II-A 221

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Southern Section Playoffs: All The Division
II-A Scores & Highlights--(February 21, 1998)

What is it about Whittier and the Riverside desert communities? Don't they like to have their highlights and scores reported? If anyone knows about any of the missing game highlights, please write to us with the info. It's getting next to impossible to get the word out on what's happening in the Riverside area unless you've got a subscription to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, or can find some way to get the Palm Springs Desert Sun. Lacking that, we'll just keep saying "we could only get a linescore" or "we don't have details on this one." And once again, we've delayed putting this up as long as we possibly could so that we'd have most, if not all of the scores and as many highlights as we could locate from both the newspapers and our many friends who report in the details.

So here's what happened last night in II-A Southern Section Playoff action. The #'s refer only to a teams seeding within it's own Regional Bracket within the Division. the No. 1 Seed is Dominguez; No. 2 Redondo Union ; No. 3. Cathedral City; and No. 4 Paso Robles, and all of the top seeds won their games, every single one of them. Here's a look, region by region, at each game in order according to the bracketing:

Division II-A

Region I

Game 1: #1 Dominguez 114, #8 Los Altos 41

Senior guard Mike Carson came off the bench to sink 6 of 7 shots from the field, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range, on his way to a team-high 17 points as the balanced Dons routed the visiting Conquerors in a first-round matchup. Senior forward Tayshaun Prince (seven rebounds, two blocks) and freshman center Tyson Chandler (eight rebounds, four blocks) both added 14 points for top-seeded Dominguez (21-4), which led 80-27 after three quarters and rested its starters in the final period. Keith Kincade added 11 points, six rebounds and two blocks for the Dons, who'll clash with Whittier (18-4) in the second round.

Game 2: #4 Whittier 66, #5 La Habra 44

Once again, no details were available. Whittier advances to play Dominguez in the second round on Tuesday.

Game 3: #3 Servite 57, #6 El Modena 50

Steve Shea scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds and Rafael Zielonka scored 16 points and had 11 rebounds to lead Servite (21-6), which outscored El Modena 33-26 in the second half. Servite will play Sonora in the second round. El Modena closes its season at 12-14 overall.

Game 4: #2 Sonora 66, #7 El Monte Mountain View 36

Jeffrey Berokoff scored 31 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Matt Anderson had 10 points for Sonora (23-4). Mountain view closes out it's season with an overall losing record of 11-14. Sonora will play Servite in the second round on Tuesday. The home site will be determined by a coin flip.

Region II

Game 1: # 1 Redondo Union 89, #8 Savanna 50

Unbelivably, for No. 1 Seed Redondo, neither the Times, Long Beach P-T, Orange County Register, or any other paper (perhaps besides the Evening Outlook, which was sold out), covered this game. We put out a distress signal to our friends at Redondo for a report, and Joe Cascio came through. Here's his report:

I will send you the detailed box score tomorrow, but basically they were out manned. Andrew Zahn(So. C) had 27 points and 10+ rebounds, Tyler Hoffman(Sr. SG) had 25 points on 3 or 4 3-pointers, and Marcus Moore(Jr PG) had 8 assists in limited minutes. We jumped out 11-2 and 25-7 and took a 19 pt lead into halftime. Their biggest player was 6'-5" or so, and he spent a lot of time on the perimeter. Our bench played the last 7 minutes. For Savanna #20 (I'll get you his name) had 35 points, but 17 of them were in the garbage time of the 4th quarter. He played at least 30 minutes, maybe all 32. We won our coin flip this morning, so we will be hosting Bishop Amat Tuesday at 7:30.

Thanks again Joe for the info. We'll keep our attention focused on Redondo as they head for the showdown with Dominguez in the Semi-finals of this Division.

Game 2: # 4 Bishop Amat 79, # 5 Temescal Canyon 62

We were unable to get any details of this game.

Game 3: # 3 Moorpark 57, #6 Culver City 47

Keith Donahue and Kevin Lawrence each scored 18 points, and host Moorpark (22-6) set a school record for victories in a season. Byron Burnett had nine points and 13 rebounds for Moorpark, which won 21 games in 1982. Culver City finishes the year at 12-13.

Game 4: # 2 Pacifica 77, #7 Valencia 59

Adam Rachlin scored 14 points and Bryan Wislocki added 11 for Pacifica. The Mariners (23-4) led, 37-22, at halftime. Dalen DeMary scored 18 points to lead Valencia (11-16). Pacifica will Moorpark in the second round.

