beach ball classic

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Beach Ball Classic: Brick
Oettinger's TSN Take--(January 1, 1998)

For the past 17 years, Brick Oettinger of The Sporting News has attended the prestigious Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C., which takes place from just after Christmas, and which this year ran from December 26-30. This is a tournament which, although Oettinger thinks its "a bit down this year talent-wise (compared with most years), remains among the nation's premier" winter tournaments.

The Beach Ball Classic this year is a 16 team tournament, divided into two separate eight-team tournaments called the Beach Ball Tournament and the South Carolina Tournament.

Play began on December 26 with four games in the South Carolina Tournament. That first day the well-coached Galena High team from Reno Nevada, coached by Tom Maurer whom we met at the Reebok Las Vegas Prep Classic a couple of weeks ago (has it been that long?) beat toppled Charlotte (N.C.) East Mecklenburg 55-52.

Also that day, Sumter (S.C.) High beat host Myrtle Beach (S.C.) High 62-42; Hopkins (S.C.) Lower Richland beat Aiken (S.C.) South Aiken 72-57; and St. Albans (W.Va.) High beat Shelbyville (Ky.) Shelby County 79-63. If you want the details of these games, be sure to check out Oettinger's article at The Sporting News' Online site. Oh, and by the way, be sure to subscribe to his e-mail article notification when you're there. It's a great way to get just the stuff you want, without having to actually go searching The Sporting News' site.

Oettinger related that Galena had an impressive "three-pronged attack", consisting of Matt Siebrandt (6-7 Sr. C)-- who has signed a national letter of intent with UNLV signee, and who had 13 points, and four blocked shots--Brian Vaka (6'-2" G/SF)--who had 14 points, six rebounds, and three assists--and left-handed Lance Buoncristiani (5'-8" Jr. G)-- who scored 11 points, three three-pointers, and three assists. We agree with his assessment, and Galena was one of the better teams we saw in Vegas, and they just surprised a lot of people, including Rangeview, which they beat in the first round 90-64, Little Rock, Ark's Central High who they beat by the narrowest of margins 56-54 in the second game, and losing only to Pleasure Ridge--an excellent team of great athletes, 57-72. They also beat Long Beach Poly, another one of the better SoCal teams that played in Vegas, by a score of 62-59 n a game which saw Richard Anderson of Poly score 26 points. Galena then beat another hometown SoCal favorite, the Compton Tarbabes, 63-61. In the latter game, David Hamilton was benched for disciplinary reasons, and did not play, and Compton could only muster double figures from two players, including Tito Maddox with 24 and 13 by Deandre Moore; the next highest scorer had only 6 for Compton. Finally, Galena then beat Long Branch (the team that defeated Harvard-Westlake in the first round of the Championship bracket--a game that H-W should have won), by a score of 69-65.

Yes, we agree with Oettinger, and in virtually all of the games in Vegas, this same trio were the leading scorers, the leading defenders, and the heart and soul of the Galena team, which is also one of the best-disciplined, best-coached teams we've seen this year.

The second day of the Beach Ball Classic, play featured a South Carolina Tournament consolation game between East Mecklenburg and Shelby County. Again, if you want the details of this game, or Oettinger's impressions of the players, read the The Sporting News' Online article.

The next game on the second day that Oettinger viewed was between Galena and St. Alban's. Oettinger relates that "in the final second of regulation play, 5'-10" St. Albans sophomore Dusty Herscher (who hadn't scored in the game) literally threw in a highly contested corner three-pointer, sending the game into overtime, but this was the Red Dragons' last gasp. Nelson finally ran out of gas with 33 points (13-28 field goals), three assists and five turnovers, so the overtime was all Galena, who wound up the victors by an 80-71 score."

Other second day games at the Beach Ball Classic included the first two in the "Beach Ball Tournament", including one between USDHS' Dons, led by Luke Walton, David Abramowitz and Ron McMillan. Here's Oettinger's take on this game:

"The final game of December 27 at the Beach Ball Classic wound up being the second overtime game of the day, as San Diego (Cal.) University High outlasted Erie (Pa.) Cathedral Prep by a 61-58 score. The game's key player was University High's 6-8 combo forward Luke Walton, Hall of Famer Bill Walton's son, who is a national top 100 caliber senior and future Arizona Wildcat.

"Luke played despite a badly sprained ankle that he injured a few days ago in the loaded City of Palms Classic at Fort Myers, Fla. He not only played, but he wound up with 22 points (including his team's final 10 of the game), five steals, five rebounds and three assists. He's a very polished and skilled performer, and when his ankle is healthy, he's also an athletic player. He should fit in well with Lute Olson's well-organized program.

"Others who played well for University High were unsigned 6-5 small forward Ron McMillan (12 points and eight rebounds); San Diego State recruit Dave Abramowitz (10 points, four assists and four steals), a 6-0 point guard who like dad Dan (an ex-NFL receiver) is also an excellent gridder; and 6-8 sophomore power forward Kam Walton (12 points, six rebounds), who is Bill's nephew and the son of former NFL offensive lineman Bruce Walton.

"Cathedral Prep (played a very intelligent game and nearly pulled off the upset. Leading the way were sharpshooting 5-10 senior point guard Jim Gemler (23 points including seven three-point field goals), 6-2 senior southpaw wing guard Julian Blanks (16 points and three assists), and solid 6-0 junior wing Adam Straub, who connected on all six of his field goal attempts, scored 14 points, and added four steals. None is a high Division I prospect, but they each get the
most out of their abilities."

Oettinger did not follow the rest of the Beach Ball Classic in his TSN article, but his next installment will probably feature the concluding day of play from Myrtle Beach and the first day's play at the Raleigh, North Carolina Glaxo Wellcome Holiday Invitational. As soon as that one is out, we'll relate significant events as they pertain to some of the teams you've become familiar with this season, as well as any details important to SoCal basketball in general (notice we didn't call it SoCalHoops).