IIA225.

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Southern Section Playoffs: Division II-A
Second Round--(February 25, 1998)

Our favorite Division. We've got details from all of the games and the scores too. There were really no shockers here, but some very tight games. Dominguez, as expected, handled Whittier to set up the quarterfinal game with Sonora and Jeffrey Berokoff on Friday. In Region II, Pacifica will match up against Redondo Union and Andrew Zahn; in Region III, Cathedral City beat Elsinore, and Muir beat Perris to set up that quarterfinal matchup; and in Region IV, Dos Pueblos beat Newbury Park and will matchup against Burbank Burroughs which surprisingly defeated No. 1 regional seed and No. 4 overall seed Paso Robles.

Region I

Game 1: Dominguez 82, Whittier 54

The Dons eventually woke up from their poor first-half performance to limit the Cardinals to just fur ponts in the third quarter on their way to a second round win played at Whittier College. Dominguez, which is now 22-4 overall, turned the ball over 11 times and only led 35-33 at the half, received a big boost defensively after the half from freshman Keilon Fortune, who had four of the Don's 13 steals in the second half. Five players scored in double figures for Dominguez, led by senior Tayshaun Prince, who had 8 rebounds and three steals to go with his 14 points; Junior Keith Kincade also had 14; Fresham center Tyson Chandler, the 7'-0" wonderkind had 12 points and three blocked shots, while senior fords Walter Small and James Boulton had 12 and 11 points respective. Dominguez will matchup against Sonora on Friday in the quarterfinal round.

Game 2: Sonora 61, Servite 47

Ah, what sweet revenge for Greg Vecchione. The Sonora point guard attended Servite as a freshman, things didn't work out, so he transferred. Tuesday, things worked out better than Vecchione could have dreamed as the Raiders defeated the Friars, 61-47, in a Division II-A boys' basketball playoff game in front of approximately 2,000 at Cypress College. Vecchione made all seven shots he attempted from the field, including three three-pointers, and his 18 points led the way for the Raiders. The Raiders (24-4) will play the Compton Dominguez onFriday. Servite finishes the year at 21-7. It was obvious Servite was tight. The Friars had five turnovers in the first quarter, 13 by the half and 20 in all. And Sonora's quickness negated Servite's height advantage by clogging the passing lanes and shutting off the Friars' inside attack of Steve Shea (five points) and Rafael Zielonka (11). The Raiders limited the Friars to 37 shots and they made only 43%. The Raiders were 22 of 43. Sonora's Jeff Berokoff had 14 points and Marqui Worthy scored 13. Matt Anderson had 7 points and contributed a couple of key baskets late in the game. Even with the nervous start, Servite only trailed 17-13 after one quarter. But Sonora expanded it to 31-23 by halftime, and never let the Friars get any closer than four in the second half.

Region II

Game 1: Pacifica 69, Moorpark 67

Adam Rachlin's basket with seven seconds remaining lifted Pacifica (24-4). Moorpark's Keith Donahue drove the length of the court for Moorpark and was fouled with one second remaining. Donohue then missed two free throws with one second left and the Musketeers finished the season 22-7. Kevin Lawrence scored 32 points for Moorpark. Jason Simpson scored 15 points for Pacifica, which will play the Redondo Beach Redondo Union, a 74-59 winner over La Puente Bishop Amat. Shawn Corkery, who led all scorers with 32 points, grabbed the rebound, but missed the tip-in. Moorpark filed a protest because a technical foul was not called on the Pacifica coach for walking onto the court.

Game 2: Redondo Union 74, Bishop Amat 59

We posted this one up last night. Here's the link.

Region III

Game 1: Cathedral City 79, Elsinore 66

Received this word from one of our friends (who simply signs e-mail "ACuTie4u21"):

I was at the game on Tuesday in Elsinore.. and I just thought I'd let everyone know that Cathedral City won a VERY PHYSICAL game on Tuesday night. Between the BAD referee calls and the abusiveness of the Elsinore team, this game was very well deserved win on the part of Cat. City. A lot of our players came back battered and bruised, but they're getting past that and preping to play Pasadena Muir on Friday night at 7:30 at Palm Desert High School. Anyway, here's what the Desert Sun had to say about Tuesday nights game between the Cathedral City Lions and the Elsinore Tigers:

LIONS CONTINUE TO CLAW

Tough game: Elsinore gets physical in attempt to get past Cathedral City. It doesn't work.

Lake Elsinore - The Cathedral City boys basketball team clawed its way up another rung of the CIF-Southern Section playoff ladder Tuesday with a 79-66 win over Elsinore.

"Clawed" was definitely the operative verb as the Lions survived their most physical game of the season in the second round of the Division II-A playoffs. "I've got four bruises," senior point guard Marquise Strange said after the game in which he scored half his 14 points on free throws. "This game was a lot tougher than last year's second tound, but it doesn't get any easier from here."

