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SoCalHoops Showcase News

LB Poly-adidas Double Pump Hoop
Challenge Recap--(Jan. 21, 2000)

Well, a week is long enough to wait. . . Sorry that this is so late, but we've been fairly busy with other game scores, results, schedules, and preparing updates to our "Top SoCal Players" lists which we hope to update shortly, but before these got too stale we at least wanted to post up the details. We've still got a ton of digital photos we took at this event which we will post up later tonight, but for now here are the results and details (insofar as we could really keep track of things) at the 2000 adidas Double Pump Hoop Challenge hosted by Long Beach Poly at Long Beach City College last Saturday.

Game No. 1

Simi 85, Serra 72-- We got stuck in traffic and only saw the last quarter of this game, but by then it was pretty much over, even with Serra trying to make a huge comeback. Evidently the first half was a disaster for Serra, which got outscored 23-16 in the first and 18-4 in the second quarter, and Simi led at the half 41-20. But in the third quarter, the Cavaliers managed to chip away a little, as they hung even with Simi, and actually outscored the Pioneers 21-19 in the third. Again, we only caught the last few minutes of this game, so it really didn't provide us with any basis to talk about invidutual performances, so we won't do that. We will say that Serra had just a huge 31 point fourth quarter, and if you walked in when we did, you might have thought that Simi was on the losing end of this game. But ultimately, the large first half deficit was just too much to overcome, and Serra lost. Here's the box score: Simi-- Shaun Michel 9 points, 9 assists, Boon 2, Sharda 4, Villepigue 6, Brett Michel 30, Branduinn Fullove 34. Serra--D.J. Wyatt 2, Odums 2, Foster 4, Bates 16, Jeter 13, Washinton 1, Ekeledo 9, McLin 2, Jackson 2, Cole 10, Sanders 9, Williams 2. Scoring by quarters: Simi--23 18 19 25--85; Serra--16 4 21 31.

Game No. 2

Westchester 79, Fairfax 52--It was supposed to be a matchup featuring two of the best teams in the L.A. City Section. That's how the Westchester-Fairfax contest was billed as part of the Double Pump Hoop Challenge boys basketball showcase Saturday afternoon. Instead, what the sparse crowd at Long Beach City College received was a first-rate blowout. Westchester punished Fairfax in every facet of the game to score a surprisingly easy 79-52 victory in the Western League and it wasn't even that close. “ think the bottom line was we were much more aggressive than them, on offense and defense,” said Westchester coach Ed Azzam, whose young team improved to 13-5 overall, 5-0 in league. “ sounds very simplistic, but that's what it was. “ was really the first time we beat up on a good team.” In the blowout, the Comets released frustrations from last season, when the Lions (12-5, 4-1) won all three matchups between the teams, including an overtime victory in the L.A. City playoff semifinals. The Comets, though, won't have long to revel in the win because the two teams square off again Monday at the Pyramid as part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Nike Dream Classic. “'ll tell you Monday what this win means,” Azzam said. “ we play the same way, then I'll say that we've turned the corner. We've been trying to get over the hump. We're just a very young and inexperienced team.” The Comets' inexperience didn't show Saturday. Behind the sophomore guard tandem of Brandon Heath and Ashanti Cook, West chester set the tempo early by running circles around Fairfax. The Comets seemingly got every loose ball and converted basket after basket on the fast break. The Comets broke the game open in the second quarter by outscoring the Lions, 22-2, to take a 43-18 advantage at halftime. While Fairfax missed 12 of its 13 field-goal attempts in the second quarter, the Comets converted 11 of 19. Cedric Thompkins, a 6-foot-8 forward, scored 10 of his team-high 18 points in the first half and set the tone in the middle. “ knew we could take them,” Thompkins said. “ knew we had better players, we just had to play our game.” Heath finished with 14 points, and Cook had 12. Terrence Lawson added eight points.

Game No. 3

Artesia 70, Bellflower 41--Not much to really write home about, this one was just an absolute blow out. Artesia managed to hit 24 points on the board before Bellflower scored it's first free throw, to make it 24-1. Not pretty but effective if you're looking for a W. It was over before it even started. Artesia jumped out to a score of 40-7 at the half, and the Pioneers held Bellflower to not a single first half field goal. And that was without Jack Martinez playing a minute in the first half too. Jack and Coach Merino were obviously having a difference of opinion about something, but whatever it was, either Wayne was saving Jack for Monday's battle with Dominguez at the Pyramid, or he was just not putting up with the attitude. Either way, Artesia really didn't need him. Amaury Fernandez was almost sleepwalking through the first half, but he finished with 14 points, 14 boards and 7 assists, and he proved that he's got the ball handling skills to be the next successor to Jason Kapono as a true point-forward. In the first quarter alone, Malcolm Heron, who is not a typically big scorer for Artesia combined with Martinez to score 18 points in the first quarter alone. Bellflower contrinued to struggle in the first half and shot 6 for 23 from the field and turned the ball over 10 times. This was not pretty. In fact it wasn't until 7:47 was remaining in the third quarter that Bellflower scored it's first field goal of the game, a three pointer by snior guard Daron Botts. We don't have the fihnal box score on this one, because both teams kept their own scorebooks (the home team was the official scorer, and unbelievably, they left after the game was over, taking the book with them. . . but considering it was Bellflower as the home team, can you blame them?). Actually, it's sort of impressive that Bellflower managed to score 41 points against Artesia in the final 15 minutes of the game, having scored only 7 points in the first 16 minutes. See there's a bright side to everything. . . . :^).

