SoCalHoops High School News

CIF-SS Finals: Division V-AA Preview--
Calvary Chapel v. St. Anthony--(Mar. 3, 2000)

Who: No. 5 St. Anthony (21-8)  v. No. 3 Calvary Chapel Downey (25-5)
Where:  Loyola Marymount University
What: CIF Southern Section Division V-AA Championship
Time:  6:30 p.m.
Date:  March 3, 2000

It's hard to believe that the high school basketball season started more than 125 days ago, back in November when teams "officially" started practicing.  The "season" started on November 29, but of course things really started a lot earlier than that, back in June and July during summer league when last year's graduating seniors had left and this year's group of rising seniors and incoming playres all got the chance to play in summer leagues, tournaments and practices, getting to know each other.  For the two teams in the finals, the road to the finals has been a long and sometimes arduous one, but these are two teams that have played well together and they've collectively beaten a litany of ranked teams.  This also marks the second time these teams have played each other this year, and Calvary Chapel is hoping for a slightly different result this time around.  Last time out, in each team's second game of the season at the Brethren Christian Tournament, St. Anthony won, 74-57.   Interestingly, both St. Anthony's and Calvary Chapel played Pacific Hills at the Brethren Christian Tournament, and both teams lost by fairly big margins to the Bruins (who, coincidentally lost on Tuesday night to the Saints, sending them to the finals).

Here's what the matchups in the finals will look like:

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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