SoCal High School & Prep Tournament Report

Tournament Update: Tournament of
Champions--(December 9, 1997)

The 1997 Tournament of Champions, hosted by Ocean View High in Huntington Beach, features some of the finest hoops talent in SoCal. The tournament got underway yesterday with four first-round games:

The tournament opened yesterday with Pasadena vs. A.B. Miller at 4 p.m., was followed by Fremont vs. Compton at 5:30 p.m., Mater Dei vs. Bishop Amat at 7 p.m., and Los Alamitos vs. Fontana at 8:30 p.m. (See below for results and notes).

In case anyone wants a prediction here it is: We're betting that it'll be Compton and Perris in the finals (unless they happen to matchup earlier, and if they do, we bet Compton will win).

The schedule for today (Tuesday) is:

Perris vs. Serra at 4 p.m.,
Long Beach Jordan vs. Nogales at 5:30 p.m.
Ocean View vs. Santa Barbara at 7 p.m.
Redondo vs. Servite at 8:30 p.m.

The Championship and consolation elimination rounds will continue Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and the Consolation Championship game will be held 5 p.m. Saturday. The Tournament of Champions Championship (department of redundancy department) will be held at 8 p.m.

Today's Santa Barbara vs. Ocean View game today marks the season opener for the host team, and a chance for Santa Barbara to make it into the Championship round of this tournament; last week they were defeated twice in the Simi Valley Shootout and ended up in the consolation bracket.

Of the TOC itself, host coach Jim Harris told the LA Times O.C. Edition: "This tournament is one of the best in the county every year. This year is no different, as some of the best teams around will be coming to Ocean View."

The Perris v. Serra game at 4 pm will match up two very quick teams, and should be a great game. Perris played Dominguez last week at the Compton Tip-Off Classic, and they are a great team, and feature one of the quickest, fastest motion offenses on the west coast this year. Serra is not an overly tall team (neither is Perris--see our game report of the Dominguez game for the rosters), but does feature some great shooting and speed, most notably from Davon Johnson (5'-10" Sr PG), Deron Geter (5'-11" Sr SG), Leron Geter (6'-1" Sr G-F), Ryan Odoms, (6'-1" Jr PG), Robert Lewis (6'-3" Jr SG-SF), Doyle Cole (6'-4" So G-F), Palmer Brown (6'-4" Jr F), Earl Lewis (6'-5" Jr G-F), JaShon Sykes (6'-5" Sr F-C), Corey Rainwater (6"-6" Sr F/C) and Aerick Sanders (6'-7" So PF/C) one of the top prospects in SoCal this year. Should be a great game.

We don't really know anything about Nogales, but Long Beach Jordan should win that one, while in the Redondo-Servite game, Redondo has the definite height advantage with Justin Ergieger (6'-4" Jr F), Titus Hunt (6'-4" Jr G/F), Dylan Mathis (6'-5" So F), Marcus Moore (6'-4" Jr G), Jesse Webster (6'-6" Jr F/C), Walter White (6'-4" So F), Levi Stauffer (6'-3" Sr F), and everyone's favorite big man this year in the Sophomore Class, Andrew Zahn (6'-9" So C). In fact, Redondo doesn't feature a single player under 6'-0", and also has Tyler Hoffman (6'-2" Sr SG), Ryan Kittel (6'-0" Sr SG), Brian Morris (6'-0" Sr G), Mike Nazerian (6'-0" Sr G) in the backcourt.

Servite has some fine players, but doesn't feature anyone taller than 6'-5": The Servite team features Steve Shea (6'-5" Sr F), Rafael Zielonka (6'-4" Sr SG/SF), Jeff Arthur (6'-2" Sr. G), Ryan Bulatao (5'-8" Sr PG), Miguel Guerrero (6'-3" Sr. F/C), Chris Penwarden (6'-5" Sr F/C), Steve Wilber (6'-2" Sr G), Mike Deal (6'-5" Sr F), Max Vallejo (6'-5" Sr C), Andrew Moore (5'-11" Jr PG), Billy Hamilton (6'-1" Jr G), Matt Ponsford (6'-2" Jr F), Evan Friedl (6'-3" Jr SG), Jordan O'Brien (6'-4" Jr F), and Joe McGuire (6'-5" So F).

