SoCalHoops High School News

CIF-SS Finals: Division V-AA
St. Anthony 61, Calvary Chapel 57--(Mar. 4, 2000)

Who: No. 5 St. Anthony (22-8)  v. No. 3 Calvary Chapel Downey (25-6)
Where:  Loyola Marymount University
What: CIF Southern Section Division V-AA Championship
Time:  6:30 p.m.
Date:  March 3, 2000

If the Price Heritage game was an exercise in frustration to watch, this was a game to savor, and it served as the perfect hors d'ouvre to the Bishop Montgomery v. Centennial game which followed it.   St. Anthony's Jaroed Lloyd and Pearson Smith, along with Arlondo Holder, combined for 49 points, while Calvary Chapel's only double digit scorers was sophomore Tim Drisdom, and that pretty much told the story.  Lloyd and Holder defensively just owned the first half of this game, and Holder had three successive blocked shots on three consecutive possessions and finished with 6 blocks on the evening.   Pearson Smith took a while to warm up, but when he did, he showed flashes of the brilliance that led St. Anthony's over No. 6 Buckley, over No. 4 Bell Jeff, over No. 1 Pacific Hills, and now over No. 3 Calvary Chapel. Playing 4 ranked teams in five games and winning a section title is quite an accomplishment and St. Anthony's did it with the same style and tenacity that they've displayed throughout the playoffs.   Lloyd was veryeffective from the outside, expecially in the second half, hitting 4 threes and keeping the Saints in the game every time the Grizzlies came knocking.   Allen Cerino also had a good game finishing with just 6 points , but they were 2 huge threes, coming at crucial moments. 

For Calvary Chapel, Drisdom was great. . . . not astounding in the same sense that the Cravens, Errick and Derrick were astounding, earth-shattering, mind-blowing in the game that followed this, but great in the sense that he hit the shots he needed to hit at the crucial times, ran the offense, and showed great poised for a sophomore.

Oh, and this was a very special night for St. Anthony's because in addition to winning the Section V-AA title for the boys, the St. Anthony girls team also won the Section title at the Pyramid earlier in the day, defeating Pacific Hills.  We don't have a score right now, but we'll post one up later in the day as soon as things settle down a bit.

In the meantime, here are the stats for the game:

St. Anthony (61)

Total FG             1st Half     11/34   324   2nd Half    11/27    407    Game    22/61       361
3PT FG              1st Half    4/13    308    2nd Half     3/7        429      Game    7/20        350
Free Throws    1st Half    4/4     1000    2nd Half    6/14      429       Game   10/18     556

Total FG             1st Half     9/31   290   2nd Half    8/27        296   Game    17/58        293
3PT FG              1st Half    1/3     333   2nd Half     2/5         400     Game    3/8            375
Free Throws    1st Half   13/14  929   2nd Half     7/10      700     Game    120/24    833

Scoring by quarters

Again, another look at the rosters as well, so these stats make some sense.

St. Anthony's will likely start Brian Robinson, Jared Lloyd, Pearson Smith, Arlondo Holder and Jay Arizabel;  Calvary Chapel will go with some experience and lots of youth:  Jaime Banuelos, Jesse Ortiz, Scott Pilon, Tim Drisdom and probably Carey Drisdom, and both teams have pretty deep benches, although we'd have to say that St. Anthony's is probably a bit deeper off the pine.  No doubt about it, St. Anthony's has had the tougher in season year and they've also played bigger, and tougher teams from other higher divisins than Calvary Chapel. 

Both teams feature tremendously talented point guards:   Calvary Chapel has sophomore Tim Drisdom, who scored 16 points on Tuesday as the Grizzlies knocked off No. 2 seed Campbell Hall.  Tim is a lanky, athletic player who can drive, pull up for the outside shot, and he can hit out to three.  He plays a controlled, tempo game, and while he can direct the break and run, Calvary Chapel has been winning not with baskets in transition off the fast break, but by burning up the clock and spreading the floor, a style that suits their relative lack of height down low, and if they have one weak spot in comparison to St. Anthony's it will be the mismatches that the Saints can create in the paint with Arlondo Holder, a thin but athletic center and Jared Lloyd, who is listed as a guard, but who also has good inside presence.   St. Anthony's also has the one man wrecking crew of Pearson Smith, who likes the fast break, can be explosive to the basket and who personally willed the Saints to a victory on Tuesday, scoring 38 points, 23 in the fourth quarter,  making 5 points in the last 7 seconds, including a tip in of a missed shot with less than two seconds in the Pacific Hills game to send St. Anthony's to the finals and avenging the early season loss to the Bruins.   Calvary Chapel will try to contain Smith,  but then they'll also have to try to shut down Lloyd, who can also be explosive as well and who averaged 23 ppg all season.

Should be a great game.  6:30 p.m. at LMU. 

See you there.

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