vegas prep finals

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Las Vegas Prep Tourney: Day One:
Only So So for SoCal--(January 1, 1998)

So how did the SoCal teams perform in this tournament? Not very well, compared to the local talent from Vegas and Arizona. And as you'll find out from reading the subsequent articles, after two days, there weren't any SoCal teams left in the hunt for the Championship. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

This Tournament, which takes place immediately following the Reebok Holiday Prep Classic, and during the same time frame as the ARC-Slam-N-Jam Christmas Classic (involving the younger age group AAU traveling teams from 8-14 years of age), is definitely not a "top tier" event, and seems to be designed as more of a "rebound tourney" for the locals who've just been hammered by the out-of-towners in the Reebok tourney.

This one featured just the opposite of what occurred at the Reebok, where the finals involved two out of state teams (Mt. Zion against Rice). In fact, the finals of the Reebok tourney has not featured a local team since Clark from Las Vegas won it in 1989, and before that not since 1985 when Rancho won it. That's a pretty long dry spell, and in the intervening years since, the Reebok has been won by teams from SoCal a total of 5 times (twice by Westchester). In the same period, the finals has featured SoCal teams 9 times, and during that same time, the two Nevada teams who won were the only local teams to have even appeared in the finals.

The Vegas Prep Tournament, with an admittedly weaker field of out-of-state teams, (there were no teams of the caliber of, say, Mt. Zion) was geared for a hometown showcase. You know, get the local teams in a winning mood for the start of regular season play.

And that's exactly what happened this year.

Day One: Friday, December 26, 1997

The Las Vegas Prep Classic Tournament, at least in the first round, featured nine teams from SoCal, including Blair (Rio Hondo League), West Torrance, Gardena Serra, Corona, St. John Bosco, Duarte, Chadwick (from the Prep League, Southern Section which plays against teams such as Pasadena Poly, Flintridge Prep, and other small schools from the La Canada/Pasadena area), Irvine Woodbridge, Mira Costa (from the Ocean League, which is another small school league in the Southern Section featuring some pretty strong teams, including Centennial/Compton, El Segundo--which has the only female player on its roster in boys' varisty that we know of in Southern Section--, and Redondo Union, which is hosting the Seahawk Classic at the same time as this tourney), and Pacific Hills (from the Delphic League). None of these teams is really a powerhouse, and the only really good team among the bunch might just be Serra, although we really haven't heard or seen much from West Torrance or Bosco (except to note that Bosco got hammered about two weeks ago in the "super secret stealth Pooh Richardson Classic, but that's another story).

So how did the boys from SoCal do in Vegas?

Only so-so the first day. Only five of the nine from SoCal won the first day: Serra, Chadwick, Woodbridge, and Duarte.

Here are the scores:

Rancho 107, West Torrance 67
Serra 80, Cheyenne 77
Valley 82, Blair 36
Las Vegas 59, Corona 26
Clark 78, St. John Bosco 59

We were unable to get scores for the Chadwick, Woodbridge, Mira Costa, or Duarte games. But we know they won, because they played in the round of 16 on Saturday.

And here are some details:

Rancho from Vegas just blasted West Torrance (Calif.), 107-67. Rancho had little trouble with West Torrance, and the Rancho Rams, improved to 2-4 with the win, and scored at will against the SoCal team, racking up 59 first-half points for a 23-point lead at the break. Rancho's Cole had 18 points in the first half, then added 13 more before sitting down early as the victory was assured. Donte Turner scored 24 for Rancho, and Kevin Crockram had 10.

In one of the SoCal bright spots, Vegas' Cheyenne was defeated by Gardena Serra, 80-77. Serra's Davon Johnson (5'-10" Sr. PG) scored 27 for the Cavaliers, including 12 of Serras last 16 points. Cheyenne, which was 5-3 following the loss, twice got within two points in the final two minutes, but Serra hit six straight free throws to hang on.

Valley hit 13 of its first 15 shots and cruised past outmanned Blair, 82-36. Alex Hernandez of Valley had 21 points in the opening 12 minutes, finishing with 23, for the Vikings who improved to 9-0 with the win.

Host Las Vegas mauled Corona in the second half, outscoring them 59-26, for a 93-65 victory.

Kevin Gaines had 16 points and 11 rebounds as Clark beat St. John Bosco of Bellflower, 78-59.

Durango, which also played in the Reebok, beat Pacific Hills, California (a Division V school which plays in the Delphic League with teams such as Brentwood, Campbell Hall, and Crossroads, last year's California Division V State Champions), by a score of 81-70.

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There were four other teams from Central California (Modesto Christian, Mira Loma, Fair Oaks Del Campo, and Hogan) and they didn't do any better than their cohorts from SoCal. They went 2 for 4. Only Fair Oaks Del Campo and Modesto Christian won. And we weren't able to get their scores. So here are the reports of the losses:

Vance Lawhorn had 19 points and Jimmy White 15 as Western (6-5) downed Mira Loma, California (which is from the Sacramento area, and plays in the Capital Valley Conference of the SAC Division III Conference), by a score of 74-60.

Haven Tillmon scored 22 as Eldorado (1-4) won its first game, edging Hogan, California (which is actually a San Joaquin Valley team, playing in the Monticello Empire League of the San Joaquin Section of the CIF) by a score of 67-59.

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And in the non-California team games:

Las Vegas Cowboys 72, Marina (Ariz.) 57.
Cimarron-Memorial 63, Shadow Mountain (Ariz.) 77

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So, it was not a particularly good day for any of the California teams, and they went 7 for 13 collectively, and the SoCal teams managed 5 of 9. And according to the Las Vegas Sun Review "the locals won 10 of their 13 first games". We're not sure how they computed the math, but if it's accurate, it's not too shabby.