SoCal High School & Prep Tournament News

Tournament Update: Thousand Oaks First Night--(December 9,1997)

We didn't get to see tonight's first round games at the 26th Annual Rotary International Invitational Basketball Tournament at Thousand Oaks High, because we were otherwise occupied, but we had some friends attend the first night of this tournament, and they gave us a brief rundown. We'll have complete reports tomorrow or later today, but for now here's the scoop.

Actually, we know nothing yet about the first game, Grant v. Oak Park. We'll find out about it in the morning and let everyone know.

The second game, Newbury Park v. T.O. JV, we understand was, as expected, pretty much of a wipeout. We don't have the final score, but understand that it was 90 something to 40 or 50 something. More later.

And in the third game, Harvard-Westlake defeated the host Thousand Oaks team 68-46. It was reported to us that Russell Lakey and Victor Munoz had really great games. T.O. jumped out to an early 5-0 lead on a three pointer and a two, and almost put a scare into H-W by looking like they were going to establish a running game. But it took only a few minutes for H-W to re-establish it's dominance and by the end of the 1st quarter, Harvard-Westlake led 21-13. Lakey had 9 points in the first quarter. By the half, H-W led by 11, 36-25, and Victor Munoz, Harvard-Westlake's All-American candidate and McDonald's nominee had racked up 17 points, 13 of those in the 2d quarter alone, and was having just a phenomenal time passing, driving and dishing; he was just everywhere. Lakey had 11 at the half.

In the third quarter, it was all Harvard-Westlake again, as the Wolverine defense just about completely shut T.O. down: H-W went on a 21-3 scoring run in the quarter. That's right, T.O. scored only one basket, a three-pointer, in the entire third quarter, and by the end of the third, the score was 57 to 28. The blitz continued, but T.O. started a comeback, and actually won the fourth quarter scoring 11-18. But time simply ran out for Thousand Oaks, and H-W wrapped up the win, 68-46. Eric Geffner scored, we are told, 5 points, while Alex Minn scored the first 5 points in the second half to start the H-W scoring spree. Alex Holmes also played well, blocking effectively playing good defense. We are told that Dan Kinzer, H-W's 6'-7" Jr. F/C played sparingly, and perhaps Hilliard is saving his strength for Wednesday's Oak Park game.

Again, we'll have a full report on this game later, including the correct scoring, and we make no representation that the above is at all correct, only that it's timely.

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