battle of the valley

What a great evening. . .we just wish we'd seen more of it. . .Due to a personal commitment, we weren't able to make it over to CSUN in time to catch the girls' all-star game. . . But we did manage to get there in time to see the entire boys' game, and this was some terrific basketball played by two boys' all star teams made up entirely of CIF LA City Section and the CIF Southern Section senior players. If you want an account of the girls' game, the Los Angeles Times' Dave Desmond wrote an article about the game, which will give you a little bit of the flavor of it, and the Times also published stats which we've reproduced below.

By the time we arrived the place was packed, and those lucky enough to get in saw some of the best hoops action in the region in a while. . . at least since the season ended. We previously posted the rosters, but there were a few changes by the game time

City Section	HS	College	Southern Section	HS	College
DeWayne Anderson	Grant	undecided	Kingsley Anwanyu	Crespi	St. Lawrence
Cecil Brown	Canoga Park	U.C.S.B.	Aaron Bobik	Newbury Park	undecided
Shayne Berry	Chatsworth	undecided	Scott Borchart	Chaminade	Santa Clara U.
Mike Charleston	Grant	undecided	Johnny Gray	Agoura	undecided
Ramall Goodrich	Monroe	undecided	Michael Jenkins	St. Francis	Northwestern
Ken Hauser	North Hollywood	undecided	Kyle Kegley	Thousand Oaks	undecided
Scott Johnson	Chatsworth	undecided	Mike Luderer	Notre Dame	undecided
Derrick Lambrey	Cleveland	undecided	Casey Markovic	Bell Jeff	undecided
Mike Mgdesyan	Poly	U.C.L.A.	Andrew Moore	Crespi	U.S.C.
George O'Garro	Sylmar	Navy	Jordan Ogilivie	Chaminade	undecided
Brandon Robinson	Chatsworth	Howard	Cody Pearson	Notre Dame	Pepperdine
Nathan Stern	North Hollywood	Amherst	Dustin Villepigue	Simi Valley	Gonzaga
Haig Tatian	Birmingham	undecided	Colin Ward-Henninger	Buckley	Yale
Earnest Williams	Sylmar	undecided	James Williams	Stoneridge Prep	undecided

Mike Charleston of Grant was listed as injured, but he wasn't. Mike is playing next week in the City Section championship game for Grant's volleyball team and he didn't want to risk injury, so he passed on the game. . .besides, while Mike is one heck of a basketball player, and helped lead Grant to the quarterfinals this year, he's also a big-time volleyball guy. Kyle Kegley of Thousand Oaks, a terrific shooter, was also listed as injured, and he indeed was. Although he was on the sidelines, he was in street clothes wearing a full body-brace under his shirt and told us that he injured his back just this past week. With a roster spot or two available, we had to wonder why the organizers didn't invite the only other D-I signee in the region who was not invited to play--we're talking about Adam Allegro (6'-5" Sr. F) of Agoura, who has signed with Navy--but then we didn't pick the teams. Adam was there anyway to cheer on and watch all of the guys he's played with and against since youth leagues. . . a truly classy move. . .

This all-star game was not like those many other games that we've seen throughout the years (and the McDonald's game would qualify as one of those). . this was a game where players actually played defense, the teams seemed to run a few offensive sets, and the game actually came down to the last few minutes before the outcome was determined. Real coaching, real defense, and the LA City Section even ran a very effective full-court press which gave some of the Southern Section guards all kinds of fits. . .

We can't even begin to really accurately describe the game and besides, what would the point be in that anyway. . . this game was played for fun and a little bit of pride. . . well, a lot of pride (Dave Desmond wrote that "the Southern Section overcame a 97-96 deficit with an 11-1 run" but frankly, we don't remember the City Section getting that big a lead. . . suffice it to say that the Southern Section won it 112-107, and this was a close game throughout). Yes, we know that score looks like there wasn't much defense, but don't forget, this game was longer than a "real" high school game (twenty minute halves), and it also featured a lot more offensive fire power than most high school games. And most of that offensive power was displayed by three players, two of whom were named as the MVP's of the game. Dustin Villepigue (6'-9" Sr. PF) from Simi Valley scored 20 points and was named the MVP of the Southern Section team; Cecil Brown (6'-4" Sr. G) of Canoga Park, who has signed with UCSB, also shot the lights out and scored 26 points for the City. Cody Pearson (6'-4" Sr. G) from Notre Dame was the Southern Section's high scorer with 22 points, and he hit them from all over the court: inside, outside, fast break transition, and he played great. Cody is, as we reported, going to walk on at Pepperdine in the hopes of getting a scholarship. He had 17 points in the second half; most of Dustin's points were scored early in the first half when he and Scott Borchart were in together, and then again in the late stretch run in the second half, and Dustin just cleaned the glass and got more than a couple of really terrific slam dunks. . . actually there was one he missed off a lob from St. Francis' Michael Jenkins, a flying tomahawk from the right-side baseline, and his dunking was matched by that of Sylmar's George O'Garro who was throwing them down with regularity too. O'Garro is one of those players who didn't get a lot of attention during the school year, but he worked on his game about as hard as any player we know, and the improvement this past season was astonishing. He and Sylmar teammate Earnest Williams played in a few Rockfish games and were impressive there as well. O'Garro also won the slam dunk halftime contest, which was being watched closely by a former Valley All-Star, Gilbert Arenas who came out to see all of his buddies play. We talked with Gilbert for a while after the game, and he's currently working out daily with Jason Richardson at various gyms around the Valley with shooting coach Dave Hopla.

