SoCalHoops CIF-SS Playoff News

CIF-SS V-AA Preview: Rolling Hills Prep
vs. Apple Valley Christian--(Feb. 25, 2002)

We're down to the next to the last two games in Division V-AA before Friday night's finals.  This was one of those brackets where the seeding actually worked out as planned, no upsets, no darkhorse teams knocking off seeded teams, and the No. 1 team will play No. 4, and No. 2 and No. 3 will also meet, and if everything goes as the seeding committee set this one up, the No. 1 team will meet No. 2 in the finals on Friday at LMU.  Of course Apple Valley Christian and Santa Clara will have a thing or two to say about that in the interim....

One word about the finals at LMU:   According to the CIF-SS office, the times for the finals in Divisions IV and V at LMU on Friday (and the finals in Divisions I, II and III at the Pond on Saturday) have not yet been set.  The times for the finals will be announced on Wednesday, February 27, 2001.  Until then, we just won't know.

But we do know when the semifinals take place.   Here is a brief look at the semifinal game in the upper half of the bracket, No. 1 v. No. 4:

No. 1 Rolling Hills Prep v. No. 4 Apple Valley Christian
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Place: South Torrance HS ("Alternate Site")

Rolling Hills Prep (18-6) is the host team in this game, and thus they got to select the "alternate site" for the game, so Apple Valley Christian will be making the trek southward.  For those who don't know, Apple Valley is located north and east of Santa Clarita, and actually, if you want the best cherry-picking experience of your life (no, we're not talking about basketball now), head out to Apple Valley in the spring....the place is filled with great orchards....but we digress. 

Apple Valley Christian (24-1) has been quietly and methodically knocking off teams right and left, and while some have said that they have yet to play a tough team this season, well, those folks haven't seen some of the hoops being played in the high-desert area this year, because there have been some quality opponents and solid wins mixed in the schedule this year for the Warriors.  Key players for AVC include Kevin Dillon (6'-1" Jr. G) and brother Josh Dillon (6'-0" Sr. G), both of whom are averaging more than 20 ppg this season. Ryan Manahl, Charles Gross, and frontman Christian Van Laack (6'-3" Jr. F/C) have also provided steady scoring and rebounding all season long.   We don't have the time right now to recap their entire season, but if you look through the Daily Articles archives, you'll see how they beat such teams as Hesperia Christian, Bloomington Christian, Santa Clarita Christian, Antelope Valley Christian and Joshua Springs, and how they lost their only game of the season to Hesperia Christian, a team which knows how to shoot the three.

Rolling Hills (18-6) Prep has been the favorite of most who have watched this division since before the start of the season, and they feature a legit D-I prospect in Curtis Allen (6'-4" So. F), a high-flying slasher and leaper who dunks with authority and who moves with an economy of motion and grace rarely seen in players at this level of competition.  They also feature a solid group of perimeter players who will matchup with the Dillon-gang, including D.J  Wright, a 5-8" So. PG, and Jason Daley, a 5'-10' So. G who plays some of the toughest defense we've ever seen at the high school level.  They also feature Alex Elliott, a 6'-7" banger who weighs in at 260 lbs, and they also have shooting guard-small forward Kris Stricklin, a 6'-2" Jr. F.

Both teams finished first in league, RHP finishing first in the new Harbor League due in large part to the fact that Price had to forfeit its final two games due to an over-scheduling problem, meaning that Price and Rolling Hills Prep couldn't play their last regularly scheduled game.  Apple Valley Christian finished first in the Agape League, unseating longtime champs Antelope Valley Christian.

In the playoffs, RHP has breezed, first beating Viewpoint 92-55 in the first round, then taking on AGBU and again winning by more than 40 points, 99-56, and finally knocking off La Sierra Academy this past Saturday 92-63.   And since we neglected to post the details of that one Saturday night, here's what the Torrance-based Daily Breeze had to say about the game (note, the link will only work for a few days and then the story will scroll off to never-never-land, so here it is):  "Curtis Allen scored 30 points for the third straight playoff game as top-seeded Rolling Hills Prep posted a 92-63 victory over La Sierra in a CIF Division V-AA quarterfinal game at La Sierra Academy. D.J. Wright had 19 points, eight assists and five steals for Rolling Hills Prep. Jason Daley scored 13 points, while Alex Elliott added 12 points and Tristan Smith had 10 for Rolling Hills Prep (19-6), which plays Apple Valley Christian in the semifinals on Tuesday..."

Apple Valley Christian received the No. 4 seed in the bracket, and they've also managed to knock off all their opponents (obviously), not by the same commanding margins as RHP, but they've gotten the job done:  The Warrior beat Cal Lutheran 75-21 in a first round mismatch, then beat Maricopa 57-43, and finally got past Santa Clarita Christian (a team that they'd previously beaten), last Friday night by a score of 71-53.

Apple Valley plays mostly man-defense from what we can tell, and they also can really shoot it from the outside.  We've seen RHP employ a number of different defensive strategies, but we'd expect them to come out pressing and pressing hard in this one, with a straight up man defense.    Rolling Hills will need to get as much production from Allen and Wright as they can because the Dillon brothers are prodigious scorers and good ball-handlers.

AVC has one more player on their roster than RHP, but the question is whether they are deeper in terms of talent or just numbers.   RHP has the experience-factor edge, having playe tougher and stronger opponents (e.g., Price, Ribet, St. Bernard, LA Locke, Pacific Hills, LA Lutheran, Chadwick, Serra, etc) and so we'd have to give the Huskies a slight edge in terms of strength-of-schedule, and they also have the higher divisional ranking and the bigger reputation to protect....But rankings and reputations mean little when the players step out on the court, and this will be an exciting game no matter who takes it, and we know that Rolling Hills won't be taking Apple Valley lightly. Here are the rosters for both teams (height and weights were provided by the schools, so if they're wrong, talk to the coaches, not us):

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