SoCalHoops CIF-SS Playoff News

CIF-SS I-A Preview: Loyola v. Canyon
@ LMU Tonight--(Feb. 26, 2002)

What: Division I-A Semifinals
Who: Canyon Country Canyon (20-9) vs. Loyola (25-3)
Where: @ Loyola Marymount University
When: 7:30 p.m.

Canyon travels to Loyola Marymount to play Loyola of Los Angeles. It's the Cowboys' first semifinal since 1978. The school has never reached the final. "We didn't come here to lose; we came here to give it our best shot and try to go to the final," Canyon coach Chad Phillips told Daily News sportswriter Vincent Bonsignore.  It's also the first time in quite a while since Loyola has gone this far in the playoffs, and this team is reminiscent of other great Cub teams, like the ones that featured Toby and Moose Bailey and there will be more than a few D-I college prospects on the floor tonight at LMU.

Loyola is the No. 4 seed in the bracket.  Canyon is the surprise team, which beat No. I seeded Mission Viejo in the quarterfinal Friday.    Canyon is a team which underachived greatly in the first part of the season, losing to teams in lower enrollment brackets like Harvard-Westlake (well, it seems Loyola and the Cowboys have something in common there),  Chaminade, Lancaster, Riordan from San Francisco, Saugus, and barely squeaked by Burbank in the first league game, winning by one point, and then dropping the second contest.  Canyon has 10 seniors which makes Chad Phillips believe they will have the will to win. "We talk about it quite a bit, how each guy doesn't want their career to end and how important it is to keep that in mind everytime you step on the floor," Phillips said to Bonsignore. 

Loyola is definitely a younger team than Canyon, but no less experienced, and they come to this game having beaten some excellent teams, including Phoenix Brophy, NorCal's Jesuit, Bellarmine from San Jose, West Torrance, Price, El Segundo, Buena, Mayfair, Dominguez, Escondido, Harvard-Westlake (they split a pair), Chaminade, and everyone else in the Mission League. In fact other than three players, none of them starters, Loyola will all be back next year, bigger, faster and even better with a team currently composed of 11 juniors, and 4 frosh and soph players.  They are led by junior shooting guard Omar Wilks (6'-4" Jr. G), a high scoring shooter and slasher who comes by his game both through hard work and great genetics, and by Vincent Oliver, a very talented 6'-1" So. PG in the backcourt.  Up front, the Cubs feature Chris Rucker, one of the best centers in the division.   There are a lot of other great guards and small wing forward types on this team (in no particular order, they include guys like Davis Cantor, Patrick O'Connor, Jay Leffall, Josh Flynn-Brown, Will Roberts, Ryan Foresta, Alejandro De Castro, Byron Jones, Terence Balagia, Adam Bonifer, and others).   This is a deep team, with a long bench, but they will usually only go about 8 deep, so expect to see the names mentioned above as the primary options.

Loyola got here by finishing first in the Mission League with a record of 22-3 overall during the regular season.  In the playoffs, they've dispatched Temescal Canyon, a wild-card team, 84-75 in their closes playoff game yet. In the second round Los Al lost to Loyola 73-59, and last Friday night the Cubs finished off Cajon 83-69.

Canyon, on the other hand was unseeded.  They fihnished 17-9 in the regular season, then beat Hueneme in the first round 59-48, achieved a mild upset of Crescenta Valley 77-62, then knocked off the No. 1 seed, Mission Viejo 66-56 last Friday night.   We've struggled a bit with something intelligent to say about the Cowboys, because as a team, we haven't seen them much this season.  So we went to a source who has, Scott Galetti, who writes for the Santa Clarita Signal newspaper.   This is from yesterday's edition:

This season’s Cinderella story is the Canyon High boy’s basketball team. The Cowboys finished third in the Foothill League behind Hart and Saugus and were faced with some tough opponents in their first three playoff games, including top-ranked Mission Viejo in the quarterfinal round. Now the Cowboys find themselves one game away from the Division IA title game...."I’ve been extremely impressed with the play the Cowboys have exhibited during their playoff run, especially on the defensive end. Am I surprised? Not in the least," wrote Galetti. "...From what I’ve seen this season, Canyon has the most balanced team of any in the Foothill League and on paper, the most talent. The Cowboys’ problem all season long has been playing to their potential, but they seem to be doing just that at the right time of the year," Galetti said. "Chad Eichten has been the most consistent player I’ve seen all season long and when Jeremy Haggerty is on his game, the other team is in for a tough night. Those two players have come together with some strong play in the postseason and junior Chris Butler has done a masterful job of shutting down the opposition’s big man," wrote Galetti.  

"It should be interesting to see how the Cowboys make out against an experienced Cubs squad. Loyola has a 6-foot-6 player, two 6-foot-5 players and a pair of 6-foot-4 players, including Omar Wilkes, who scored 29 points in Loyola’s quarterfinal win over Cajon, so size will be a factor again.  Experience should be on Canyon’s side with 10 seniors on the Cowboys’ team compared to just three seniors for Loyola," predicted Galetti.

Of course, the Cubs might have a thing or two to say about that.

Here are the rosters:

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