Region III

Game 1: # 1 Cathedral City 82, #8 Ridgecrest Burroughs 52

After traveling all that way from the high desert, Ridgecrest was just unable to compete effectively against the No. 1 seeded team in the Regional Bracket, and ends it's season at 17-10, while Cathedral City, now 23-4 overall advances to the second round to play Elsinore. We are awaiting the game details and when we get them we'll post them up.

Game 2: #4 Elsinore 69, #5 Palm Desert 67 (OT)

We were unable to get the game details, but expect them soon.

Game 3: #3 Muir 94, #6 Charter Oak 67

Muir dominated withy a suffocating defense to poiund the visiting Charter Oak Chargers, which ends the season with a 15-12 record overall. Muir, which improved to 21-6 controlled the game from the beginning, building a 19-point lead at the end of the first quarter. Center John Parker and point guard Jeff Washington led the Mustangs' with 24 and 18 points respectively. Charter Oak never got any closer than 14 points the rest of the way. The Mustangs were able to adjust well to CO's man-to-man defense throughout the first half, counterning by getting the ball inside to Parker in the post, and he had 12 points in the first half. When the Chargers fel back to a 2-3 zone, Muir's outside shooting then paid off.

Game 4: #2 Perris 88, #7 Serrano 52

Serrano ends it's season at 14-13 overall while Perris improves to 21-9, and advances to the second round and will play #3 seed Muir. Again, the results and details from this region were sparse and we're still waiting for the highlights and details.

Region IV

Game 1: # 1 Paso Robles 72, # 8 Bonita 45

Paso Robles High has had a week to enjoy its undefeated regular season. Last night they went back to work, proving that, as the only undefeated team in the playoffs, they deserve the number 4 seeding overall in the Division by beating up on Bonita 72-45. Paso Robles, now at 24-0, advances while Bonita finishes out the season at 12-15. Paso Robles is in the playoffs for the eighth straight season, but has gone 4-7 in the postseason the last seven years, including 0-2 the last two years. Going into the game, Ray Robins was averaging 19.9 points for Paso Robles, while Jason Botts was at 14.7, Ben Garcia 11.7 and Jeremiah Malzhan 10.2.Robins sprained an ankle Feb. 6 against St. Joseph, then sat out one game and a week's worth of practices. He returned Feb. 13, scoring nine points against Atascadero. Paso Robles is 5-13 in the playoffs under Larson, having never before made it past the second round.

Game 2: #4 Burroughs 68, #5 Temple City 63

After Josh Johnson of Temple City scored 18 of his 28 points and made six three-point baskets in the first quarter, Burroughs Coach Art Sullivan assigned Glenn Adriatico to guard Johnson. Adriatico came through by holding Johnson scoreless in the second quarter, and the host Indians (18-9) used a 33-12 run to take a 43-32 halftime lead. Kevin Crose and Jeremy Cartee each had 19 points and seven rebounds for Burroughs, and Adriatico had 10 points and five assists.

Game 3: #3 Dos Pueblos 86, #6 Agoura 54

You just knew we'd hear from Shantay Legans on this one, so before we get to the more mundane stuff, here's his take on the game:

"The team played great tonite and we spanked that a--. Agoura's big men did well in the 1st quarter and then our big men Alex Jenkins and Dan Hoefer shut them down and I hit a monster 3 pointer at the 1st quarter buzzer and we never looked back. It was 43-22 at half time. Alex had game high 22 points and blocked shots everywhere and I had 16 points, 9 assists. Our whole team scored except for 1 guy and the bench played the last 5 minutes of the game. I'm looking forward to Tuesday and Newbury Park - if we play like we played tonite it's gonna be a great game!

RAISE THE ROOF!!!!

Legans

Dos Pueblos High got to dust off its fast break, which had been dormant since late in the preseason; the Chargers broke out to a quick early lead and first-year coach Phil Sherman made a fast exit to avoid an unwanted dip in the pool after an 86-54 CIF Division 2A basketball blowout of Agoura. Senior forward Alex Jenkins scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the first half, when DP built a 43-22 advantage. Point guard ShanTay Legans added 16 points and nine assists as the Channel League champions ended a two-game losing streak and improved to 22-4. Dos Pueblos will meet Newbury Park, a 75-58 winner over Atascadero, in a second-round game on Tuesday, at Newbury Park. The site was determined by a coin flip, and Newbury Park won the toss. DP beat Newbury Park handily when the teams met in the Thousand Oaks Tournament. But that was a while ago, and NP has been coming on ever since. On Friday night, Marcus Helfman, a 6-6 senior, topped Agoura (13-12) with 16 points.

