SoCal High School & Prep Tourney News

Brandon Hawkins Scores 30. . .
In the 4th Quarter in Philly--(December 6,1997)

The Pooh Richardson Classic in Philadelphia got started yesterday at Community College of Philadelphia. In an amazing comeback victory, Crenshaw defeated Ben Franklin, 82-80, overcoming a fourth quarter deficit to beat Pooh Richardson's alma mater in a game which saw Brandon Hawkins (6'-2" Sr SG) literally erupt for 30 points in the fourth quarter. We don't have many other details of this game, but apparently Hawkins was just unstoppable. Early in the third quarter, Franklin went on a 22-14 scoring spree, and at one point Crenshaw trailed by 12 points, 60-52. But Crenshaw and Hawkins were just too tough, and the 'Shaw pulled off the victory. We don't have any other scoring details, but we'll try to find a box score somewhere and put it up here later.

For those interested in Philly's scoring, Alex Wesby finished with 21 points, while Jason Dunham and Gary Palmer scored 16 apiece for Franklin.

In another game in the Pooh Richardson Classic, Westchester (Brandon Granville, C.J. Williams, Albert Miller, Tony Bland, David Bluthenthal, Jamal Sampson, Chris Osborne) beat up on another Philadelphia team, Overbrook, 72-56. We were unable to get any details on this game, but if we hear about them, we'll put them up.

Crenshaw will play Overbrook today, and presumably (although we haven't confirmed it) Westchester will play Franklin.

The real story behind Crenshaw and Westchester being in Philadelphia yesterday and today has to do with the Philadelphia - LA connections of Pooh. The LA Clipper, former UCLA star, and Philadelphia's Ben Franklin all-star wanted to do something for his alma mater, which plays in the public school league. He remembered his days there, and how his team had to travel outside their league in order to get good competition. He wanted the current crop of Franklin players to get some top-flight competition, and likewise wanted to afford last year's California State Division I Champions (and possibly this year's other contender, Westchester) top have the opportunity to play east coast ball, and get a chance to see some areas of the country they might not have visited before. The word is that Pooh personally financed the two-day tournament and underwrote the trip for both the Crenshaw and Westchester teams, bringing them to Philly to play. Great work Pooh.

We want to thank our friend Lawrence Gray for straightening us out on the scheduling for this tournament and tipping us off to the game. Our SoCalHoops composite LA City Section schedule for yesterday had Crenshaw playing "Bea Franklin". Little did we know that the scanner had turned "Ben" into "Bea", and more importantly, that the game was being played in Philadelphia not LA. Oops. Hope nobody drove over to Crenshaw looking for a game. Same thing is true about the Crenshaw v. Overbrook game scheduled for today.

©Copyright SoCalHoops 1997
All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
Contact: jegesq@SoCalHoops.com