SoCal High School & Prep Report

Tournament of Champions:
Compton Beats Ocean View--(December 14,1997)

Compton beat Ocean View on Friday night in the semifinals of this great tournament by a single point, 56-55 as Tito Maddox (6-4" Jr. SG) hit a 13 foot jumper from the right baseline with only 7 seconds left on the clock. Ocean View called timeout but were unable to get a shot off before the clock ran out. The win put the Compton Tarbabes, with a record of 4-0 against Redondo, 6-1 on the season, in the championship game on Saturday night. As a result of Ocean View's loss, they played for third against Long Beach Jordan on Saturday.

This was a great game, featuring some of the best players in SoCal, and the house was really rocking. Compton brought along its usual faithful and very vocal hometown contingent to square off in the stands with the host homies from Ocean View. Compton, came into this game with the attitude that they weren't going to be pushed around, and they dominated the game early, forcing 20 turnovers overall. David "Madman" Hamilton (6'-9" Sr. C/PF) was pumped and ready to play and he had 13 points in the first quarter alone. But as the game wore on, Hamilton just seemed to disappear and only finished with 17 points in the game. Now, if he could only learn to spread that same intensity over 40 minutes. . . Hamilton matched up with Ocean View's Kevin Hanson (6'-10" Sr C) and at least in the first quarter, Hanson just couldn't stop him, and Hamilton had several nice turnaround jumpers and some nice reverse pump fake spins. But as the game went into the second quarter, Hanson, who's a very smart player, seemed to figure Hamilton out, and found ways to deny him the ball and make great defensive plays which eluded him during the first quarter. Again, the result was that Hamilton finished with only 17 points and pretty much disappeared during the second half.

Even though Compton won, they struggled throughout, and DeAndre Moore (5'-8" Sr. PG), Compton's usually fine scoring and slashing point guard, struggled, shooting only 2 for 12. But one of those baskets was the one which got Compton to within one point of Ocean view, 55-54, with only about one minute left on the clock. He managed to get some great passes, and had some nice near misses on his shots which were put back, but he only had (we counted) 5 assists, and he usually does a lot better than that.

As a result of DeAndre's poor shooting performance (he seemed a bit off, and we're suspecting that he was either just exhausted from the games on Thursday and Wednesday, or that he might be sick), coach Rod Palmer seemed to look to Tito Maddox to bring the ball up more during the second half, and other than looking a bit uncomfortable at the "point" spot, not his usual place, Tito had a great game, driving, dishing and shooting, and he finished with 13 points, 8 assists and 2 steals. And then there was that 13 foot baseline shot to win the game. Tito had a great game, and he's really a very complete player. And he's only a junior.

In the first half Compton led by 11, but Ocean View cut that lead and by the half they were only down 5 points, 30-25. Ocean View would bring it close, and then Compton would pull away again, keeping it just out of reach for OV. Compton took it's biggest lead of the second half, 9 points, at 37-28 midway through the third quarter. But Ocean View turned it around in the fourth quarter, and led by three points twice before the shot by Maddox at the end of the game. Ocean View was led by Tony Dow (6'-1" Jr. PG)--wonder where the Beav and Lumpy were-- who played just spectacular ball. Dow had 16 points on the night. With less than a minute to go, Dow was fouled, and went to the line for a 1-and-1, but missed the front end. Fortunately Hanson got the rebound, and leading 55-54, it looked like they had the game wrapped up. But they were not yet in the bonus, and with less than a half a minute on the clock, Hanson also missed the front end. This time Compton got to the board first, and when Moore penetrated and passed the ball to Maddox for his jumpshot, Tito headed in from the far right baseline toward the hole, pulled up for the j, and sank the shot.

"This was a big win for us," said Compton coach Rod Palmer. "It's a game we probably would have lost last year."

Hamilton led the scoring for Compton, and Moore finished with 5, Reggie Howard (6'-2" Sr. SG), had 12, Tito Maddox had 10, Milton Riley (6'-7" Sr. PF) only had a single point, and Ray Ross (6'-4" Sr. SF) had 8. Terry Hosendove (6'-4" Jr. SF), also only had a single point. Clearly this was a game that Compton struggled in, and they were actually outscored 14-13 in the fourth quarter. It was a game which could have gone either way at almost any moment.

Ocean View's scoring was led by Dow with 16, Hanson with 16, Jason Martini (6'-5" Sr SG/F) had 8 points coming off the bench and just playing tremendous defense and rebounding very well against Hamilton, even though he looked a bit tentative at times because of a knee brace he was wearing. Others scoring for Ocean View were Rahshaw McAfee (6'-3" Jr G) who had 6 points, and Jarrid Bebler (6'-0" Sr. G) who had 7.

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