SoCal High School & Prep Report

Simi Valley Tournament:
Second Night--(December 4,1997)

The scores:

Simi Valley 78, Hart 37
Chaminade 76, Santa Paula 62,
Newbury Park 67, South Gate 46
Chatsworth 56, Camarillo 58

Consolation Bracket:

Santa Barbara 80, Canoga Park 72
Granada Hills 87, Palmdale 93
El Camino Real 56, North Hollywood 73
Notre Dame 60, Monroe 54

Some Notes:

Simi Valley was back, and so was Rafael Berumen, after sitting out the bench for missing practice, and last night Simi just destroyed Hart, 78-37. Berumen was very impressive, scoring 20 points himself, while Brett Michel had 17 points in this extremely lopsided win. Both the first and second quarters opened up with 13-0 scoring runs by Simi. It was really not much of a contest, as Hart was really hopelessly outmanned by the speed, quickness, height and shooting ability of Simi. One bright spot though for Hart was Jeff Whitmore, who played well considering the circumstances, and who scored 19 points in the loss. When you've got one player scoring more than half your points, something else isn't working, and Hart just couldn't get it going. It was a mismatch from the start, and Simi rolled.

The scoring looked like this: For Simi Berumen had 20, Shuan Michel had 4, Branden Foster had 8, Ian Boys 4, Kurt Mjoens had 12, Brett Michel had 17, Brandon Fullove had 11, and Mike Collado had 2.

For Hart, Stotts had 9, Whitmore 19, Date had 4, Pitzer 5, and Davidson did not score.

Simi is now 2-0, and will take on Newbury Park tonight in a semi-final game at 8 pm Friday (not tonight) at Simi High.

The big game of the night though was Chaminade v. Santa Paula. Chaminade won 76-62, but the game was close up until the fourth quarter when Chaminade went on a scoring spree to pull away. Scott Borchart has been playing just great in this tournament, and last night he had 15 points and five boards against a much smaller Santa Paula team. He also had 21 points and 17 (that's right--17!) rebounds against Santa Barbara in the first round. Jeff Young told the LA Times "To have a freshman come into this program and contribute on the varsity level says a lot. . .but to have him come in and start shows you're talking about a very special player."

Yes you are: He's 6'-7" and can jump out of the gym, can shoot, can rebound, and basically has a pretty complete package. We're guessing that Young really didn't know just how good Borchert was going to be before the season. Should be a great matchup if Chaminade gets over their next opponent to meet Simi, as everyone hopes. Now that would be a great game.

Cayce Cook has also been playing very well for Chaminade during this tournament, and Scott Long really stepped up his production last night. Long scored 29 points and had 16 rebounds, Justin Stewart had 8 points and 11 boards, Cook had 9 points and 7 assists, while Justin Beach had 8, Matt Chirba had 6, and Ryan Chicon had 1 point.

Chaminade, which is now 2-0, will play Camarillo High on Friday night at 6:30 pm in a semifinal game.

Newbury Park also looked impressive in its win over South Gate, winning by 21 points, 67-46. Luther Staine hit for 17, and Dan Bobik scored 13 points as the Panthers advanced. Bobik played welln and also had five rebounds and four steals. The defense was terrific and Saine, Bobik, Will Svitek and Dan Block all worked well together in shutting down South Gate in the first and fourth quarters. In the second quarter, South Gate played NP pretty close, and trailed by only 8 at the half. In the third quarter, South Gate came out strong, and managed to play Newbury Park even through the third quarter, with each team only scoring 10 points in a very rough third quarter. But then Newbury Park decided they'd had enough, and they pulled the trigger, blasting off a 23-12 scoring run in the fourth quarter, and eventually opening up the game winning 21 point lead.

For Newbury Park, Svitek had 4 points, Block 7, Roche 3, Dan Bobik 13, Pollastrini 2, Luther Stain 17, Congelliere had 4, Brian Polen scored 6 points Meru had 4, and Turner had 7.

