sb finals

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Santa Barbara Tournament: Dos Pueblos Wins One of
Three Titles--(January 2, 1998)

So there was no "final four" in the Santa Barbara Tournament. Nope. CIF Rule Section 1605.2 did away with that concept. Only four games to a customer in a 16 team tourney. A final four would have meant that some of the teams would have played 5 games, and the CIF wouldn't permit that. So the tourney had three "Championship" games, or so-called "hardware" rounds, because the winners all got a piece of a trophy for winning.

Well, Shantay Legans did it again, and Dos Pueblos got it's share of the metal (and the medal too) by breaking open a game that had been lingering at tied or almost tied, at 39-38 with a 21-6 run, to eventually pull away from Desert Mountain of Arizona and win 82-74. Dos Pueblos was undefeated in the tournament, going 4-0.

But the Chargers almost blew it yet again in the fourth quarter as Desert Mountain took advantage of missed free throws (0-for-7 to start the quarter) and a couple of lucky bounces, hitting two absolutely no-arc line-drive 3's which both skidded off the front of the rim, hit the backboard and then bounced in, and again brought the game to within three points, 75-72 with only 45 seconds left to play. But DP was also lucky and Alex Jenkins who had missed a bunch of free throws up to this point, miraculously regained his shooting touch when it counted, and hit four straight free throws in the final minute to give DP a little cushion.

"I thought we were going to put it on them the way we did last night (in a 88-54 win over El Modena),'' DP coach Phil Sherman told the News-Press. "But we missed those free throws and they hit a couple of those 3-pointers. Then we made a couple of mistakes and some guys kind of put their heads down. You can't do that. You just can't put your head down. You have to keep coming at them."

We also heard from Shantay on this one too. Here's what he had to say:

We won but once again tried to choke it in the fourth. Even though I had 25 points, 6 steals, 8 assists and 4 rebounds I didn't play all that good. My free throws were off and that messed with my head. Desert Mountain was the best team we played in the tournament - good execution, size and smarts. The News Press has me at 8 rebounds - WRONG. I did get MVP so that was cool. Moorpark has a good team and Channel Islands is QUICK - they beat Burbank-Burroughs easily.

Evidently, the missed free throws really messed with his head, because for some reason which is unclear to us, the stats show him as being assessed a technical. But that didn't stop Shantay, and DP's third quarter was an example of how explosive the team is. Legans, who scored 90 points for the tournament, was firing no-look passes, driving the lane for spectacular J's and layins - basically it was "showtime", and he was putting on an exhibition of the moves and skills which have made him not only an attraction for the fans, but a required look for recruiters. "He does some amazing things,'' said Sherman. David Sears also contributed to the third quarter run with two 3-pointers and Tafari Pipersburg showed off some of his athleticsm with a running steal in which he tipped the ball artfully to a streaking Jeremy Archuleta for a basket. And Dan Hoefer had another solid game with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Desert Mountain, from Scottsdale, Arizona, was led by all-tournament selection Doug Horrocas with 33 points. He had three of Desert's seven 3-pointers.

Here are the stats:

Desert Mountain: Christianson 6, Hoffman 5, Hardy 9, Horrocas 33, Dearbaugh 6, McLaughlin 11, Cassman 4. Total 74.

Dos Pueblos: Legans 25, Pipersburg 6, Sears 11, Archuleta 2, Holbrook 1, Jenkins 12, Hoefer 20, O'Neal 5. Total 82. 3-point goals-DM 7 (Horrocas 3, Christianson 2, Hoffman 1, Hardy 1), DP 2 (Sears 2). Fouled out-McLaughlin. Technical foul-Legans.

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In the second "Championship" Game, played immediately following the Dos Pueblos-Desert Mountain game, Moorpark beat San Marcos 52-50. San Marcos closed the first half with an 8-1 run to take a 27-22 lead. But Moorpark, 12-3, opened the second half with a a 9-0 run and San Marcos spent the rest of the game trying to catch up.

The Royals, 9-2, finally got even with 10.7 seconds left when Brook Billings scored on a layup on an assist from Sonny Oden. Donahue then went the length of the court, spining and driving at the top of the key to find an open lane to the hoop "Our plan was for me to take it downcourt and look for the shot,'' said Donahue, who finished with nine points. "It opened up and I went for it." San Marcos then inbounded the ball, heaved a desperation shot of 50 feet, which missed.

