey had the ball stolen from him by Raheen Carter of LB, and LB scored. HW trailed 65-61 with less than 30 seconds. On the next possession Victor Munoz brought the ball up and hit Lakey on the right sideline in front of the HW bench, where he was triple teamed and stepped out of bounds, turning the ball over. HW was then forced to foul and couldn't get to LB's 6-10 center who wasn't a very good free thrower, and instead HW had to fould Carte, who made both free throws. With only seconds on the clock, HW was down 68-61, and then on the next play, HW turned the ball over yet again, and one of the LB players went to the line hitting only one (we actually didn't write down who hit that last free throw because there were only about 2 seconds on the clock).

So H-W loses its first game in 32 outings, the last loss it had since last year in this tournament. Nick Brown was named the game MVP with 11 points, but it was because of the shot that he got the award since there were many other players with more points. For HW, John Karravas had 5 points and played 9 minutes, while Russell Lakey had 9/10ths of a great game, scoring 14 points, 2 assists and 5 rebounds in 29 minutes. Not bad for a soph, and this kid will only improve. John Terzian DNP, Todd Kurihawa had no points and passed up a number of 3 point open looks at the basket; he looked a bit tentative and instead of taking the open long shot, chose to drive into the lane for the shorter j, and of course by the time he decided to do that, the d was all over him and he only managed to get off 2 attempted shots. Alex Minn had 9 points in 24 minutes, Ike Udeze DNP, and Eric Geffner played just an outstanding game with only 5 points and 2 rebounds--he had one of those games where statistics don't tell the whole story. He forced several turnovers, upset the dribble to cause a few travels on LB players, and just tipped, tipped tipped the ball on the boards. He actually made a pretty spectacular reverse layup and got fouled, by one of thebigger LB players (Darnell Tyler, #34, who is 6'-9" and weighs about 225 lbs, compared to Geffner's thin frame)--he got knocked all the way across the floor and it looked like he was going to end up in the locker room. But he also converted the free throw.

Victor Munoz had 13 points and he too played about 9/10th's of a great game, and even though he didn't make the mistakes at the end of the game which cost HW the win, he couldn't pull the game out alone. VM demonstrated though why he's a McDonald's All American selection with fine passing, and great defense,an excellent handle and tremendous ability to change direction, back up the defender and bring him forward and then change direction to beat a man off the dribble.

Dan Kinzer played only sparingly and did not score, in the game for only 3:03. Pat Biggerstaff lived up to his name, and played a lot bigger than he really is. He had 6 points but played tremendous under the boards. Alex Holmes was the big surprise for most of us, and he really can get up and down the court, playing 24 minutes and scoring 9 points with 10 rebounds.

Others who DNP were Chad Garson, Justin Logan and Anthony Naylor, and in fairness to those guys who didn't play, the coaches said that two of them were football players who just returned to the basketball team and weren't as familiar with the plays as they might have been to help the team in a crunch situation, and two others who DNP had back injuries.

This was a great game, it just went the wrong way if you are a SoCal Hoops fan. It was the battle of the State Champions, and for this year, New Jersey won the war. But H-W will be back. Just wait and see.

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