artesia v. Jordan

SoCal High School & Prep Report

MLK Challenge: Game 3--Artesia
vs. Long Beach Jordan--(January 19, 1998)

No more fooling around. First things first. Who won? Here's the score. Game three, Artesia 60 Long Beach Jordan 43.

Good, now that we've got that out of the way, here's what happened.

Artesia starts:

James Murdock ( 6'-1" Sr. G)
Willie Alford (5'-11" Sr. G)
Jason Kapono (6'-8" Jr. C)
Aaron Hamilton (6'-6" Jr. F)
Jamal O'Quinn (6'-7" Sr. F)

Long Beach Jordan starts:

David Word (5'-9" Jr. PG)
Mike Newton (6'-2" Sr. SG/SF)
Darren Peterson (6'-4" Jr. F)
Craig Calloway (6'-1" Jr. G/F)
Travon Bryant (6'-6" So. F/C)

These are two fairly big teams, but Artesia has the size advantage, but in the early going, J- Town has the scoring, on a three by O'Quinn, and then Kapono scores in the lane for Artesia. With 2 minutes gone, Calloway is just getting it done for Long Beach, and they are leading 9-2, a bit of a surprise with a team as talented as Artesia. But then Kapono goes to work, scoring in the lane on a fast break by Murdock. Travon Bryant is also managing to dominate inside, and Kapono is proving that he's a bit foul prone. Apolinar Fernandez manages to turn the ball over, and Jack Martinez (wearing the wrong number uniform--or the programs are wrong) is just getting killed down low, called for the foul when it should have clearly been a charge. With 3:02 left in the first quarter, it's a two point game, J-town ahead 11-9. Martinez misses wide, and David Word scores on the transition basket, and it's now a four point game, 13-9 LBJ. Fernandez then gets a charging call against him, and with two minutes left, it's still 9-13. Jordan manages to break Craig Calloway free, and he hits a lay-up in traffic, and now it's 15-9 J-town.

Artesia wisely calls a time-out with 1:37 to play, and Tray Bryant manages to pick up his first personal on Kapono who goes to the line, hits for two, and it's now 15-12 with the free-throw made. Darren Peterson is playing well, but pushing it from outside at the three, but not connecting. Murdock hits a three, and brings Artesia back (we must have missed a score somewhere) because at the end of the first quarter, it's Artesia by one 16-15.

Second quarter, and Murdock is controlling the fees to Kapono and Martinez, and he's being assisted by Andre Hazel at the other guard spot, with O'Quinn, who hits a big three and with some additional scoring from Kapono, Artesia is pulling away 21-15 with 6:28 to play. J calls a time-out, runs it to Word at the point looking for Calloway, who's fouled down low, goes to the line and Martinez picks up his second personal. Calloway misses the first, but makes the second, and brings it to within 5. Bryant is out now early in the second quarter, getting a blow, and Fernandez, who should be getting away with murder down low without Bryant, is getting drawn into fouling Calloway again. So with 5:55 to play, one of Artesia's big guys is in foul trouble. Calloway makes them both, and now it's a 3 point game 21-18 Artesia. . Bryant comes back in, and to take advantage of it, he commits a turnover. Murdock scores off an O'Quinn assist, and then on the other way down Aaron Hamilton, a very smooth, big man forces the jump on a Calloway shot. J misses again and on the ensuing possession Artesia misses down low, and Bryant just grabs the board, and . . .throws it about as hard as he can to . . . no one.

The track meet is on. With 3:53 to play in the quarter, it's 23-18 with Kapono at the line, he hits them both, and then Aaron Hamilton comes back with a driving, leaning lay-up to bring it to 27-18 Artesia, and this game is beginning to get away from Jordan. Word is still at the point, with Mike Newton at the other guard. Hamilton and Peterson are going at it down low, and the refs won't let Jordan bring the ball in until they knock it off. . Peterson rips the ball from little Young Im, who is in to give Alford a rest, and he scores. But Artesia comes right back and Hamilton scores. With 1:21 to play, it's now 29-20 and then Andre Hazel fouls Dennis Blackwell, who has come in off the bench. He makes the first, to Bring it back to an 8 point game, 29-21, and with Word tied up on the floor, Artesia calls a time-out again to regroup with 1:15 to play. They hit for three on a David Word three, then Artesia manages to eat up some valuable time, but J-town comes right back, and cuts it to four at the buzzer with Blackwell's putback on Word's missed shot.

