Chaminade Hawaii Final

SoCal High School & Prep Report

St. Louis Hawaii Tourney: Chaminade
Beats Sonora--(January 1, 1998)

Jeff Berokoff v. Scott Long. Guess who won.

Well it must have been Chaminade. Because Jeff Berokoff wasn't there. He was with his family somewhere else and didn't play in this one.

But no matter. Coach Jeff Young's Chaminade High boys' basketball team said aloha, and adios, sayonara, shalom and bye-bye to La Habra Sonora Tuesday night.

Chaminade, a team which has been getting no respect here in California, traveled across the Pacific to find some. They got a measure of respect from La Habra Sonora, beating them 55-46 in an overtime victory in the championship game of the St. Louis Tournament.

And Scott Long (6'-5" Sr. SG/F), who's bound for Navy next year after signing a national letter of intent during the early fall signing period, was named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player. He scored 23 points and 11 rebounds for Chaminade, which is now 10-1 on the season, and which has only lost to Simi Valley in the Championship game of the Simi Valley Tournament in early December. Since then, Chaminade has been ranked by both the LA Times and the Daily News as the No. 2 team in the region, and also won it's own Chaminade Christmas Holiday Classic immediately before leaving for Hawaii, beating Rio Mesa 67-48.

That victory occurred on December 19, the day before we here at SoCalHoops left for our enforced vacation in Mexico, actually on a cruise ship without access to the 'net, and this is as good a time as any to catch up on that one too. In Chaminade's own tournament victory against Rio Mesa, the hot hand belonged to Justin Beach (6'-6" Sr. G), who scored 16 points, including seven in the third quarter, and shot 6 for 10 from the field. Scott Borchart (6'-7" Fr. C) had 11 points, Scott Long hit for 7, while Cayce Cook (5'-8" Jr. PG) had 8 points. Justin Stewart (6'-3" Sr. F) had 6. Near the end of the third quarter, Beach hit a three pointer and a transition layup to give Chaminade a 54-30 lead, and then the bench players came in to finish off the fourth quarter. They included Chris Canoles (6'-1" Jr. G) who scored 1, Mike Kokorowski (6'-2" Sr. F) with 2, Clarence Mitchell (6'-3" Jr. G) with 1, Ryan Cichon (6'-4" Sr. F) with 4, backup point Robbie Tanouye ( 5'-8" Jr. G) with 2, Big JJ Todd (6'-10" Jr. C) with 6, and Ray Rodriquez (6'-2" Sr. G) with 3.

In the Hawaii St. Louis Tournament Championship Game this past Tuesday, it was Chaminade's huge frontline, and the fine shooting of senior Scott Long which made all the difference. While Chaminade trailed Sonora most of the game, they were finally able to overtake the Sonora Raiders with great shooting at the free-throw line, hitting nine of twelve attemps in the overtime.

Long was fouled twice in overtime, and each time went to the line and made all four of his free throws in overtime; Robbie Tanouye was fouled three times, and hit four of six. While Chaminade trailed 28-18 at halftime and by eight, 36-28 after three quarters, they managed to close the gap with fine shooting from Robbie Tanouye, who replaced starting guard Cayce Cook, who fouled out with 5:30 to play in regulation. Tanouye came off the bench and finished with seven points, including a three-point shot which tied the score 44-44 with 1:30 remaining.

Chaminade, which has won seven consecutive games since losing to top-ranked Simi Valley in the Simi Valley Tournament, also got 10 points from Scott Borchart. The victory gave the Eagles their second tournament title in two weeks. Chaminade won its tournament last week.

In addition to Scott Long being chosen as the Tournament MVP, Justin Stewart was selected to the All-Tournament Team.

Marqui Worthy (6'-3" Jr. G/F) had 9 points for Sonora, while Curtis Levine (5"-10' So. PG) had 14, Matt Anderson (5'-10" Sr. G) 6, Deric Hilliard (6'-0" Sr. G) 6, Gabe Garcia (5'-9" Sr. G) had 5, Abreu (???--maybe a JV player) had 3 and Greg Vecchione (5'-9" Sr. G) had 3. Sonora dropped to 11-3 with the loss.

Congratulations to Jeff Young and all the Chaminade players, the 1997-98 St. Louis Hawaii Holiday Tournament Champions. And Congratulations to the Scott Long, Tournament MVP from SoCalHoops. Happy New Year guys.