Senior center Nathan Davenport got physical himself in the second half, racking up three fouls to go with his eight points as the game grew more intense. "(Jamier Spell) was going through the screens," Davenport said. "Every time I set a screen he'd come through with an elbow. ' I said forget that, I play football too.' "

Lions coach Rob Hanmer knew the Tigers would play with a lot of contact after watching video of them punching their way past Palm Desert in the first round last week in a 69-67 overtime win. In addition to having several football players on their team, the Tigers also had five seniors fighting for just one more game in their high school careers. "We ended their season," Hanmer said. "When you get a kid up against the ropes, he's going to come out swinging, and he did."

Although the lead the Lions held throughout the game was only tenuous at best given Elsinore's ability to light it up from the outside, the Tigers seemed to have an attitude of "If you can't beat them, cripple them," sending the Lions to the free throw line 31 times in the game. Cathedral City made 11 out of 16 foul shots in the first half, and 13 of 15 in the second half. Elsinore made 8 of 14 free throws in the first half and 7 of 13 in the second half.

But it was the Lions' defense that kept Elsinore at bay, even as they bounced gracelessly on the floor with every foul. The Lions out-rebounded their hosts 43-27 in the game. "We knew coming into this game that's what we had to do," Davenport said. "We just had to get around them and get a butt on them." The Lions took a 9-2 lead in the first two minutes and never relinquished it, but it was a lead they knew might disappear at any time. The Tigers whittled away the 37-28 halftime deficit early in the third period, slicing it to 45-40 with seven quick points from Josh Mativah and a three-pointer from Spell before Josh Haltman, Caleb Gervin, and Marquise Strange combined for eight quick points to pull away. But the Tigers, not to be outdone, scratched back with 7 points from Tom Ellis and a free throw from Bobby Russo to end the third period trailing 53-48. Ellis finished the game with a team high 24 points.

But Cathedral City pulled away in the fourth quarter on the strength of its freethrow shooting and two tres from Gervin, who finished the game with 33 points to become the fourth leading scorer in CIF Southern Section History. Elsinore answered with tightly-controlled desperation shots, sinking 4 three pointers, but only 4 of 9 freethrows. Cathedral City (24-4) will continue in its quest for back-to-back Southern Section titles Friday against Pasadena Muir.

Cathedral City - 21 16 16 26
Elsinore - 14 14 20 18
Cathedral City - Alvarez 4, Strange 14, Copper 2, Gervin 33, Davenport 8, Patrick 4, Haltman 11, Marcos 4

Elsinore - Bagwell 2, Russo 4, Ellis 24, Boggs 14, Spell 7, Mativah 15

Three-pointers: CC - Strange 1, Gervin 2. E - Ellis 4, Boggs 2, Spell 2

Game 2: Muir 67, Perris 64

Muir pulled off a hard-fought upset of Perris on Tuesday night, to advance to the quarterfinals; Muir will match up against Cathedral City on Friday at an alternate site to be determined. Muir started only three juniors and a sophomore agaisnt a Perris team with an all senior lineup. Two of Perris' players have D-I committments (Damon Jackson is one, guess who the other is), and two more have offers pending (guess again). For Perris, Darrelle Rowe scored nine of his teams 15 points in the fourth quarter for Perris. John Parker made two clutch free throws for Muir with only 19 seconds to play for the win. The Mustangs had two fouls to give and used them to take the clock down to five seconds when a three pont shot missed as time expired. Muir, the Pacific League champions and 22-6 overall, tried to beat the Panthers by extending to a 24-9 lead in the first quarter. But Perris kept coming back and eventually tied the game at 35-35 at the half. Junior Jeff Washington led the Mustangs' first-quarter run with 11 points, finishing off his scoring with a spectacular reverse layup and a pair of shots from the charity stripe. Senior point guard Joe Bakhoum helped out with three assists and a steal. The second quarter was just the reverse as the Panthers started running their great trapping defense, and it worked as Perris outscored Muir 26-11 just before the half, to tie the game at the half. The Mustangs then wnet on a 12-2 run at the start of the third period but Perris again fought back and trailed by just three, 52-48 at the end of the third. In the fourth quarter Perris actually outscored Muir 16-15, but the margin was too great.

Region IV

Game 1: Burbank Burroughs 63, Paso Robles 59

Jeremy Cartee scored 20 points and Kevin Krose added 16 and the Indians upset the fourth-seeded Bearcats in a second-round game at Burroughs. Preston Tucker added 14 points and 16 rebounds for Burroughs, the third-place finisher in the Foothill League. Burroughs (19-9) will play Dos Pueblos in a quarterfinal Friday.