Game No. 4

Corona Centennial 72, Jurupa Valley 42-- This game was somewhat of a mismatch from the start, and Jurupa must have had half their team--literally-- get lost on the freeway from Mira Loma, because they only suited up five players. No subs at all, so it was no wonder that the strong Centennial team--which was tough already, but made even tougher by the presence of the two "new" transfers, Erik Soderberg (6'-10" Sr. F) and his younger brother, Lance Soderberg (6'-8" So. F)-- just about completely dominated this game. Neither Erik nor Lance started, but they played pretty well. We hadn't seen Lance this year before this game, but we were pretty impressed with what we saw: A player with excellent mobility, who gets out and guards the other team's point, a big man with excellent mobility and the skills to score. I was sitting with Mark Mayemura from Rockfish and we were both really impressed with the upside potential that Lance shows. Perhaps what Gary McKnight (who was sitting in the corner of the gym, watching the second half of this game, which preceded the Mater Dei-Los Al game, without say word), said at the time Lance and his brother left is really correct, maybe Lance does have a serious shot at being all-CIF, even with the transfer. This young man has tremendous potential: size, good hops, and excellent quickness and lateral mobility. We watched this game and took a bunch of pictures, so we didn't really have time to keep track of the scoring. Fortunately, several papers featured stories on the game. This was, (if memory serves) from the LA Times by Ben Bloch from Sunday's paper about the effect of the transfer on the two players and how they are adjusting to Jurupa Valley.

It was a grueling routine for Mater Dei's Lance and Erik Soderberg. Wake up at 5 a.m. Leave their Lake Elsinore home 45 minutes later. Arrive at school in Santa Ana more than an hour after that for a full day of school and basketball practice. The Soderbergs wouldn't return home until late in the evening and wouldn't get to sleep some nights until the wee hours. "We came home, did homework, ate dinner and went to bed," Lance explained. It was no way for two high school boys to live, even though they loved their school, their friends and their teammates. Their father attempted on several occasions to relocate to Orange County but for a number of reasons couldn't pull it off. That is why the Soderbergs, along with their freshman brother Brett, transferred earlier this month from Mater Dei to Corona Centennial.

About two weeks after their transfer, Lance, a sophomore forward, and Erik, a junior forward, report that things are going well. "I feel I fit in really well," Lance said. On Saturday, in their second game with the Huskies, Lance scored seven points and Erik added five as Centennial walloped Jurupa Valley, 72-42, in the Hoop Challenge at Long Beach College. The Huskies, the top-ranked team in Riverside County, played just before Mater Dei faced Los Alamitos. Lance and Erik--still wearing their Monarch-issue red-and-white Nikes--did not start but fit comfortably in the lineup, each playing about half the game. "They pick things up quickly," Centennial Coach Val Popov said. "[But] it'll probably be a couple of weeks before everyone will feel things are kind of natural again." Some might have figured that the boys' transfer to a school in Corona didn't make sense because they lived in Lake Elsinore (they have since moved to Corona), but as it turned out the boys had long ago set their sights on Centennial if Mater Dei didn't work out. When the Soderbergs lived in Lake Elsinore, they were 43 miles from Mater Dei. In their new Corona home, they live across the street from Centennial.

"It's a lot nicer," said Erik, whose only regret is that he didn't get say formal goodbyes to his Monarch teammates. "It gives you a lot more free time to get done what you need to. You can do what normal people do." playing defense against Michael West of Jurupa Valley, have made a smooth transition to Corona Centennial after leaving Mater Dei.

For Corona Centennial, Jamaal Williams and Bryan Williams (not related) both hit for 14 points and looked good also. And despite the final scoring, this was actually a pretty good game the entire way through, and we've got to give props to Jurupa's big man Justin Garcia (7'-1" Sr. C) who has great upside as well. Runs the floor, and has a lot more mobility than what we had seen last spring at the Fresno EBO tournament where he played for Riverside Slam N Jam.

