dream classic carson beats centennial

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Pangos Dream Classic Photos:
Carson Beats Centennial In Double OT--(Jan. 5, 2003)

	What:	9th Annual Dream Classic
	When:	January 4, 2002
	Where:	UCLA Pauley Pavilion
	Who:	Loyola vs. Mayfair
		Centennial vs. Carson
		Mater Dei vs. St. Vincent-St. Mary
		Lincoln vs. Vallejo

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So a few more pictures ought to be worth a whole lot. We thought it would be nice to bring you some photos (see below). And while there's plenty of stuff to write about and we were just being incredibly lazy by not rushing to our keyboard and spending all night spewing out line after line of praise for all of the top players who participated yesterday, we're working on that end of things... In the meantime, some pictures are in order.....All of these (unless noted otherwise) are from Larry M. Gray, a truly extraordinary sports photographer, who also knows a thing or two about hoops, having run the UltraStudentAthletes (USA) basketball youth team program for years here in SoCal.

Larry has been kind enough over the years to have been an integral part of SoCalHoops during our early years, and he's helped us cover some of the bigger (and lesser) high school and recruiting events all over Los Angeles. He's been responsible for quite a bit of our local coverage of players in the Los Angeles Metro area over the years, particularly schools like Inglewood, Fairfax, Westchester, and others where many of his club and youth team players have attended. And yesterday, as always, while we were parked at a table in front of a computer and left to fool around with our little toy digital cameras, there was Larry sitting baseline with his high-powered professional equipment doing what he does best, capturing split-second action for posterity and producing some of the best photos you'll see anywhere. Period. Seriously, while this sounds like just another shameless promo plug among a series of shameless promo plugs (hey, what's one more shameless promo in the grand scheme of things which was the Dream Classic?), we mean this sincerely: Larry is one of the top photographers in Southern California, and he's a great guy who is truly interested in helping kids, not only athletically, but also academically, and he's put his money where his mouth is for years, running SAT clinics and workshops and requiring all of his club players to focus on academics. If you're interested in finding out more about what Larry does and how he does it, you can see other examples of his work displayed in our archives, as well as at his own site, TopShots Photography (topshots.net). If you're interested in contacting Larry and engaging him to do some work, or just want to talk hoops with him, he can be reached toll free at (877) 697-6612 or locally at (310) 216-0545, or you can e-mail him at elgee@topshots.net.

Ok, enough of the shameless advertising. Here are the Carson vs. Compton Centennial photos Larry sent us, along with some brief comments about some of the players. Enjoy.... More to follow, including a number of LeBron James and Mater Dei, as well as Telfair & Co.

Carson 86, Compton Centennial 79 (2OT)


While his team didn't win, No. 4 Arron Afflalo (6'-5" Jr. G/F) finished with a game-high 43 points for Compton Centennial, and he demonstrated why many believe he is among the top 5 juniors nationally, and likely the top junior on the West Coast. He had 8 boards (officially, but we counted 11), shot 15-30 from the field, 5-8 from from three point range, and had four assists and 2 steals. About the only flaw we noticed in his game is that he needs to work on his left hand, but geez, he's only a junior.....


Afflalo lays it in over Carson's Brian Harvey (6'-5" So. F) for two.	Compton Centennial's Arron Afflalo drives to the basket past Michael Johnson (6'-3" Jr. G) from Carson	Maryland-signee, Ikene Ebekwe (No. 25) finished with a team-high 27 points.

Compton's Christopher Berry (6'-6" Jr. F) goes up for the rebound against Carson's Michael Johnson. Berry fouled out in overtime.	Donte Strong (6'-2" Sr. G) from Centennial is hoping to lead the Apaches back to the Division III finals this year.	Ekene Ibekwe broke the game open with a three-point play in the second overtime to give Carson the lead for good.

No. 23 Brian Harvey (6'-5" So. F) elevates on the shot for Carson	Ikene Ebekwe (25) and Brian Harvey (23) surround a Centennial player	No. 3 Michael Gordon (5'-8" So. PG) proved he could push the ball and hit the open three-pointer

No. 15 Michel Johnson (6'-3" Jr. G) looks for the outlet.		Carson's No. 11, Marquis Washington (5'-1" Jr. G) tries to stop Afflalo from getting three.....He didn't, and Afflalo hit this one and 4 more in the game.