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SoCal High School & Prep Report

MLK Challenge: Pat McKinney's Take On
USDHS v. Compton--(January 20, 1998)

We're again pleased to bring you another article from Pat McKinney, this one his perspective (a decidedly Uni perspective) on the Dons game against the Compton Tarbabes yesterday. This article can also be found at Pat's great USDHS Don's Basketball site, and we'd encourage you to visit there for more information on the Dons, their players, and San Diego Hoops news in general. A great site. And Pat also managed to get (or keep) better stats than anyone else we've seen for any of the games yesterday, including the "official" stats keepers. But, in an otherwise flawless event, the stats were the least important thing going on. Here's Pat's excellent article. Enjoy it. And if you were at the game, and you're a basketball fan, you'll appreciate it. You may not agree with everything in it, but you'll appreciate it.

Dons Fall to Compton
2nd Quarter Ruins Walton-less Uni

By Pat McKinney

Two of the state's top-ranked teams featuring some of Southern California's best players met this afternoon for what was, overall, an outstanding ballgame. In the end, the team that protected the ball better and more ably exploited the other team's weaknesses won. Who is the better team? I guess we'll never know since the Dons started this contest without their best player, Arizona bound Luke Walton. Coach Olsen was in attendance and there were more than a few disappointed faces when it was learned he wouldn't play. Luke will sit out this entire week as USDHS tries to maintain its drive for a state title.

Compton 64
USDHS 55
  1 2 3 4 Total
USDHS 24 2 19 10 55
Compton 19 19 12 14 64

Last Friday, Uni experienced an emotional win over St Augustine and were still riding that emotional high coming in to this game. The Dons went up 5-1 in the first minute and extended their lead to 11-1 with 4:44 left in the first. Compton would come back behind outstanding inside play from 6'9" David Hamilton and 6'4" Ray Ross. Compton easily exploited Uni for offensive rebounds and easy putbacks. The lead was cut to 16-10 with two minutes left and the first ended with Uni up 24-19. Each team turned the ball over twice and USDHS outshot Compton 69-44% behind 11 first quarter points from David Abramowitz.

It is difficult to guess what happened between quarters, but Compton came out fired up and the Dons looked listless. Compton took its first lead with 6:16 left at 25-24 and quickly capitalized on Uni's mistakes. Uni turned the ball over 11 times in the quarter, looked tentative on offense, and allowed DeAundre Moore to repeatedly steal the ball away. Compton won this quarter 19-2 and it would prove decisive. Without such a disastrous eight minutes, the outcome might have been a different story.

The closest the Dons would get was 5, beginning with a 44-39 score with 3 minutes left in the third. David Abramowitz heated up again in this period, finishing with a game high 23 points and 8 assists on the strength of a (tied) school record 7 three pointers. Ron McMillan finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, but Uni never got its shot blockers going.

As for Compton, they are a team that makes few mistakes (only 8 turnovers) and utilizes its big men to wear down the opposition. Hamilton finished with 20 points and 8 rebounds and Ross scored 10 to go with 11 boards and 5 steals. Tito Maddox added 12 and Reggie Howard 10. Compton never displayed the range we heard so much about, finishing 2 for 9 from behind the line, but they didn't really need to. Moore finished 3 of 11 from the floor, and 0 for 4 from three, but did pick up 6 assists and 6 steals to go with 5 boards; he is a tremendous defensive force. Hamilton threw down a couple of crushing dunks and it was over for Uni.

It was a good game, but I believe it would have been a whole lot better had either Walton been in the lineup or they held it together in the second quarter. But, of course, the two things are linked...

Martin Luther King Holiday Challenge
Compton 64, USDHS 55

USDHS (55)
Player Min FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA OR TR A S BS PF TO Pts
L Walton 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Abramowitz 32 7 15 7 12 2 2 1 2 8 1 0 3 6 23
McMillan 31 7 11 0 1 0 1 4 10 2 0 1 4 3 14
K Walton 27 1 4 0 0 1 2 2 5 1 0 0 2 2 3
Hulburt 13 2 5 0 0 2 2 0 1 1 0 0 3 2 6
Cong 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 4 0
C Walton 21 3 8 0 3 1 2 1 6 0 0 1 4 1 7
Green 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Quentin 5 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2
Novakovic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Trapp 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
                           
Total 160 21 45 7 16 6 9 8 26 16 2 2 19 18 55

USDHS Team Statistics: FG Pct: 47% 3Pt FG Pct: 44% FT Pct: 67%

Compton (64)
Player Min FGM FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA OR TR A S BS PF TO Pts
Moore 32 3 11 0 4 2 6 1 5 6 6 0 2 1 8
Maddox 32 5 11 1 1 1 3 1 2 2 2 0 3 1 12
Ross 26 4 8 0 0 2 5 7 11 5 2 2 4 1 10
Howard 32 4 8 1 4 1 3 1 3 0 0 0 1 4 10
Hamilton 29 8 10 0 0 4 7 5 8 2 2 1 1 0 20
Myles 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Anderson 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Riley 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
Legans 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cummings 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Thompson 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hosnedove 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Ringer 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
                           
Total 160 26 50 2 9 10 24 15 29 15 12 3 12 8 64

Compton Team Statistics: FG Pct: 52% 3Pt FG Pct: 22% FT Pct: 42%

 

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