Game No. 5

Mater Dei 62, Los Alamitos 42-- No Jamal Sampson (flu). No Christian McGuigan either (sprained ankle). And by the end of the game, with players wearing ice-bags, taped and battered, it looked like a warzone for Mater Dei, but behind some very strong play from Cedric Bozeman (6'-4" Jr. PG/SG), Brian Baker (6'-0" Jr. PG) and fresham Harrison Schaen (6'-8" Fr. F) Mater Dei still managed the win over Los Al.

While a lot of guys really stepped up for Mater Dei in this game, Harrison really impressed the most. He had 11 points, which was not a team high, but he played very well, with some great rebounding, nice spin moves to the basket and footwork and skill that really is amazing considering that he's just turning 15 this month. He picked up seven rebounds and blocked five shots that we counted and provided exactly what Mater Dei needed inside without Sampson. Ricky Porter also played very well, and he had 13 points.

As for Cedric Bozeman, he showed some truly great passing skills, and great ability to run the floor and get to the basket. Is he a point guard? Will he be the next great UCLA point? Who knows. We still like him more at the two than at the one, but the fact of the matter is that he's more of a slasher and passer than a shooter, but he's probably not tall enough to be a three when he gets to the next level. But at UCLA, maybe he can provide that spark that they'll need to fill the void in two years, especially if Lavin doesn't recruit any other point guards. Cedric had 12 points and seven rebounds.

This started out as an easy game, but then got tough for a short stretch in the first quarter, but once Cedric Bozeman, Ricky Porter and Brian Baker started clicking, and Harrison took over in the paint, it was pretty much over for Los Al. Mater Dei only led by 5 at the end of the first quarter, but by the time halftime rolled around, they had outscored Los Al and led 34-20. Neither team was really awake in the third quarter, with Mater Dei scoring just 9 points and Los Al scoring only 7, but in the second quarter, Mater Dei managed ot stretch its 16 point lead by four more and was never threatened, finishing with a 19-15 scoring advantage in the fourth.

This was an emotionally tough game for Mater Dei a lot of Mater Dei fans, and with the Soderbergs watching in the stands, and Mark Soderberg, the boys' father and a former assistant coach at Mater Dei sitting across the floor from Gary McKnight, both of them wearing matching Nike jackets, Mater Dei, no one could ignore the sense of awkwardness created by having Centennial and Mater Dei play back to back under the circumstances. But by the time the game got going, the side show was just about over. As Al Balderas noted in today's Orange County Register, in commenting on the game, "Center Jeff Grgas was the lone bright spot for Los Alamitos (15-3) with 10 points, 10 rebounds and a blocked shot. Eddie Courtemarche and Ron Prettyman each added eight points.

Here's the final box:
Mater Dei (62): 16 18 9 19
Los Alamitos (42) 11 9 7 15

Mater Dei scoring (starters indicated with *): Matt Leinert 2 and 6 rebounds, Geoff McKnight 0, Pat Haddan 0, Nick Farano 0, *Rickey Porter 13 (5-7 fg, 3-4 ft, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, *Cedric Bozeman 12 and 7 assists, *Steve Scoggin 6 (3-14 fg, 0-3 threes, 3 assists), Travis Gabler 6 points, Brian Baker 4 (2 assists), Jamal Sampson--DNP, Travis Delgado--DNP, *James Webster 5 (2 assists, 7 rebounds), Christian McGuigan --DNP, Harrison Schaen 11 (7 rebounds, 4 blocks according to the "official" stats, but we counted 5), *Mike Strawberry 3 and 4 rebounds.

Los Al scoring: *Ryan Keller 9 points, Harrington 1, *Smith 2, Eddie Courtemarche 8, *Prettyman 8, Shinen 3, Sanford 0, Martini 4, Yarger 0, *Jeff Grgas 11 and 10 rebounds, *Carter 4.

Game No. 6

Bishop Montgomery 88, Fresno Washington Union 66-- This was either the best game of the day, or if you are a Washington Union game, the worst game of the day, and perhaps one of the worst efforts we've ever seen from a Washington Union team. No real cohesiveness among the Panther players, not much structure on the floor, basically just DeShawn Stevenson coming down and jacking up shots, whether it was from three point range or trying to drive the lane. He was still pretty impressive, scoring fully half of the Washington Union points himself, finishing with 33, but the real show was the Craven twins, Errick and Derrick, who scored 12 and 25 poiknts respectively on the night. If this was a matchup of things to come in the Division III State finals, we can tell you who will win, no question about it, and it won't be Washington Union. Still, even if the game turned into somewhat of a rout at the end, there were some great performances and contributions from most all of the Bishop Montgomery players, including Kenny D'Oyen (5'-10" Jr. PG) who looked especially quick and even was connecting on his long, high arcing rainbow shot, and DeVaughn Peace (6'-3" Jr. SG) who ran the floor and slashed to the basket a number of times, and finally Brian Pruitt (6'-5" Sr. PF) who was particularly effective inside stopping Stevenson and even blocking his shot twice. For WU, Jordan Brice (6'-1" Sr. PG) looked good, but given the lack of structure on the floor and the seeming lack of a plan of attack we don't think this game was representative at all of his abilities to lead a team. Deshawn Anderson (6'-2" Sr. SG) also looked good at times showing flashes of the type of player he can be when things are going well. But evidently things are not going particularly well for WU right now, at least not in games against opponents outside their league and the Central Section, and if we were them, we'd spend the week regrouping and getting things back into focus, otherwise, they might as well forget about repeating as State Champions.

