san diego day four

SoCal High School & Prep Report

San Diego Nike Tourney: Day Four
from Pat McKinney--(December 30, 1997)

Our friend Pat McKinney filed a report on Tuesday's games in the San Diego Nike Tournament, being played at Torrey Pines and Cox Arena. Pat maintains the University of San Diego High School Dons Basketball website, and will (hopefully) be reporting on high school hoops in and around San Diego during the year, in addition to keeping us all up to speed on how Luke Walton, Abramowitz, et. al. are doing. Here's his report, which also appears at the USDHS site.

San Diego Hoop News

Day Four at the Nike National Prep Classic

by Pat McKinney

I had a chance to make it out to the Semifinals of the Nike National Prep Classic and caught a couple of games at Cox Arena tonight. Both of the games were blowouts but there were some surprises in store in these match-ups.

The first semifinal featured St Anthony's of Jersey City, ranked #11 in the nation, against Fremont of Los Angeles. St Anthony features Junior 7 footer Joshua Moore, 6'6" Senior Robert Cheeks, and 6'8" Junior Maurice Jackson. They play a tenacious, pressing defense and Fremont was simply no match for them, trailing 44-16 at the half and falling 79-56.

The second game featured St. Dominic of Oyster Bay, New York and JW North of Riverside. North is an extremely athletic team and they defeated O'Dowd and Crenshaw to reach this game. St Dominic, on the other hand, is small (their heights were not even listed in the program) but plays a very controlled, disciplined game. I didn't know what to expect, but figured North would probably handle them easily.

The game started with St Dominic stealing the tip as North played it very offensively and scoring. They then stole North's inbound pass and hit a three, going up 5-0 in the first 20 seconds. The lead spread to 12-4 with 4:50 remaining in the first as the quarter ended with St Dominic up 24-8. St Dominic played a tight, pressing defense and ran a balanced offense. Their passing surpasses most high school teams that I have seen. They shot out to a 41-20 halftime lead and cruised to an 82-53 victory.

St Dominic's roster has no player over 6'4", but it didn't seem to matter. Behind the play of outstanding 6'2" point guard Sean Kennedy (I don't have the stats now, but he probably scored close to 30), North was helpless. Kennedy always found the open man and, failing that, could drive to the hole with authority. His play is very similar to that of USDHS' David Abramowitz, including the ability to break a press on his own and outstanding court vision. On offense, North couldn't hold the ball against the scrappy defense of St. Dominic's. Very entertaining to watch since it is rare to see an entire team play with such control.

The final between St. Anthony and St. Dominic tips off at 3:00 pm tomorrow at Cox Arena. It will be very interesting to see how the extreme height and athleticism advantages play out, but I'm sure St Dominic will find a way to stay in the game.