In yesterday's first round games, the following were the scores:

Pasadena 76, A.B. Miller 62
Compton 68, Serra 59
Mater Dei 51, Bishop Amat 48
Fontana 75, Los Alamitos 63

In the first game between Pasadena and A.B. Miller, Pasadena powered by Miller, but the game was more of a defensive contest in the first half, and throughout the fourth as well, as Pasadena went into a zone and trapping defense, which pretty much shutting down A.B. Miller's offense; up until then the game was pretty close. Both teams used the press well; Pasadena just used it better.

Pasadena features George DeJohnette (5'-11" Jr G), David Ball (6'-1" Jr PG), Jon Wilburn (6'-1" Sr PG/SG), JaShawn Ridley (6'-3" Jr G/F), Gary Knighten (6'-1" Sr F), Lafayette Sanders (6'-3" Sr F), Clayton Coleman (6'-5" Jr G/F), Kevin Richards (6'-5" Jr F/C), Isham Eldridge (6'-6" Sr F/C) and Brooke Ewing (6'-7" Sr F). Yesterday Ball played very well, both offensively and defensively, hitting for 10 points and 8 assists. He also had 7 steals, and has very quick hands and plays very great pressure d. Jon Wilburn was the high scorer for Pasadena with 22, while Coleman had 6 points. Ewing played most of the game, but only got 4 points, not a typical game for this usually good performer. Ridley had 12 points and 3 assists, while Kevin Richard had 6. DeJohnette, a small but effective shooter, had 10 points including a couple of three pointers. Eldridge, and Parseghian combined for four points, two apiece.

Scoring by Miller was led by Brandon Taylor (6'-4" Sr F) who had a great game with 26 points and 13 boards, while Tarus Parish (6'-1" So. SG) had 8 points; Lamar Anderson (5'-10" Jr. PG/SG) had 7 points. Chris Smith (6'8" Sr. C) banged in 9 points while grabbing 12 boards. Eric Robinson (5'-9" Sr PG/G) had 4 points, while Enoc Jorrin (5'-11" Jr. SG/PG) hit for 6.

In the Fontana-Los Al game, Glen Summerall (6'-5" Sr. F) who has signed a National Letter of Intent at the University of San Francisco and will also play with 6'-11" Hondre Brewer from St. Joseph (that is if he can keep himself injury free--yo, Hondre, stay out of those pick up games),scored 23 points as Fontana pulled away late in the fourth quarter. The Fontana Steelers (now there's a name that's a throwback to some earlier days-- Fontana used to have a Kaiser Steel mill, but hasn't for many years) was just quicker and more athletic than Los Al. Fontana is now 3-1 Los Alamitos is now 0-2 after losing to DeMatha at the John R. Wooden High School Invitational last week. Rick Garibay hit for 15 points, while future UCLA volleyball player and potential basketball walk-on Matt Komer had 14.

In the Compton-Serra game, DeAndre Moore scored 34 points and David Hamilton hit for 22. Compton is now 2-0 after defeating Bishop Montgomery last week at the Tournament of Champions. Serra is now 3-2 after the loss. Serra got 22 points from Davon Johnson and managed to narrow a 10 point gap late in the fourth quarter to only two points, with just over a minute showing on the clock, but DeAndre hit a three to nail the win. Hamilton played just a huge game, and his usual mugging for the crowd caused a lot of excitement, especially considering that he had an inordinate amount of blocked shots (21) and a couple of slam dunks. We still believe he plays like a mad man, but that's good in his case.

In the Mater Dei v. Bishop Amat game, Mike Bayer (6'-6" Jr. F), Steve Scoggin (6'-2" So. G), Eric Soderberg (6'-7" Fr. F/C), Christian McGuigan (6'-2" So. G), and Derek Mansell (6'-2" Jr. G) all started again for Mater Dei and Scoggin was the leading scorer. The game was tied for much of the first half, MD pulled away in the third, BA came back in the fourth but couldn't close the gap.

Based on the results yesterday, some of the games have been determined for Wednesday and Thursday:

Wednesday, December 10:

Miller v. Loser of Ocean View-Santa Barbara, 4 pm
Long Beach Jordan v. Mater Dei, 7 pm
Pasadena v. Ocean View-Santa Barbara winner, 8:30 pm

Thursday:

Serra v. Loser of Perris-Fremont, 2:30 pm
Compton vs. Fremont-Perris winner, 8:30 p.m.

We'll try to keep posted on these games during the week.

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