mustang tourney quarters

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Hemet Mustang Shootout: El Segundo
Lulls 'em to Victory--(December 29, 1997)

Think there's no basketball east of the 605 Freeway? How about north of San Dimas? Or south of Riverside? Well there is, and some of it is played in the little town of Hemet, which is just east of Perris (which is where the great Perris team that played in the Compton Tip-Off and in the BIW is from). Wonder where Hemet is? Wonder no more. Look for the red star on this map (courtesy of Mapquest--we hope they don't mind):

As you can see, Hemet looks to be just about square in the middle of what should be basketball country. But somehow, it never gets the attention it deserves. And sometimes there's a reason for that. Like Saturday night's game between El Segundo and the host West Valley Mustangs. It was like watching 10 potted palms being manuevered around the floor.

Let us help shed a little light on this. Stay with us now.

Each year West Valley High School, located in Hemet, sponsors the "Mustang Shootout" and invites some pretty good teams. In some years, things work out for the locals, and in others, well, it's sort of like the desert, a bit dry. We're not exactly sure just what caliber of teams are playing this year, but there sure is some ugly basketball going on in this little tourney. And as the local Hemet News noted, the tournament organizers "received their worst nightmare - no Valley teams in the finals." For the first time since 1994, West Valley, the host school, will not be in the finals of its own tournament. Both West Valley and Hemet were eliminated during second round losses Saturday night, meaning that Moises Alvarez, a much-touted senior, will not be showcasing his talents for the Championship in a tournament where he set the record book on fire last year. This year, in two games, suffering from a bad back, he's only scored 44 points. But that's almost as much as both El Segundo and West Valley scored, combined on Saturday night in their quarterfinal match.

The host Mustangs reached the tournament finals in 1992, where they lost to San Jacinto, won the tournament in 1993, 1995 and 1996. Last season's final, which pitted two local teams, Hemet vs. West Valley, attracted more than 2,000 people, which is a lot in this neck of the sands and yucca trees. But that was then, and this is now.

The Tournament Semifinals will be played tonight, Monday December 29, 1997, and will feature Rancho Verde and El Segundo (a team which surprised Montclair Prep in the first round of the El Segundo tourney) in the 8:30 game and Palm Desert and Elsinore in the 7 p.m. game. A few earlier games in the consolation bracket will also be played, including West Valley in a third round match with Yucca Valley at 4 p.m.

This tournament can be great when local teams play in the finals; but if they aren't in it, forget it if you're a local. Another local team, Banning (not the City Section team, but the Skyline League's team, which competes against such schools as Beaumont, Notre Dame/Riverside--not the one in Sherman Oaks, which is in the Mission League and is, coincidentally on Riverside Drive--, San Jacinto, West Valley, and Yucca Valley) won the tournament in 1994, and when they played, it was standing room only.

But not this year. Instead the finals is sure to feature a team from outside the Hemet area. And so there will be plenty of seating available.

And deservedly so, if Saturday night's El Segundo game is any indicator of things to come.

Saturday night's game was sure to put a chill on the proceedings, and those who came out to see a fast game, with quick breaks, speedy defense and high-output offense, and lots of scoring were pretty badly disappointed.

El Segundo won, defeating the host team.

But that's not the worst part.

El Segundo defeated West Valley, by a final score of 39-38. Believe it or not, this game was a double overtime.

And with the advent of a 35 second shot clock this year, that's just an incredibly slow, boring, bad game of basketball.

"We [the coaches] were just happy to run the clock down and play a slow game," host West Valley coach Jim Sammon said after the game.

No kidding, coach.

The halftime score says it all: 18-17 El Segundo. It was almost an occasion to celebrate when El Segundo increased the lead after less than a minute in the third quarter to 20-17 when Quinton Crenshaw hit a basket with 7:18 left in the quarter. Jack Bartley and Nick Collins then both scored for the Mustangs, and they tied the game at 20-20 with a couple of minutes left in the third quarter. Only four more baskets were scored in the third, and at the end of the quarter, the score was 24-24. A lot of football games are more exciting than this one.

In the fourth quarter, West Valley scored the game's next five points (whoopee-- a field goal and a safety) to take the biggest lead of the game at 29-24 with 5:14 left in the game. But El Segundo, intent on not winning, but determined to let this interminable slug-fest drag on some more, came back with a seven point run of their own, only to let it slip away in the last minute of regulation, as the Mustang's Eric Williamson tied the game up again at 31-31. El Segundo then scored again, to take a 2 point lead, but West Valley tied it again at 33-33 at the end of regulation play.

In the second overtime, the Mustangs took a three point lead but couldn't hold it as El Segundo's Crenshaw again scored the evening's final four points and the game winner in the second overtime. Another telling statistic about this game: Ruben Suarez led the West Valley Mustangs' scoring with only 11 points. He did have seven rebounds. Yeeha. The next highest scorer for West Valley had only five points.

There was another interesting little feature of this tournament: El Segundo is the only team that we know of in the Southern Section (there might be more, but we just don't know where they are) with a female player on it's squad. A few years ago when the El Segundo girls' basketball program was being forced to forfeit games due to a lack of players, the school decided to drop the girls' program. Alexandra Graiff wasn't prepared give up the sport, so she tried out for the boys team and made it. El Segundo's boys' coach, Rick Saboshy has decided this year that she can stay on the squad and finish out her high school career, but curiously Graiff has yet to play in the Tournament.

Surely she couldn't do any worse than the miserably low scoring guys and she ought to be allowed to at least get some time off the bench. C'mon coach, let her play. As the Hemet News noted about Graiff's lack of playing time Saturday night, "When the West Valley girls' team arrived back from their game (at another tournament) with Temescal Canyon, they could hardly believe their eyes. Throughout El Segundo's game with West Valley, Saturday night, members of the Mustangs girls' team were continually yelling out for Graiff to be inserted into the game."

And she should have been allowed to play. It might have helped.

If we hear about the final, we'll post it up. But then we might confuse the score with one of the many bowl games being played, so just be patient.