Michael Jenkins of St. Francis had 13 points and it's a shame that he's not two or three inches bigger, because as he demonstrated last summer with the Paladins and this season at St. Francis, he would make a terrific point guard in college. Michael has a tremendous handle and a very quick first step and he penetrated and blew by his defenders last night repeatedly, and he just seemed to have a knack for finding the open man at the right time and in the right place. Michael told us that he intends to walk on at Northwestern (his brother also attends school there, so it's a natural for him).

Who else impressed? George O'Garro of Sylmar. . .did we mention that he was dunking all over the place? Shayne Berry of Chatsworth scored 13 for the City, and he has the biggest arms we've seen on a player under 6' in a while, and he looks like he's been pumping and lifting every day or he's taking some great nutritional supplements (or both). Shayne shot a lot, but he also led the offense and distributed the ball better than we've seen in a while. Nice three point shot and very good quickness.

Brandon Robinson only scored 3, but he played great defense for the City team. Brandon has been admitted to Howard where he will try to walk on, but he's reportedly also been offered a full scholarship at Cal Lutheran, and he'll make a decision shortly about what he'll do. At the D-III/NAIA level he'd be a star. Earnest Williams also played very well for the City team, scoring 6 points and driving effectively. He was instrumental in setting up the City press which gave some of the Southern Section guards so much trouble. DeWayne Anderson from Grant is athletic but didn't really have his shot working. He finished with 7 points but managed to jack up some of the ugliest shots of the evening; if he worked on his mechanics he could have the whole package. Ramall Goodrich finished with 2 points in the game.

The biggest surprise of the City Section team was Poly's Mike Mgdesyan. Not only did this little known player get nominated for the game, he won the Scholar Athlete Award for the team with a 4.50 GPA. . .and he hit three huge three pointers at crucial moments in the game, keeping the City Section in it throughout the second half. Really, he was a pleasant surprise, not because he was going to kill anyone off the dribble, but because it's guys like him who show that high school basketball still has guys playing who are smart, do well in school, and have fun playing with more talented players.

For the Southern Section, besides the guys we've already mentioned, there were a couple of other nice showings. Colin Ward-Henninger, who will play baseball (and maybe basketball) at Yale, finished with 7 points and also had the distinction of getting dunked on a couple of times by O'Garro. Casey Markovic hit two big three pointers, which is his real specialty and if a college is looking for a good spot up shooter, then this kid is just what you're looking for. Andrew Moore had 7 points, including a couple of nice perimeter shot and he was passing the ball and moving it really well. Andrew started in the game with Villepigue, Borchart, Pearson and Jenkins, and it was a potent offensive group against the City's starters who included Brown, Berry, and Williams (we didn't write down the others. . oops). Moore will be walking on at USC, or so we hear. Mike Luderer, Moore's former Crespi teammate who transferred to Notre Dame for football finished with 7.

The place was packed, and from what we understand, the game will be televised on several local cable stations. We're not sure when or where, but we know it will be on Adelphia's network. This was a great evening, lots of fun and it was for a worthy cause (see the related article on the Valley Sports Foundation). We can't wait for next year's game and want to thank everyone who put the game together, especially Murad Siam, Melissa Herlihy, Andre Chevalier and Ted Jeries, the Board of Directors of the Valley Sports Foundation.

Southern Section--Villepigue 20, Borchart 6, Pearson 22, Jenkins 13, Gray 5, Williams 6, Luderer 7, Ward-Henninger 6, Moore 7, O' Gilvie 4, Bobik 2, Anywanwu 8, Markovic 6.

City Section--O'Garro 16, Lambrey 12, Brown 26, Berry 16, Anderson 7, Mgdesyan 10, Goodrich 2, Robinson 3, Williams 7, Johnston 2, Tatian 6.

Southern Section--Lacy 9 and 18 rebounds, Siam 3, Meadows 6, Wiser 2, McCutcheon 18 and 11 rebounds and 5 steals, Young 11 and 7 rebounds, Kazay 4, Harris 7, and 7 rebounds, Wesley 3, Bralock 6

City Section--Patterson 4, Shun 10, Smithey 4 and 7 rebounds, Burgin 1, Aguinaga 15, Rene 11, Sherman 10 and 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks, Clay 4, McCoy 4, DelaTorre 1, Eichler 6, Revish 2.

Southern Section	54	58	--112
City Section	47	60	--107

Southern Section	44	25	--69
City Section	48	23	--71