Agoura, which uses the same nickname (Chargers) as Dos Pueblos, was the No. 6 seed from the Marmonte League. In addition to his 22 points, Jenkins grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked five shots. Center Dan Hoefer had eight points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. The hometown Chargers used a 14-3 run to end the first quarter and start the second that extended the lead to 26-14. Legans, a quick 5-foot-9 junior, assisted on two baskets - a 3-pointer by Jeremy Archuleta and a layup by Hoefer - before capping off the first quarter with a 3-point buzzer-beater from 26 feet. After Zack Bruce hit a 15-foot jumper, Legans capped the run with a nifty spin move and layup. Thanks to a full-court press that kept the tempo high, Dos Pueblos continued to force turnovers and extend the lead. The high point of the first half came when Legans hit Jenkins with a behind-the-back pass and the latter tossed in a difficult 8-foot runner under pressure for a 37-19 lead. Jenkins hit 8-of-9 from the floor. Thirteen of the 14 Dos Pueblos players got into the scorebook. Senior guard David Sears added 10 points while Bruce had eight rebounds and Jeff Dachenhaus contributed seven boards. One of the biggest cheers of the night came when Bruce fed Kapena O'Neal for a slam dunk that made the scored 72-40 with 4:45 to play. In addition to Legans' buzzer-beater at the end of the opening quarter, Hoefer converted a layup that beat the horn at the end of the half and, just for good measure, Bruce threw a length-of-the-court pass on the game's final play to Tony Hickman, who tossed in a 3-pointer as the final horn sounded.

For Agoura, the scoring was done by Patterson with 11, Lepisto 5, Meyer 10, Helfman 16, Dianella 5, Saunders 3, Lewensohn 3, and Kohan 1. For DP, the scoring tally looked like Ryan Holbrook with 3, Jenkins 22, Hoefer 8, Legans 16, Sears 10, Ray 2, Archuleta 3, Dachenhaus 2, B. Holbrook 3, Bruce 2, O'Neal 8, Yamada 2, and Hickman with 5.

Game 4: #2 Newbury Park 75, #7 Atascadero 58

Despite sputtering on offense and struggling from the free-throw line, Newbury Park High did its job defensively in a 75-58 victory over Atascadero in a first-round Southern Section Division II-A boys' basketball playoff game Friday night at Newbury Park. The victory was the 14th in a row for Newbury Park (24-4), but it was not one of the Panthers' more impressive performances. They were 25 of 58 from the field and 20 of 37 from the free-throw line. Newbury Park was tied, 14-14, after one quarter against an Atascadero team that lost its final four games of the regular season to finish fifth in the six-team Los Padres League.

The Greyhounds (11-13) trailed, 12-2, with 4:39 left in the first quarter after missing five of six shots and getting called for traveling twice. But they closed the quarter with a 12-2 run of their own and trailed, 21-17, with 5:22 left in the second quarter. Newbury Park scored the next 13 points, however, to take a 34-17 lead with 1:42 remaining in the quarter. Robert Congelliere started the run with a reverse layup and Mike Meru ended it with two free throws. Meru, who scored 11 points, and Daniel Bobik, who had 18, each hit a three-pointer during the run in which the Panthers hit three of five shots and five of eight free throws. After leading, 38-22, at halftime, Newbury Park scored the first two baskets of the second half on two-handed dunks by Bobik. The first came off a lob from his junior brother Brian and the second followed a steal. Ignited by those two plays, the Panthers went on an 18-4 run to take a 56-26 lead with 1:07 left in the third quarter. Their advantage grew to 70-37 midway through the fourth quarter despite the fact that Daniel Bobik, Meru and Congelliere didn't play in the quarter. Daniel Bobik was grateful to sit out the fourth quarter after missing practice on Wednesday and Thursday with what he described as a really bad cold. Aaron Bobik, the freshman brother of Daniel and Brian, even saw some playing time after being called up from the junior varsity team for the playoffs.