city226.htm

SoCal High School & Prep Report

City Section Playoffs: Division 4-A
And 3-A Quarterfinal Games--(February 26, 1998)

We looked around for details of most of the City Section games, and while we've got all the scores, some of our friends and scouts didn't come through, and we don't have any idea what really happened at either the Fairfax/Fremont game which was won by Fremont, or the Manual Arts v. Washington game which was won by Manual. So the semifinal games are now set, and Manual will play Fremont, while Crenshaw will match up against Westchester. We know which game we're going to go see.

In 3-A Division play, San Fernando got shocked by upstart San Pedro in an overtime game, Sylmar defeated Poly, Birmingham beat Bell, and Hami lost to Uni. Here are the reports.

4-A Division

Manual Arts 68, Washington 46

Ricky Duff scored 18 points to lead the Toilers, who went on a 15-2 run in the third quarter in the 4-A quarterfinal at Manual Arts.

Crenshaw 109, Los Angeles 89

Crenshaw beat L.A., 109-89, and advanced to the semifinals against rival Westchester on Friday in a matchup of the top two City teams. So this should be the final, right? Well, it should, but it won't be and only one of these teams will go on to become the City 4-A Champion this year. We've already featured Jason Day's eyewitness report of this game, but here's a brief recap:

Shock was what could be the word to best describe the reaction of most of the stunned home crowd in the storied Crenshaw gym with all its banners, as Los Angeles immediately broke out to a lead in the first half which got as high as 17 points just before halftime. It was truly amazing, and no one, perhaps not even the LA Romans, expected to do that well. Deon "Popeye" Green and Leroy Dawson were on fire, with Dawson scoring 15 of his 26 points in the first half. In contrast Crenshaw was just awful in the first half, with more than 19 misses and 17 turnovers. Crenshaw trailed, 46-34, at halftime, and Los Angeles built its lead to 16 midway through the third quarter. But LA continued with only a seven-player rotation, and Corey Miller, was in foul trouble most of the game, and LA eventually just got exhausted. The LA Romans thus concluded their season at 17-6, while Crenshaw, at 23-3 on the year will face Westchester in the semis. In contrast, as Gilbert Arenas noted following the Grant game, "Crenshaw's got the deepest bench I've seen. They've got 17 players, and they all play the same, dribble the same, and shoot the same." And that means that effectively Crenshaw never gets tired. They were able to substitute freely, and keep a completely fresh rotation. Anthony Garrison had a huge game, in addition to being a huge guy, and he led all scorers with 36 points Dante Barrett scored 23, and Brandon Hawkins had 15. Barrett had a combination of a steal, a layup and a draw of the foul on the shot, with the made free-throw, which finally brought Crenshaw back into the game and tied it with only 50 seconds to play in the third quarter. Garrison then gave Crenshaw its first lead since early in the first quarter, by scoring a putback off a missed free-throw by Barrett to give Crenshaw the lead at 71-70 at the end of the third. Crenshaw never looked back, and LA just, as Jason says in his report, ran out of gas, completing a 37 point swing from winning by 17 to losing by 20.

Fremont 81, Fairfax 72

Senior center Ronnell Mingo scored 37 points and had 15 rebounds for the Pathfinders in a 4-A quarterfinal at Fremont. We were unable to get further details by tonight, but we'll try to have more later.

Westchester 61, Palisades 55

David Bluthenthal scored 17 points as top-seeded Westchester took a 12-point halftime lead en route to the 4-A quarterfinal victory. Again, we don't have any further details. We'll try to get more before Friday's games.

3-A Division

Birmingham 53, Bell 50

The start of the game being delayed 35 minutes because the Bell team bus was stuck in traffic. If they'd thought about it, they would have stayed out on the freeway, hoping to have the game rescheduled to derail the freight train that goes by the name of Birmingham, which just ran over the Bell boys when they finally showed up at Birmingham for the game. Emmanuel Evans scored nine points in the final five minutes to help the Braves to the 3-A quarterfinal victory. As a standout running back for Birmingham Evans is used to running over or through opponents. And that's exactly what he did against Bell. Evans scored nine points in the final five minutes to help the Braves flatten Bell, 53-50, in a City Section 3-A Division quarterfinal game at Birmingham. Evans was the only consistent scoring threat for either team, and he scored seven of the Braves' final nine points, including a baseline jumper with 1:31 left that put Birmingham up, 53-48. Evans, a senior, finished with 18 points for fourth-seeded Birmingham (17-9), which tried to let Bell (16-10) back into the game by missing five free throws and committing a five-second violation in the final minute. But Bell couldn't solve the Birmingham defense, squandering three possessions in the final minute and having to force a three-point shot from the baseline by Mario Perez with five seconds left. The shot rimmed out, as did Bell's chances of repeating as 3-A champion.

