upsets 205

SoCal High School & Prep Report

A Day of Upsets: Santa Margarita
& Compton Both Lose--(February 5, 1998)

Thumbing through the papers this morning, and also getting a call from one of our scouts who was at the Compton game, we learned some shocking news. There's probably not an undefeated team in high school basketball any longer in SoCal. If there is, we want to know about it. Last night, Santa Margarita, the only undefeated team that we know of, lost to Newport Harbor High, 50-47 at Newport Harbor when Gary Robinson hit a three-pointer with a minute remaining to put the Sailors ahead to stay. The Sailors are not ranked, and are now 15-8 overall and only 4-3 in league play, but they've managed to knock off three rated teams so far, Canyon, Ocean View and now Santa Margarita. Even with the loss, Santa Margarita is still impressive; they're just not undefeated any longer, but still boast a 21-1 record and remain in possession of first in Sea View League with a 6-1 record. Only one NH player had more than 10 points, Jameson with 12. Limon had 8, including two threes, Archbokd had 7 including a three and Robinson had 9 points including two threes. Illingworth had 4 points, Hearlson 6, and Nicasio 4. For Santa Margarita Roat had 4, Ryan Forehan-Kelly had only 5 points, including one three pointer, McKeever had a game high 17, Krameer had 6 and Palmer had 15.

Newport Harbor led at the end of the first half, 12-11, but then SM came back to lead at the half 30-27. The third quarter was dismal in scoring for both teams, as NH oustcored SM 7-5, and in the final quarter SM was outscored 16-12 for its first loss of the year.

Some even bigger news (at least bigger in the sense that it came as more of a shock to us here at SoCalHoops) was the surprising upset win of Long Beach Poly over Compton last night in Moore League competion. And this was not a close game at all. Poly, which usually plays a slow-down, half-court set offense, came out true to their name (Jackrabbits) and just ran Compton off the floor, winning by 17 points, 72-55 at Compton. The last time these two teams met, Poly lost by 26 points on Jan 14. Both teams are now tied for Moore League's first place with 6-1 records. According to our sources, Ricky Anderson just had one of the games of his life, banging it down in the paint for 27 points, and David Hamilton couldn't stop him after getting into foul trouble early in the game, picking up his third personal in the first half. And Wesley Stokes proved that he can do more than pass, as the 5'-8" sophomore point guard knocked down 18 points. Lute, are you listening?

Poly went on a 13-0 run in the second quarter and after that, Compton could never really recover. At the half, Compton trailed 43-23. But then in the third, Stokes and Anderson went to work again. Stokes hit a long j off the fast break, Mike McIntyre hit a three, then Stokes hit a three, and suddenly, Poly led big time again 45-30. Stokes had four steals and at least seven assists that our guy at the game counted.

Even though DeAndre Moore scored 17 points, he didn't play very well, and Hamilton, who also had 14, was never really a factor in the game either. We didn't get the rest of the scoring for Compton, but we understand that Tito did not have a good game either and Milton Riley struggled most of the game too.

So what's up now. Compton has lost the last two games, losing to Dominguez on Saturday, and then losing to rival Poly, and they appear on yet another post-defeat melt-down, sort of like what happened to them in Vegas in December where they lost two games and Hamilton seemed to struggle. This is a very good team, which just needs to refocus. Likewise, were not completely convinced that this is the real Poly. The games we've seen before this one have been pretty ugly, and they are usually a slow, methodical team using the half-court game and their shot blocking ability to slow the game. Poly is 19-6 and Compton is 20-5, and both teams will certainly go deep into the playoffs, but we're still predicting that Compton will go farther in the long run. Who knows though, we could be wrong. It's happened before.