pilot final

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Daily Pilot Estancia Tournament:
Estancia Wins--(December 31, 1997)

Was there a tournament held this past week in Orange County that was not won by the host team?

While this tournament was called the "Daily Pilot Coast Classic", in fact the 13th Annual Coast Classic, it was really the "Estancia High School Tournement", held at Estancia High in Orange County.

And guess what? Estancia won it yesterday.

For the second year in a row.

For the third time in 13 years.

Between the two teams playing for the title, they'd won it 6 times, and each has finished second twice. So it was not surprising that they met again for the final.

So now Katella, Century, Canyon, Brea Olinda, and Estancia have all won their own tournaments. And Santa Margarita, which is close by to Chapman College where the Orange Holiday Classic was played, did the same. The lesson from all this? If you're not from the host school, look out, you're likely to get hammered.

In the Daily Pilot Coast Classic Championship game played last night before a packed house in the Estancia Gym, host Estancia beat Edison 66-60. Sam Nelson (6'-5" Sr. F) who is going to Air Force next year after signing a letter of intent this past fall, led all scorers with 31 points for Estancia. Estancia never trailed in this game and the result was never really in doubt. James Dawkins of Estancia added 15 points. Daniel Nehrig led Edison's scoring with 24 points. Sam Nelson connected on three three-pointers in racking up his 31 points.

Edison got to this game by beating Montclair 66-56 in overtime Monday, by shutting out their opponent in the overtime period. Edison was 8-3 coming into the game.

Estancia for it's part, had just defeated Rialto by a score of 69-55 on Monday night. In that game, Estancia led, 29-25, at halftime, before dropping the bomb on Rialto by going to a zone to keep Rialto from going to their high post and their big men. Rialto tried to force it in anyway and Estancia capitalized, and the zone also forced Rialto to try shooting more from the perimeter, but that didn't seem to help either as Rialto missed 13 of 16 third-quarter field goal attempts and finished just 19 of 58 for the game (32.8%). Estancia, which improved to 10-5 with the win over Rialto, had some pretty good play from point guard James Dawkins, a senior, as well as some good inside work from Gavin Rainey another senior. Estancia opened the third quarter with a 12-0 run, which seemed to take the wind out of Rialto. But Rialto was also not without the ability to press, and forced 35 Estancia turnovers.

So when Estancia coach Rich Boyce told his team to "make some history" before the game, he meant that they should correct the turnover situation. Little did he know that they'd really listen, and make a record low 3 turnovers in the whole game, committing none at all in the last 21 minutes of nearly flawless basketball.

Both teams were ready for a championship game, and played well throughout. There were 15 or 16 times that the lead changed, until Estancia senior Gavin Rainey broke a 36-36 tie with a three-point play with only 3:26 left in the third quarter to give Estancia the lead at 39-36. After that Edison closed to within one point three different times. But each time, the Eagles held them off, the last time with a 9-2 run in the fourth quarter topped by back-to-back shots from Dawkins, including a three-pointer.

In the final minutes, Nelson went on a personal scoring attack, hitting seven straight unanswered points for Estancia. Nelson hit for 11 of 18 from the field, and was 6 for 8 in the second half, and was 6 for 8 from the line. Estancia's Brett Valbuena extended his consecutive free-throw streak to 17, covering three games, before finally rattling one off the rim, and finished with six points for the night. Anderson scored five points, and five rebounds and four assists. This teams got some great bench players, most of whom will return next year.

The stats for the game included:

Edison: Nehrig finished with 24 (1 three), Min 13 (2 three's), Sami 8 (2 three pointers), Harrell with 8, Schwam with 6, and Killian with 1 point. Scoring for Estancia included Nelson with 31 (three threes), Dawkins with 15 (one three), Valbuena 6, Rainey 5, Anderson 5, Keju 4, and Simpson did not score.

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The other excitement in this tournament did not come from a high scoring final, but rather a contest held on Monday in a semifinal, in which two teams tried to see how few points they could score. While Corona del Mar won the game, Pitt Meadows of Vancouver won the "low scorer" contest, 44-22.

While Corona del Mar appeared to be sleepwalking through this one, their opponent, Pitt Meadows of Vancouver, British Columbia, was in a coma. And Pitt Meadow's coach admitted that his team just isn't used to seeing the kind of pressure defense that is favored here in SoCal: "All of the teams we've faced here are equal to the top two teams in our area," Pitt Meadows Coach Rich Goulet said. "We get killed by 30 or 40 points to those teams, too."

What this game showed was that neither Pitt's 6-foot-10 senior center Bryson Tiedeman nor CdM's 6'-9" Alex Jekeli are that overwhelming down low. CdM kept Tiedeman frozen out, and Jekeli didn't do much better, only scoring 11 in the game, which is sort of not too bad though considering he scored 1/4 of CdM's entire points.

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Here's the MVP and All Tournament Team Selections

MVP Sam Nelson-Estancia

All Tournament Team

James Dawkins--Estancia
Daniel Nehrig--Edison
Jeff Harrell--Edison
Mark Hull--Hoover
Dan Ryan--Montclair
Byron Brock--Rialto
Bryson Tiedeman--Pitt Meadows

Congratulations again to Tournament Champs for 1997 Estancia High, and Happy New Year from SoCalHoops.