SoCalHoops High School News

CIF-SS Finals:  Division V-A
Price 60, Heritage 46--(Mar. 4, 2000)

Who: No. 1 Price High (29-1)  v. No. 2 Heritage Christian (24-4)
Where:  Loyola Marymount University
What: CIF Southern Section Division V-A Championship
Time:  4:45 p.m.
Date:  March 3, 2000

We don't have a lot of time to write about this game, but we will say this:  Price outplayed and out-shot Heritage, and even though Matt Winter played with a 103 degree fever, Price clearly is the dominant team in Division V-A and possibly in D-V overall this year again.  It will be interesting to see them match up against either Laton, La Jolla Country Day, Christian, or even Calvary Chapel Downey in the State tournament.   Jermain Jamison led Price with 19 points and Mychal Lynch had 15 to lead price to what seemed like an almost effortless win.   Price jumped out to a 13 point lead at the half, 16-29, and then never looked back.   Heritage shot 40 (as in FORTY) three pointers, ran no basic offense, except running down the floor and jacking up three's.  If Paul Westhead, the master of the fast break, run and gun offense (which specialized in just throwing stuff up and seeing what fell)  had been in his old house, Gersten Pavilion, even he would have been cringing, saying "No more. . . run something, anything, a screen, some high post picks, anything."

But Heritage was having none of that, and they made Price look even better than they really might be.  As well as Price played in the first half, that's how badly Heritage shot the ball.  In the first half alone, Heritage shot 1 for 15 from three point range,  and 7 for 28 ((25%) from the field overall.  Now admittedly, high school scoring, from a percentage point of view,   is usually a lot lower than colleges and the pros, but 25% is still just horrendous, and it's certainly not what you'd expect for a final.   In the second half, things got a little better, but not by much, and the Patriots shot 7 for 25; (28%), which meant that overall, the team shot 26% (8 for 40 from three point range. Heritage took 65 shots in the game from the field (including threes) and made only 17 of them, and Matt Winter, as poorly as he must have felt, led all scorers from both teams with 21 points, but he certainly got no assistance from anyone else in the scoring department.  Jason Grier jacked up 12 field goas and only hit two of them and he finished with 8, and he was the second leading scorer for the Patriots, tying with Ryan Meyer, who also tossed up 12 field goals and only made three.  Plainly and simply, this was not Heritage's night, and it was, like last year, Price's Championship to lose. . . .except they won. 

Again, we don't have much time to write about this game, because we've got so much to cover, so here's the box score, which pretty much tells it all:

Heritage Christian (46)

Total FG             1st Half     7/28    250    2nd Half     10/37    270    Game     17/65  262
3PT FG              1st Half    1/15    067    2nd Half     7/25      280     Game     8/40    200
Free Throws    1st Half    1/3    333       2nd Half    3/4         750      Game     4/7      571

Price (60)

Total FG             1st Half     11/31  355    2nd Half    11/25    440    Game    22/56   393
3PT FG              1st Half    2/9     222    2nd Half     1/4      250       Game    3/13    231
Free Throws    1st Half    5/9    556       2nd Half    8/16   500       Game    13/25   520

Score by quarters

Congratulations to Price on winning a second consecutive Division V-A title.  And to Heritage. . . congratulations on getting to the final. Now on to the State Tournament. 

©Copyright 1997-2000 All rights reserved
Questions? Comments? Need Information?
E-mail: jegesq@socalhoops.com