SoCal High School & Prep Report

Reebok Vegas Holiday Prep Classic:
Fresno Washington Union Beats Simi--(December 23, 1997)

*Note: For an understanding of why we're uploading this article more than a week late, read our December 23 "Nike Prep Classic" article, and our December 28, 1997 "Titanic Returns" article. But as we say (and we're beginning to say it more often than we'd like) better late than never. This was originally written on Tuesday, December 23, about a game played Saturday December 20. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

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Even though this game took place last Saturday, and in the meantime, we've been stuck in the Pacific without even a working computer, we wanted to get this one written so you all will understand just how good this Washington Union team from Fresno really is.

How good?

So good that we're certain that you will see at least two, possibly three of their players in the NBA before too long. Chris Jeffries has already committed to Arkansas, and the Arkansas coaches were there at the game, making sure that nothing happened to their prize recruit.

Lute Olsen of the University of Arizona had been at the tournament earlier in the day, but we were told that he was looking for some big men (Richard Anderson of Long Beach Poly comes to mind), and some shooting guards. He was watching the Long Beach Poly v Clark County game, and it looked to us like he was seriously looking at Ricky Anderson and company, and possibly Wesley Stokes, although we're told that Stokes is not enough of an outside shooter to suit Lute's tastes in guards. And besides, Arizona is pretty stocked with guards, at least for the next couple of years.

But back to Washington Union v. Simi Valley. And a little background on Washington would be helpful, since even though our friends from SoCal have been reading about Simi, they probably don't know a whole lot about Fresno teams.

In their first game, Washington Union destroyed Woodinville High (from Washington) on Friday 44-77, and Fresno's Shamell Stallworth ( 6'-5" Jr. F) was the game's MVP with 26 points including four three pointers on 8 attempted. Chris Jeffries (6'-8" Sr. G/F/C) had 19 points while Deshawn Stevenson (6'-5" So. G) had 15 and Richard Millsap ( 6'-5" Sr. G) had 9; in their second game, played Saturday morning, Washington Union again destroyed an opponent, this time Saint Thomas from Houston, Texas, 83-52. In this second game, Jeffries was named the game MVP and he had 19 points again, while Stallworth had 28 points, including another 4 for 8 on three pointers. Millsap had 12, and Carvel Wafer (6'-5" Jr. F)--what a great name--had 6.

In Simi's first game on Saturday (they had a bye on Friday,and didn't play), they easily handled Manual from Denver 84-67, and Branduinn Fullove was named game MVP with 29 points. Raphael Berumen, Simi's big 6'-9" Jr. Center had 20, Ian Boys had 14, Kurt Mjoen had 11, and even little Brandon Foster, who rarely shoots the ball, had 5.

So this Simi v. Washington Union game looked like it was going to be a pretty good matchup between two pretty evenly talented teams, at least on paper.

And it was a good game. It just was not as evenly matched as might have been thought before it started.

The game did have everything you'd want: Loud fans, questionable and controversial calls from the refs going both ways, which made the fans even crazier, an all star cast of players, and some great basketball. And, it was the last game of the day, played in the Durango High School Main Gym. It was, next to the Mt. Zion game which preceded it, one of the most entertaining games of the tourney that we witnessed.

Washington Union started:

Deshawn Stevenson (6'-5" So. G)
Shammel Stallworth (6'-4" Jr. F)
Coupe Taylor (6'-0" Jr. G)
Richard Millsap (6'-5" Sr. G)
Chris Jeffries (6'-8" Sr. G/F/C)

Simi Valley started:

Raphael Berumen (6'9" Jr. C)
Kurt Mjoen (6'-4" Jr. F)
Bret Michel (6'-6" So. F)
Brandon Foster (5'-11" Jr. PG)
Branduinn Fullove (6'-4" So. G)

Simi is a very young and relatively inexperienced team compared to Washington Union, and the starters for both teams demonstrated the contrast markedly. Ruben and Branduinn were both sporting newly shaven heads, and at least for Raphael, the slick look it seemed to be working for him, at least during the first half of the game. Maybe it was the glare from their heads, but Raphael hit for 18 of his 25 points during the first half.

Berumen struck first scoring off a reverse layup with a little over a minute elapsed in the game, with 14:58 remaining in the first quarter. And Milsap quickly fouled Michel, and with only a few more seconds ticked off, it was 4-0 Simi, and it looked like Simi might just pull this game off.