San Marcos coach Chris Hantgin was disappointed by the loss but also encouraged that his team had never given up Even though San Marcos trailed by five for most of the second half, they managed to close within two in the final two minutes on free throws by Art Gutierrez and Adam Nance. " We kept our heads in the game the whole time,'' said Hantgin. "When things didn't go our way, we didn't get down. To me, that says these guys believe in each other. And they kept working to get back into it. W almost pulled off the win."

Maybe next time these two teams meet, they will.

For San Marcos, Billings had 14 points and Nance had 10. Jordan McOwen had eight points, seven rebounds and three assists. San Marcos' poor shooting from both the 3-point line (2-11) and free throw line (4-10), was what ultimately cost them the game.

The stats:

Moorpark: Tomlinson 14, Willis 2, Corkery 4, Donahue 9, Lawrence 15, Burnett 8. Total 52.

San Marcos: Moharram 6, Gutierrez 6, Arndt 4, Billings 14, Oden 2, McOwen 8, Nance 10. Total 50.

3-point goals-M 1 (Donahue), SM 2 (Billings, Nance). Fouled out-none.

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And in the final "Championship" game, a team which was 2-1 going into the game, the hosts, ended up finally winning as Santa Barbara beat Cabrillo 59-50. The Dons, 7-5, led comfortably for most of the game - 28-18 at halftime and 43-29 after three quarters - but needed to fight off a late rally by Cabrillo. A fastbreak dunk by Travis James cut the lead to 54-50 with 1:01 to play, but Santa Barbara responded with two free throws by Kelley with 50 seconds to play and Craig Christ added a free throw and a putback in the closing seconds to secure the win. Christ, Santa Barbara's All-Tournament selection, finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The stats:

Cabrillo: Savella 7, Davis 7, I. Richardson 11, Leininger 5, James 8, Belton 3, Richardson 9. Total 50

Santa Barbara: Maloney 2, Worzella 11, Burke 6, Freeman 6, Christ 16, Kelley 18, Allen 0, Williams 0, Nagelmann 0, Cordero-Rabe 0. Total 59

3-point goals-SB (Christ 2, Worzella 1, Burke 1). Fouled out-Burke, Freeman, Williams, James, Richardson.

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And in the "other" games played Tuesday:

Bishop Diego won with an 82-73 triple overtime win over St. Joseph, Righetti defeated Thousand Oaks 60-56 and Channel Islands beat Burroughs of Burbank 67-56 to improve to 10-1.

Here are the details of the Bishop Diego game:

Bishop Diego 82, St. Joseph 73: The Cardinals quietly concluded one of the better performances in the tournament with their second straight overtime victory, this one in triple OT. "What I really liked was our mental toughness these last two games,'' said Bishop coach John Ward. "We really showed growth in that area." Bishop, 3-1 in the tournament and 9-3 overall, trailed 53-51 with time running out in regulation. But Marcus Madrigal drained a 15-footer with four seconds to play earn the tie and sophomore Jaime Sanchez scored 11 of his 14 points in overtime to earn the win. "Jaime has great quickness and hew was able to beat them on the drive,'' said Ward.

Bishop, coming off a championship in the Carpinteria tournament, also beat large schools Righetti and Santa Monica in the tournament. Even though this was the "ninth place game" that was really a fiction, and there was no "ninth place", any more than there was really a "third" or a "first" place, since the tournament format was altered after Monday's games to accomodate the Channel League's three teams. "We were glad to play St. Joseph,'' said Ward, noting that Knights have notched wins over Dos Pueblos and Santa Clara this season. "They're a good team."

Joe Lammers led the Cardinals with 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting and Christian Rovsek, named to the all-tournament team, added 18. Madrigal had six assists.

St. Joseph was led by all-tournament selection Mike Draper with 18 points.

St. Joseph: Cova 15, Williams 2, Hoover 5, Hoffman 16, Krause 13, Draper 18, Merlo 2. Total 73.

Bishop Diego: Madrigal 6, Ortiz 11, Burich 11, Lammers 20, Sanchez 14, Adcock 6, Rovsek 18. Total 82.

3-point goals: SJ 7 (Draper 4, Cova 3), BD 3 (Lammers 2, Ortiz).
Fouled out-none.

So, a team which is 3-1 in the tournament is the "ninth place" team, and host Santa Barbara, which was also 3-1, and which lost pretty badly to Burroughs, ends up in a "championship" game. And we thought that happened only in the Orange County and LA tourneys.

Congratulations to all of the Champions, and in this case we mean all of the teams who participated, and to Shantay Legans, Tournament MVP and to his Dos Pueblos team, clearly the best team in this event. Happy New Year from SoCalHoops.