Game 2: Dos Pueblos 48, Newbury Park 47

Here's Shantay's take on the game:

It was a very low scoring game but pretty exciting. Dan Bobik is really their whole team - Dave Sears, Ryan Holbrook and Uthman Ray held him to 28 points. I didn't have a real good game but I'm moving better and feeling good. Feeling REAL good tonite for sure! It was an embarrassing 23-18 at half time with us leading. Everybody on our team struggled shooting tonite and NP was tight. We led at every quarter and then NP decided to get serious and went up by 4 in the 4th and stayed that way until I was fouled on a shot and made 2 FT and then stole the ball from Brian Bobik and made 2 more FT and tied it up. Then we fouled somebody who only made 1 of 2 FT with 10 seconds left I drove the court and dished it to Uthman Ray who buried the jumper - up 1 with 2 seconds left and then the refs put on 2 more seconds. Inbound and Dan Bobik got it and shot it and missed! DP wins a biggie!! RAISE THE ROOF!!!! I had 20 points and 4 steals and they had kind of a weird defense it was a double and even a triple on me sometimes. We gotta play better in the next one. We play Burbank Burroughs Friday. I don't know where yet.

Legans

Now here's the standard fare on this one:

For most of the game, Daniel Bobik of Newbury Park High might have been perhaps the most dominant player on the court. But nobody stepped it up more than Dos Pueblos point guard Shantay Legans, who had 20 points, four assists and five steals in the Chargers' come-from-behind 48-47 victory before a capacity crowd. Even though the Newbury Park Team and coaches had made up their minds that there was no way ShanTay Legans was going to beat Newbury Park with a final shot, that's not exactly what happened though. While Legans drove the ball up court with 10 seconds to play and his Chargers trailing 47-46, he was jammed, and couldn't shoot. Instead, a double-teammed Legans found a wide open Uthman Ray and it was Ray who turned out to be the hero. He hit a short-range shot with two seconds remaining to give the Channel League champions a 48-47 victory in a second-round CIF Division 2-A playoff game. The Chargers, 24-4, will play Burroughs of Burbank Friday in a quarterfinals at a neutral site in the Santa Barbara area.

Newbury Park's Bobik, a 6'-6" senior who's headed to BYU, scored a game-high 28 points. Legans, who led DP with 20 points, hit two free throws with 40 seconds left and then stole the ball from Brian Bobik and scored to tie the game at 46 with 32 seconds to play. Then came Sherman's decision. Legans fouled center Mike Meru, who hadn't taken a free throw all night. Meru missed his first attempt but made the second, giving the Panthers a 47-46 lead with 10 seconds to play. Legans took the ball, drove the length of the court and fed Ray for the
game-winning shot. Dos Pueblos led throughout until the Panthers (24-5) tied the score at 33 on Nick Czernek's layup. From there, the momentum seemed to swing Newbury Park's way. Meru completed a 3-point play with 2:43 to play, giving the Panthers a 43-39 lead. David Sears of the Chargers would connect on 3-of-4 foul shots in the next two minutes, slicing the deficit to one, 43-42, with just under two minutes left. Then Daniel Bobik went to work. He hit one of two free throws to make it 44-42, and sank a fallaway shot with 46 seconds remaining for a four-point advantage. But Legans made the clutch plays to bring the Chargers back.

The victory was Dos Pueblos' second of the season over Marmonte League champion Newbury Park (24-5) and snapped the Panthers' 14-game winning streak. It also ended the high school career of the Brigham Young-bound Bobik. Newbury Park limited Channel League champion Dos Pueblos (24-4) to 14 of 50 shooting from the field, including five of 20 in the second half, but the Panthers struggled to a 16 of 47 effort. They also made only 13 of 26 free throws. The game was very physical, and Newbury Park trailed for all of the second and third quarters. The Panthers took a 36-35 lead when Daniel Bobik hit one of two free throws with 4:40 left in the game. The lead changed hands two more times before Daniel Bobik hit a 17-foot jumper to give Newbury Park a 40-37 lead with 3:03 remaining. Alex Jenkins of Dos Pueblos scored inside to cut the Panthers' lead to 40-39 before Meru's three-point play gave Newbury Park a 43-39 lead with 2:43 to go. Meru scored six points for Newbury Park and reserve Nick Czernek had five. Jenkins had eight for Dos Pueblos, which had defeated Newbury Park, 90-75, in a Thousand Oaks tournament game in December. Newbury Park trailed, 23-18, at halftime after making eight of 25 shots from the field and only one of six free throws. Daniel Bobik had 13 points on six of 11 shooting, but the rest of the Panthers were only two of 14.

The final scoring for Dos Pueblos was Legans 20, Sears 6, R. Holbrook 3, Jenkins 8, Hoefer 2, Rays 2, Dachenhaus 2, Bruce 0, O'neal 5. For Newbury Park, Brian Bobik had 1, Daniel Bobik 28, Staine 0, Congelliere 4, Meru 6, Block 0, Czernek 5, Polen 3, Turner 0. Interestingly, Dos Pueblos was 0 for 6 on it's three pointers and Newbury Park wasn't much better at 2-11