But then Stallworth and Millsap went to work. Millsap, who only had 9 points in the game, did his damage early, hitting his first two pointer, and then with 12:55 left in the half, Stallworth hit what was the first of his six three pointers in the game. In fact Stallworth went 6 for 12 from three point range.

Stallworth's first three was followed by the first of many Simi turnovers-- 16 in all to WU's 6-- and a quick fast break by Deshawn Stevenson, who slammed it home for Washington, but who was then called for a technical for hanging on the rim, which made the very vocal and to some, crazy Fresno contingent, even crazier.

With 12:00 remaining, the score was 7-5 after Brett Michel made the T shot. But then Millsap hit again, this time for what must have been a 30' three pointer to make the score 10-5.

Millsap has one of the nicest strokes we've seen, perhaps only bettered by Stallworth's smooth j stroke. He was hitting everything in sight and went 4 for 7 from the field. He's not only smooth, he plays great defense as well, with one steal and 9 total rebounds.

The next time down the court, Simi stole the ball, and Fullove passed to Michel who took the pull up j for two to bring the score to 10-7. Stallworth struck again, this time for 2, and then he hit another for 3.

The first half of this game was basically a shooting contest between Raphael, who pounded in 18 points on various reverse layups,spin jumpers, and plain old pounding dunks, on the one hand, and Jeffiries, Stallworth and Millsap for Fresno. DeShawn Steveson did his fair share during the first half hitting for 8, including two threes, and other than Berumen, the only other player who kept Simi even close was Brett Michel, who was either scoring himself, or getting the ball in to Berumen for the assist. Michel himself had 8 rebounds, 13 points and 2 assists, while Branduinn Fullove collected most of his 3 assists in the first half, but was limited to 17 points in the entire game.

At the end of the first half (remember, this game was played in 16 minute halves and not quarters), Simi trailed 45-37, and they were only in it because of the fine play from both Berumen and Michel. Simi's little guard, Brandon Foster is a fine point, but he's a bit too small to really pass over some of the bigger players he was up against at this tournament, and he really never shot from the outside (at least not that we noticed.) He also doesn't like to penetrate against the larger players, unlike say a Russell Lakey, who will take it up against even the biggest inside guys. Eventually Dean Bradshaw must have noticed this too, because during the second half, Foster only played sporadically, and Simi had Sean Michel at the point for most of the second half.

Sean, Brett's younger brother, is a nice young player, but he wasn't much quicker or better from outside than was Foster: In fact, Foster didn't score at all, and Shaun Michel didn't either. If Shaun gets to be near the size of his brother, he may be able to be more effective at the point, as he has a nice handle and plays aggressive defense, but in this game, he kept picking up his dribble off the pressure trap defense, a terrible mistake to make against a team as quick and athletic as Washington Union.

The second half was a complete contrast to the first. If Simi was staying close, largely on Berumen and Michel in the first half, it seemed all that Simi had left in the second half was Brett Michel, and then only off and on, when he wasn't inexplicably sitting on the bench. Branduinn Fullove was strangely silent, and Ian Boys only had 6 points in the game

About Boys: Given the three times we've now seen him play this year, (first in the finals of the Simi Tournament against Chaminade Prep, in Simi's first game in Vegas, and in this game), it makes us wonder whether all the bad stuff that was written about Simi in the pre-season about Boys' being "recruited" was really all that important from a results point-of-view anyway. Sure, he's a big, strong, physical player, and he can shoot, and the CIF Southern Section has ruled that he was not illegally recruited, and we believe it. And maybe Boys will show us all later in the year why all the Marmonte League coaches were so upset about him going over to Simi in the first place, but so far, he's got a lot to prove. From what we've seen, he's just getting a whole lot accomplished: Maybe it's that he's still trying to find his place on this team, or maybe there's some personal stuff going on that's bothering him ( we hope not, but that may be a real factor---see the earlier reports on the circumstances of his transfer to Simi from Buena High), or maybe he was just not feeling well in the games we've seen. Boys only had 6 points in this game; he did have 14 in the game against Manual, and perhaps it's a bit tough to ask a player to get "up" for two games on the same day. All we know is that Boys just didn't look as sharp as we've heard he can be, or as he was last year.

Back to the game:

B. Michel opened the half with a three, to bring the score to 45-40, Simi trailing by 5. Deshawn then hit a leaner in the lane for two, to make it a seven point game. Brett then came right back with a layup. Stevenson countered again, with another leaning and twisting layup, and the score was 49-42.