Game No. 7

Long Beach Poly 57, Long Beach Jordan 51-- This didn't turn into a game until midway through the fourth quarter when Jordan suddenly woke up from its slumber and came roaring back to close a 20 point fourth quarter deficit to just three points, but Poly managed to hold on down the stretch for a wild win. The Jackrabbits, basically beat up on Jordan pretty much relentlessly during the first three quarters, and pulled out to a 50-30 lead at the start of the third quarter. But then Jordan, with a little help from Nick Tamarao (5'-11" Sr. PG) who managed to hit several consecutive shots, and several others from Ron Banks and Donte Cottrell, and some huge blocks on the defensive end from Travon Bryant, managed to get the score to 55-51 with just 32.7 seconds remaining in the game. But then AJ Diggs stepped up for Poly, hitting two huge free throws to extend the lead to six with just 28 seconds on the clock, and in Jordan's final three times down the floor they were unable to score, missing 3 pointers by Alshawn Rodgers and Bryant. Still this was a great effort by Jordan, and unfortunately for them, the one quarter effort also took way too much out of them and they were basically spent on the following Monday against Crossroads at the Dream Classic at the Pyramid, meaning that by Monday, Jordan's record had fallen to 11-8 overall and 4-1 in league. For Poly, the big stars were Wesley Stokes who finished with 11 points and managed to feed Joe Travis inside, and Ramaan Shotwell who had 12. Markee White (6'-5" Sr. SG/SF) also played well and finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds. Bryant finished with only 11 points but he did have 13 rebounds and nine blocks, at least according to Louis Johnson at the Long Beach Press Telegram, and we'll take his stats any day. . .

Game No. 8

Redondo Union 73, Inglewood 46--We originally didn't include the final score of this game with the article, because we didn't have it. . . .but now thanks to our friend John Tawa, a fellow lawyer who also writes about hoops (what is it about lawyers and writing about basketball. . .Mike Miller is also a lawyer, as is SoCalHoops J. Gale), and if you want an unbiased, or at least a complete view of what happened in this game, you should check out John's story in the Easy Reader. Here's the link. Because if you're looking for full game details here, forget it. After all the basketball we watched on Saturday (and we have to apologize for this), but we just couldn't take much more and with the score at 43-18 in the third quarter, Redondo ahead, and DeAngelo Collins picking up a technical foul (for what we don't know because we didn't see what he did), we'd had enough and at 10:15 pm we decided to pack it in. . . Interestingly though, the only paper in the region that carried the box score was the Daily Breeze and that wasn't until Monday's edition (or so Coach Jim Nielsen told us last night at the UCLA game) and we didn't get that one. . . so the final score will remain a mystery unless some of our loyal Redondoites happen to e-mail it to us or post it up on the board. Andrew Zahn easily handled Collins and anything else that got in his way, getting about half of his points (which had to be over 20 by the time this thing ended) on put backs or second and sometimes third efforts. Those who say he can't or shouldn't play at the Pac-10 level basically have their heads up their proverbial you know whats, because Andrew, at least IMHO, is a major player and clearly deserving of the attention he's gotten from recruiters. If UCLA passes on him (as they most likely will) USC should grab him in a heartbeat, otherwise, Washington State or one of the Oregon schools will. Ryan Mollins also looked very good, with an improved and steadier shot than he's had in some games we've seen earlier this year. Mollins is another of those guys who isn't attracting much D-I attention right now, but he can and should be playing at that level, and he can certainly help some Big West or WCC school out a lot. He was pulling up for some very sweet jumpers, stroking the ball and filling it up in the first half while we were still at the game, and we wouldn't be surprised to hear that he finished with 14-16 points in this one. Dijon Thompson also showed flashes of brilliance, running isolation plays, driving the baseline and pulling up for some very nice shots, and he's clearly capable of playing the one at the D-I level and by this time next year should have lots of schools begging to get him. Inglewood on its part was fast, with a lot of quick guard play, but like Washington Union, they seemed to have no plan of attack, no real offense. Maybe it was just because it was the last game of the night, but we didn't see much that resembled anything besides guys playing street ball, running up and down the court, and not converting a lot of their wild shots. Still it was a fun first half to watch but we just couldn't take any more of it. . .