San Pedro 87, San Fernando 86 (OT)

Allen Kordich got incredibly lucky or San Pedro was the beneficiary of a terrible call by a ref at the end of the game, as the San Pedro High senior guard was trying for a desperation basket that would allow the Pirates to upset top-seeded San Fernando with only seconds to play. The shot was blocked by Tyrone Purnell, but the ref (probably our friend Steven Q?) called a foul on Purnell, sending Kordich to the line where he promptly sank both free throws with only a second on the clock, sending the game into overtime.

Trailing, 65-58, early in the fourth quarter, San Fernando had turned to backup Reggie Kinlaw. The junior forward scored seven points in a two-minute stretch to help tie the score, 67-67. His play kept Mike Page on the bench, and Page had scored all 13 of his points in the first half and missed his last six shots, so Mick Cady, the San Fernando coach pulled him in favor of Kinlaw. San Fernando had a 77-73 lead before Kordich hit a 28-footer with 28 seconds left. Montgomery made one of two free throws, but Rashaud Armstrong followed in Kordich's miss with nine seconds left to force overtime.

Ultimately the Pirates won, 87-86, but that really doesn't tell nearly the whole story, as the ninth seed beat the No. 1 seed. San Fernando had a record of 23-2 going into this game and was variously ranked as either the No. 2 or No. 3 team in the region by both the Times and the Daily News. San Pedro left the San Fernando gym the proud owners of a 9-18 record for the season. They've lost twice as many games as they've won. On paper they really shouldn't even still be here. But it just goes to show that records don't necessarily mean anything. Especially when their real record should be 14-13; they had to forfeit five victories because they had used an ineligible player. So maybe they weren't so bad after all.

After Atkins made one of two free throws with nine seconds left to give San Fernando an 86-85 lead, it was no surprise the Pirates turned to Kordich, who had 30 points. San Fernando still had a chance, with one second left, but the long inbounds pass was intercepted by Oscar Abrons and the game ended. "[We're] just devastated," guard Devin Montgomery told the Times. Montgomery was playing with a back injury, but still managed to keep San Fernando together in the overtime. He scored six of his 24 points in the overtime period. The Tigers were playing without sixth-man Bryson Atkins, who was out with a knee injury. San Fernando could have used him as Sean Atkins picked up three fouls in the first half, then his fourth six seconds into the third quarter. San Pedro shot 19 for 22 s in the second and third quarters.

Sylmar 72, Poly 61

George Wrightster scored 23 points and had 13 rebounds to lead the Spartans over the Parrotts in a 3-A quarterfinal.

Wrighster (6'-3" Jr. PF) who weighs 200-pounds, also plays football. He was a transfer student from Buckley this past season, and many thought he would be an instant star at the smaller Division V-AA school. And he probably would have had he stayed. He apparently transferred to Sylmar for reasons known only to him and his family, but the word on the street was that he wanted to continue to play during the season with his pals from the ARC summer league team, most of whom went to Sylmar. He's struggled some this season, and has not gotten the kind of attention he might have had he truly been the single dominating force on a smaller division school. Among lots of "big" players, 6'-3" sometimes isn't so big, and Wrighster's stats demonstrated that this season he was only playing about average ball.

Well, in a game that really counted, and when it counted most, Wrighster proved all his critics wrong and he stepped up big time, scoring 23 points and pulling down 13 rebounds to help Sylmar beat cross-east end San Fernando Valley rivals the Poly Parrots, 72-61. Sylmar, at 17-9, will move into the semifinals on Friday against University. "He's physically scary," Poly Coach Jay Werner told the Times of Wrighster. Poly, which finishes its season at 11-15, and which lost to Sylmar twice in East Valley League play, opened a 12-point lead in the second quarter thanks to patience on offense and 15 Sylmar turnovers, but even that was not enough for Poly to pull off the win. Ellis Richardson, led Poly with 15 points, and he hurt the Spartans with baskets off precision passes by his teammates. But when he started trying to do too much himself, the Parrots' lead quickly disappeared. Their advantage was down to 34-32 at halftime. Sylmar began to pull away by controlling the boards with Wrighster, 6-6 Jeremiah Turner and 6-3 Dedrick Washington. Poly got as close as 47-46 with 7:31 left on a three-point shot by John Gillard. Then Wrighster took over. He scored three straight baskets on power moves to initiate a 12-0 Sylmar run that left the Parrots wondering about Wrighster's true age and perhaps whether he was some sort of genetic wonder. Sylmar has been able to make a late-season run at the 3-A title not only because of Wrighster's development, but with the return of Jeremiah Turner, who missed 17 games with a broken right hand. The Spartans are 6-0 since Turner's return. He scored 13 points Wednesday, but he hasn't fully regained the playing form that made him one of the region's best underclassmen before the season.

University 63, Hamilton 61

Chris Ferguson made three three-point shots in the fourth quarter to lead the Warriors in a 3-A quarterfinal at Hamilton. We already featured a report on this game last night. Here's the link.