Fullove hit for a three (the first of his 2 for 6 three point attempts) and the score was 49-45, the closest it ever got. Stallworth then reeled off 6 quick points, two threes, and it was suddenly a 10 point game, 55-45 Fresno.

Raphael Berumen came back with two of his 6 points in the half on a layup, but then struggled for the rest of the half, managing only two more shots, and he went out shortly after this last shot, visibly limping and complaining about his right ankle.

On the next possession down court, Stevenson was fouled and went to the line making both to bring the score to 57-47 with 11:55 left to play.

Ian Boys, then managed to score off Berumen's assist, and once again it was a 10 point game. The refs just had to get into the game, and on another controversial call, the refs called a jump ball which clearly wasn't a jump, but it didn't matter at all because on the next possession, Simi turned it over. The second half was also a contrast because it seemed that Berumen, who was everywhere for Simi in the first, was nowhere in the second, and with about 9:00 left in the game, he again went to the bench, holding the tape on his right ankle, and limping visibly for the second time. If Berumen was unstoppable in the first half, he was really nowehre to be seen in the second, hitting only three shots in the half, and considering that he went 12 for 18 overall from the field, that was a marked contrast to the first half. Actually, Berumen was officially listed as having played 29:47 of the total 32 minutes of the game, but it seemed like he was out for a whole lot longer in the second half.

Brett Michel was really the only player who kept Simi at all close, but in the second half Kurt Mjoen did his bit too, and he had two nice shots, including a three and a two back-to-back at about the midway point of the secdond half. But Simi never got closer than nine points, and between Millsap, Stevenson and Coupe Taylor, not to mention two thunderous dunks by Chris Jeffries, Simi was for all practical purposes defeated with four minutes left to play, and at that point, Simi's coach Dean Bradshaw had Brett Michel, Berumen and Brandon Foster all sitting on the bench. Sean Michel was, as we noted, doing a great job initially pushing the ball up the floor, but picked up his dribble far too often and far too soon, and kept getting trapped, forcing turnovers and bad passes.

And even though Branduinn Fullove had about 6 points in the second half, finishing with 17 in the game, some at critical points, his last touch on the ball, seemed to sum up Simi's feelings about the game:

He kicked the ball as time ran out. Not intentionally mind you, but he did kick it, and as he reached for it, both the ball and the clock slipped away.

And that was just about how it ended for Simi, as they lost 85-66.

For Fresno, Stallworth had 22, Millsap had 9, Stevenson had 21, Jeffries had 23, and Taylor had 8, while Carvell Wafer had 2.

For Simi, Berumen finished with 18 in the first half, and 7 in the second, for 25 points; B. Michel had 13, Fullove had 17, and Mjoen had 5, while Boys had 6.

We haven't said too much about Jeffries, up until now, but that's probably because there really aren't words to describe this guy's play. He's one of the most exciting players we've seen this year. We would rate him right in line with the entire Mt. Zion team, includng Corey Hightower and Travis Robinson, and even if he's not on the Championship team, we're pretty certain that he'll be a candidate for MVP, and certainly the All-Tourney team, along with Stallworth and Deshan Stevenson.

Jeffries was just so much more dominating than any of the Simi players, that it's hard to compare his game to theirs, and perhaps it's a bit unfair too, since most of the Simi big men are juniors or younger, and in a year or more, a player's game can improve dramatically. Certainly the Simi guys will only benefit from playing with a player of Jeffries' caliber. If you witnessed this game, you'd know why Arkansas wanted him, and why there are going to be few in the NCAA who will be able to effectively stop him. We're amazed that some of the local SoCal schools let him get away (UCLA and SC come to mind, and what about Ben Braun at Cal, a natural for a guy from Fresno. . . what's up with you guys?).

Jeffries is an amazing athlete, who plays as close to Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady did at this time one or two years ago as any athlete we saw at this tournament, including Mt. Zion's Corey Hightower. Jeffries has got great foot movement, is easy and relaxed on the court, in control of his game, and able to execute, drive and penetrate, seemingly at will. And he can also get up about 4' straight on his vertical, and had at least one impressive block in this game.

Simi is good, just not good enough this early in the year to run with Washington Union, at least not just yet. Give them a few more months, and maybe by the end of the season, they'll be ready to challenge for the CIF Southern Section I-AA title. We're not certain which Division Washington Union plays in (they're probably in either Division IV or V, with an enrollment of only 750) and if so, we're hard pressed to think of anyone who can beat them.

Anyway, more stuff on this tournament still to come. Stay tuned.

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