Second half: Travon Bryant is back, and Artesia is just turning the ball over, with Alford making a wild pass and some interesting fouls. If Jordan is going to get back into this one, and they are only trailing by 4 30-26, they've got to take advantage of the fact that Artesia is stone cold, and just can't make a pass to save it's life. Kapono picks up his second personal on Bryant, who misses the first, then hits the second to make it a three point game. Alford takes a long three, misses and Kapono is fouled going to the hoop by David Word, his first personal. Kapono makes the first, to bring it to 31, 27, then misses the second, and Calloway pushes the ball to Peterson who takes a three, missing wide and on the ensuing rebound, Peterson picks up his fourth personal with only 5:48 to play in the third quarter. Alfred and Hazel are playing out at the guard spots and Bryant manages to block Martinez, but Hamilton hits from the left hand side on a pretty J for two, and with 5:11 to play, its 33-27. Kapono then picks up his third personal, and Mike Newton, a stocky, compact sort of player, only a bit bigger than Word, hits the first, then misses, but Word gets the ball, shoots an airball, and Artesia is on the move with Hazel and Alford working the back court and Martinez and Kapono working the forward spots with Hamilton at the post. But Martinez picks up his fourth, and suddenly the big guys from Artesia are playing with too many guys with too many fouls.

But Merino is keeping Martinez in, figuring that if he loses him he'll have Fernandez to go to. The track meet gets run, and LBJ now has Mantagi at the point, a fine passer, but Word can't connect, and on three successive alternating possession, both teams miss. With 2:50 to play, it's still 35-28.

Calloway tries to take Kapono from the back, fouling him, but the shot drops, and the free throw misses, so he brings the score to 37-28 with 1: 47 to play in the third. But then Calloway scores from the perimeter, which is answered by a pretty three by Hazel, and Calloway, then answers back with a two, and with 1:17 left, the score is now 40-32, and the LBJ fans are screaming for some help down low. What they need though is a pair of handcuffs on O'Quinn, who picks up his second personal NS only 44 seconds to play. and Calloway misses them both. Fernandez comes back in, and quickly uses his size to score inside, and Hamilton is now guarding the point, Mantagi, and his great pressure d causes a 5 second call. Murdock misses a shot which is blocked by Peterson, and the quarter ends with a 10 point Artesia lead, 42-32.

O'Quinn opens the fourth with a driving slashing lay-up, and he gets fouled but misses the free throw. But then Bryant, showing great form, hits two free throws, and brings it back to a 10 point game. Kapono circling and swinging the ball, and pounding it in to Fernandez, Artesia manages to score 6 more, and with 5:48, it's 48-36. Murdock then slashes into the lane with some nice English on the ball, and hits the two, then on the next possession pulls up for the J in the lane, to give Artesia a 52-36 lead with only 5:05 to play before LBJ calls a time-out. A 16 point lead is going to be awfully tough for these good J-town players to overcome, but they'll try, and young Travon Bryant, with Calloway and Mantagi at point and the shot score again, but Fernandez from O'Quinn manage to score, and then O'Quinn picks up a silly foul on Peterson, to send him to the line where he hits both shots, to bring it to 54-39. Mantagi is dazzling the crowd, with spins, behind the back passing, and quick moves, but he passes to Bryant who can't make the lay-up, but is fouled in the process. So with 3:45 to play, Bryant scores the free throws, but Murdock comes right back and hits the two to bring the score to 56-41. Kapono hits again, and Murdock makes the steal, and with 3:14 to play, the score moves to 58-41. LBJ brings in Deryon Dale a much too small player to be on Kapono. Interestingly, LBJ goes to a 2-3 zone, which prevents Artesia from getting inside, and the shot clock expires. Why they didn't try this more during the game is probably, along with Artesia's sheer athleticism, the key to the loss for Long Beach, and the win for Artesia.

In the last two minutes, Artesia goes with Young Im, Willie Alford at the guards, and Hazel, O'Quinn and Fernandez, while LBJ goes with Geovanny Aispuro, Dennis Blackwell, and Eric Gathrite at the guard spots, and Dale and Marshone Long. Actually Long Beach has in all guards at this point. With 1:28 to play, the score is 58 to 43, and then LBJ continues with the el-foldo, commiting a shooting foul on Martinez with only 30 seconds to play, and he makes them both, to bring the score to 60-43. Aispuro misses a lay-up, and Gene Wolff airballs the last shot at the buzzer, which sort of typified the game in this final quarter.

It was an entertaining game if nothing else, and gave Kapono, Fernandez, Murdock and company the chance to showcase their talents, and reminded us all that LBJ is a very young team which will only get better, and that Travon Bryant, who wears what looks like a size 20 shoe, will get better.

Craig Calloway had 20 and Kapono had 22, and both were named LA Times players of the game.

Next up Game 4: Compton v. University of San Diego High School Dons. Stay tuned. There's more.