Lompoc

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Game Report: Lompoc Beats
San Luis Obispo--(January 23, 1998)

Ok, so many of you would say Lompoc is really Central Coast, right? Well, in the real world it might be, but here, its in the Northern League of the CIF Southern Section Conference, and so is it's neighbor up the coast, San Luis Obispo. So we're here to tell you what happened in their game on Wednesday.

Lompoc High went on a 7-0 scoring run at the end of the game to beat San Luis Obispo 53-47 in a Northern League basketball game played this past Wednesday night at San Luis Obispo. The win moved Lompoc to 13-4 overall and 4-0 at the end of the first round of league play, and puts them in a great position to win their fourth straight league championship. With the loss, San Luis Obispo dropped to 3-1 in league and 11-6 overall on the season.

Lompoc controlled the first half, taking advantage of 15 of San Luis Obispo's turnovers and gradually building a nine-point advantage at 29-20 before Riley King scored a basket at the buzzer for the Tigers.

Lompoc rebuilt the lead to 10 points on two occasions in the third quarter before San Luis Obispo managed to mount a comeback. SLO then hit for eight straight points, six of them by Dan D'Entremont, and at the end of the third the score was 40-38, Lompoc ahead. San Luis Obispo could never catch Lompoc until Travis Burkett hit San Luis Obispo's only three-pointer of the game with 1:19 remaining, a 21-footer from the right corner of the key, off an assist from D'Entremont. The basket put SLO ahead for the first time in the game (at least since the very early stages) 47-46.

But then San Luis Obispo missed two shots and turned the ball over twice as Lompoc put together the game-ending 7-0 run. Shadeed Salim made a three-point play with 1:04 left, Roland Jones converted a steal into a fast-break slam dunk with 20 seconds remaining and Franke Albarron scored a layup with seven seconds to go to complete the scoring for Lompoc.

Lompoc was helped by grabbing 15 offensive rebounds, 19 steals, and by San Luis Obispo's 24 turnovers in the game. Doug Pazdan scored 11 points and Matt Williamson finished with 10 for SLO, and D'Entremont added eight points and four assists for San Luis. Forward Shadeed Salim, averaging just 8.8 points a game, had a great game, scoring 17 points and hitting seven of 14 floor shots for Lompoc, while center Matt Primous added a dozen points and nine rebounds. Jones, averaging 15.9 points a game, was held to just six, but stole the ball seven times to ignite several fast breaks. Lompoc won the rebounding war 37-34, but only made 36% of its shots from the floor, and still managed to turn the ball over 21 times.

Lompoc is extremely quick and SLO just had no way to counteract that speed. SLO also did a poor job of executing their offense and really needs to improve it's poise and decision making. And Lompoc made some very important adjustments at half-time to the pressure defense which SLO had tried during the first half, which led to some great scoring opportunities.

San Luis Obispo hosts Righetti today, Lompoc will play Santa Maria at home. Hopefully our "northern" correspondent will have a report for us later.