SoCalHoops Tournament News

College Prep Review Dream Classic 2001:
Game 2--D. Craven Dominates Centennial-(Jan. 16, 2001)

What 7th Annual Dream Classic MLK Holiday Challenge Where: Loyola Marymount University Gersten Pavilion When Monday, January 15, 2001 (MLK Weekend) Who 10 SoCal Teams, including many top players

Bishop Montgomery 78, Centennial 60 

The second game of the day in the College Prep Review Dream Classic for 2001 was Bishop Montgomery v. Corona Centennial, and it featured a matchup of several players who actually played together this past summer on travel teams as the USC-bound Errick and Derrick Craven combined for 42 of Bishop Montgomery's 78 points, and for Derrick Craven, who is usually not seen as being (a) as athletic as his more-celebrated brother, and (b) not that good a shooter, this game was a revelation for many of the fans as well as some of the "gurus", who have for years said that the Cravens "can't shoot". . . Derrick proved them wrong yesterday and in a big way, shooting 10-13 from the field (a remarkable 76%) and 3 for 3 from three point range. . . .and the way he set up for shots, these weren't cream-puff-open-look-set-shots, nope, these were pound-it-into- the- floor-cut-move- jump-drive-to-the-basket-off-balance-unbelievable shots.  The kind that when they do drop, or you see a player absolutely blow by a defender, all you can do is scratch your head and say, "Whoa, that was nice. . . ".

Of course, it wasn't all the Derrick and Errick show, and there were several others on the Bishop Montgomery team who helped them occassionally, and even when they didn't need the help, who were able to create on their own too. . . guys like DeVaughn Peace who has signed with UCI who finished with 10 points, or Kenny D'Oyen, who unbelievably isn't seeing any recruiting at this moment but who should be who picked up 11 points and at least 4 assists that we counted that didn't get into the "official" stats, and Red Washington and Leland Dodd, who combined for the other 15 points that Bishop managed to score in this game.   And while it was close by the end of the first quarter, Bishop Montgomery initially broke out to a huge lead. . .something like 12-2 before Corona Centennial was able to close the gap to 19-16 at the end of the period.   Corona kind of stalled in the third quarter as they couldn't get any offense going, and after trailing 38-30 at the half, they were outscored 18-12 and thus headed into the fourth quarter looking at a 14 point deficit, 56-42, which only got worse, as the game ended with Corona down by 18, 78-60.

For Corona, the huge story, as it usually happens to be, was Jamaal Williams (6'-5" Sr. PF) who scored 31 points in the game, shooting 14-19 from the field.  Jamaal was basically the guy who kept the Huskies in the game in the first half, scoring 20 of Corona Centennial's 30 points, shooting 9-11 from the field in the half and 2-2 from the line.  Jamaal, who has signed with the University of New Mexico just seems to find a way to get the ball into the basket, a fact which wasn't lost on Lobo coach Fran Fraschilla, who was in attendance watching his prize recruit and chatting it up with another recruit, Chad Bell (7'-0" Sr. C) from Westchester who was in the house with some of his Comet teammates.  Others played decently, but not spectacularly for Centennial, but it just wasn't enough as Centennial committed 27 turnovers in the game, quite a few of them unforced, and it's now the second straight loss for the Huskies since their loss on Saturday at the Double Pump Hoop Challenge to another top-ranked team, Upland.

Still, even if there was never any doubt about who would win this game (Bishop Montgomery), it was still fun and the excitement and the size of the crowd kept getting stronger and larger as the big showdown between Domginguez and Clovis West (the game which followed this one) got closer. . .

Bishop Montgomery 78, Corona Centennial 60

Corona Centennial--60