south gate bomb boys

We wrote a bit about the SG Bomb Boys earlier this weekend, in particular when we saw them play against the EBO team in one of the first games of the weekend, and when we wrote that they were the South Gate HS team, we were wrong. . . This was actually a pretty good team featuring some excellent high school players from several different schools, including South Gate, Downey, Crenshaw, Paramount and St. John Bosco in Downey. Whether there are any real D-I prospects in this group is another question. . . while they have no one with any real size to speak of, they played with plenty of heart, good fundamentals, some nice skills, decent but not spectacular shooting, and a ton of tenacity, and while we didn't think the game against EBO was ever in doubt, they did threaten several times and kept it close the whole way.

Richard Castillo	6'-3" Jr. F	South Gate
Aaron Perez	5'-9" So. PG	Downey
Andrew Rodriguez	5'-11" Jr. G	St. John Bosco
Edwin Castro	5'-10" So. G	South Gate
David Murillo	6'-2" Jr. G	South Gate
Ernest Sandoval	6'-2" So. G	Paramount
Keymon Maddox	6'-2" Jr. G	South Gate
Steve Topete	6'-2" So. G/F	Downey
Robert Sanchez	6'-2" Jr. G/F	South Gate
Le'Bron Boyd	6'-4" Jr. F	Downey
Mooney Brown	6'-2" So. G	Crenshaw
Hugo Manzo	6'-0" Fr. G	South Gate

South Gate played well at times, but ultimately they weren't very successful in the win-loss column, going 0-3 in pool play, losing to EBO 73-61, Alleycats Red 54-50, and Belmont Shore West 56-52, although we heard that the scorers really messed that one up, and that the Belmont guys actually came up to South Gate coach Al Rangel after the game and told him that his team really had won, and that the scorekeepers had erred. But based on our own observations, we have another rant to make: Like a lot of the other games which were scored in the two Sunnyside gyms, if this score was wrong, as it very easily could have been from what we witnessed, that would really have been a shame. Evidently Dennis Magro and the rest of the EBO directors who organized the tournament, were relying on the local high school staff at each location to provide qualified scorekeepers, and from what we saw at Sunnyside, these young kids were anything but competent to score the games. . . many of them freely admitted that they'd never kept a score book before, were unsure of how to score and mark fouls, ran the clock when it should have been stopped, and in general were largely inexperienced. Oh well. . . Having finished fourth in pool play at 0-3, the Bomb Boys then had a pretty good run through the Platinum Bracket, beating EBO Alaksa, SSA #2, and ultimately making it to the semifinals where they were defeated by Modesto Slam N Jam #2.