SoCal High School & Prep Report

Valencia Tournament Update:
San Fernando Advances--(December 19,1997)

The biggest surprise team this year has got to be the San Fernando Tigers. Nobody really knew standout transfer Devin Montgomery at the beginning of the year, and nobody picked them to do very much. They're now 10-0, and it doesn't look like anyone will challenge them for dominance, at least in LA City Section ball except perhaps Cleveland and Kent Dennis.

Yesterday, San Fernando again showed it's dominance by defeating host Valencia by 15 points in a semifinal game of the Valencia tourney, 73-58.

And this was also a coming out party for another San Fernando player who had struggled a bit, Luis De La Rosa, who finished yesterday with 20 points, including six three pointers. De La Rosa went 6 for 13 on his three point attempts. This was also a quality win against a good team; Valencia had been ranked by the LA Times (i.e., Eric Sondheimer) as the No. 7 ranked team in the Valley.

San Fernando ran a pressing and trapping defense for most of the first half, in which they took a narrow lead at the half, 29-25. But by the third quarter, San Fernando went on a 10-0 scoring run and turned that 4 point lead into the beginnings of a 15 point victory. Other scorers for San Fernando included the Atkins', B. & S., each with 4 points, Mike Page with 11, Devin Montgomery with 12 points, Reggie Kinlaw with 8, Tubbs with 2, and Tyrone Purnell 12 points.

Valencia, which struggled against the press, committed 31 turnovers, and now drops to 8-2 with the loss. Valencia only had two players in double figures, Leon with 10, and Matt Pawlak with 12.

San Fernando will play Compton Centennial in the Championship Game today.

In other Valencia Tournament games yesterday:

Compton Centennial 61, Birmingham 59.

Emmanuel Evans missed an eight foot basket attempt at the buzzer as Birmingham lost to Centennial, setting up the San Fernando-Compton Centennial Championship game. Compton led 55-47 with 5:40 remaining but Birminham closed it to within one point, 57-56 on Stanley Fletcher scoring. But Arturo Jones hit a three point basket to give Compton Centennial a 60-56 lead with just 2:00 remaining on the clock, and even though Birmingham challenged, they couldn't close the gap. This was an incredibly close game most of the way, and the scoring was virtually dead even through all four quarters: In both the third and fourth quarters, the teams had even scoring with 16 each in both quarters. Centennial was led by the scoring of Poole with 18, Jones with 16, Williams with 6, Boyd with 5, Sims with 6, and Douglas, Barber and Schenk each with 2. For Birmingham, Evans had 26 points, while Fletcher had a game high 27 points.

In the fifth-place Semifinal, Montclair Prep finally woke up, and destroyed Antelope Valley 46-71. Rocky Steryo finished with 39 points and a school record 11 three-point baskets in the win. Steryo, who also had held the schools three-point record with 8 last year against Oak Park, just smashed it yesterday, raising his season scoring average to 27.3 points per game. This year he has 40 three pointers in eight games so far and is well on his way to breaking his own single season three-point record of 116 set last season. Steryo also holds the Montclair Prep career three point record of 159 overall.

In the game, Montclair jumped out to an early first quarter lead, 16-9, and then extended that by outscoring AV 21-9 in the second quarter to bring the score to 27-18. They out-scored AV in each of the remaining two quarters, 12-9 in the third, and 22-19 in the fourth for the win. Others scoring for Montclair included Thompson with 14 points, Jed Hall with 2, Michah Cohen with 2, Carlease Clark with 7, Prince with 2, and Geoff Hull with 5 points. Montclair improved its record to 6-2 and will play in the fifth-place final agaisnt Crespi, which should be an interesting matchup.

In the other fifth place semi, Crespi finally pulled one out of the hat by defeating Ventura 67-50. Crespi was led by James Spratt with 12, Marcin Jagoda with 10, and Andy Owings had 4 points and 7 assists while Tibbets had 9, Moore 4, Jon Bird 8, Tim McDonough 4 and Cassella with 4. Crespi improved its record to 2-4, while Ventura, which has also been struggling this season, dropped to 1-5. Ventura did have some fine play from Ostir who finished with 23 points, and Staniland, who finished with 14 points.

In the Consolation round, Granada Hills lost to Calabasas 75-67, and Jason Miller had 22 points, wile Spencer Harriton had 18. Ghoreishi had 19 for Calabasas as well. In another Consolation semi, Santa Paula beat Ridgecrest Burroughs 69-40. Reaching down further into the tournament bracked, La Sall beat Hollywood 61-44 for the 13th place semifinal and will match up with Quartz Hill today in the 13th place game. Quartz Hill beat Littlerock in the other 13th place semi, 77-64.

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