For South Gate, Espana had 10, Martiz 1, Corona had 4, Johnson 12, Moreno 2, Adrian Garibay (maybe a cousin of Rick Garibay from Los Alamitos?) had 7, while Delgado had 5 points and Meldicabal finished with 5.

As noted Newbury Park will play host Simi on Friday at 8 pm at Simi.

Camarillo just managed to squeak by Chatsworth to avoid overtime when Make Pallotto hit three of four free throws in the final 39 seconds in a great game played at Camarillo yesterday. Camarillo trailed 56-55 after Richard Harrson of Chatworth converted a field goal and made the foul shot with only 55 seconds remaining. Then Pallotto was fouled, giving Camarillo a 57-56 lead when he hit both free throws with only 26 seconds on the clock. When Camarillo recovered possession of the ball after a missed shot, Camarillo was forced to foul, and Camarillo failed to convert on its last two possessions. Chatsworth had a chance to get the final score, but the ball was knocked out from behind and then Jeff Stuiiteville of Camarillo made a great defensive play to seal the win by intercepting a pass intended for McFarland with only one second left. For Chatsworth, Montae McFarland scored 22 points, 20 of them in the second half. For Camarillo Stuteville and Kyle Lassiter each had 14 points while DJ Nakaba had 11.

In the other games in the "consolation" bracket, Kerry Yates of Palmdale had an amazing game, scoring 44 points in Palmdale's 93-87 victory over Granada Hills. Yates tied a school record which had stood for the past 28 years.

North Hollywood beat up on El Camino Real, winning by 13. Dejon Lee (5'-10 Sr. PG) had 18 points and Keron Wilkerson (6'-3" Sr. SF) hit for 17, while Johnson had 10, Wright had 12, Hicks had 10, and McKissick, Galvan & Baisdan each had 2.

The Santa Barbara-Canoga Park game went into overtime and the Dons looked much better than the previous night. Junior guard Johnny Ortiz scored seven of his game-high 17 points in overtime on Wednesday as Santa Barbara High topped Canoga Park 80-70 for its first basketball win of the season. The Dons, 1-1, will play Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, December 4, at Camarillo High in the consolation semfinals of the 16-team tourney.

J. R. Allen, a 6'-7" senior center for Santa Barbara, had a double-double with 17 points and 18 rebounds while Bryce Maloney had a career-high 14 points and seven rebounds. One day after being blitzed on the boards by a much taller Chaminade squad, SBHS won the rebound battle 62-49. Craig Christ recorded nine rebounds, five steals and three assists in the first half before pulling a muscle. Christ also held Canoga Park's top scorer to just four points (he had 34 the night before).``We started out well, building a 16-6 lead,'' said Dons coach Jeff Lavender. ``Then we played horribly the rest of half and trailed by three (35-32)." The Dons trailed by two points with 15 seconds to go. Following a timeout, SBHS broke the press and Maloney fed Tyler Burke with three seconds left. Burke took one dribble and tossed in a double-pump, 3-foot shot off the glass to send the game into OT. The 5-minute overtime was all Santa Barbara as Maloney, Burke and Ortiz hit 3-pointers to open a 74-65 lead. For Canoga Park Charles Harper had 17 points in the losing effort.

Here's the scoring from this game:

Santa Barbara: Ortiz 17, Maloney 14, Worzella 10, Burke 13, Williams 1, Christ 5, Allen 17, Shelton 1, Kelley 2, Cordero 0. Totals 26 21-33 80.

Canoga Park: Castaneda 9, Freeman 1, Harper 17, Aguirre 8, Harris 4, Sandoval 9, Belgarian 8, Hernandez 2, Bell 13. Totals 25 17-29 70.

3-point goals-SB 7 (Worzella 2, Maloney 2, Burke 2, Ortiz), CP 4 (Sandoval, Castaneda, Aguirre, Belgarian).
Total fouls-SB 26, CP 25.
Fouled out-Allen, Harris, Bell.

Finally, in the Notre Dame-Monroe game, Notre Dame won by 4, beating Monroe 60-54. Joe Donnelly scoreed 20 points for Notre Dame, while Damien Ritter of Monroe hit for 16.

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