SoCalHoops State Tournament

D-I SoCal & NorCal Regionals:
Semifinals Results & Brackets--(Mar. 11, 2002)

Aside from being laid up with the flu for a couple of days last week, there's been an incredible amount going on in basketball everywhere which kept us from posting this yesterday, the day after the Saturday semifinals.  But better late than never.   The finals are now set, and we'll see a matchup of Westchester and Long Beach Poly this coming Saturday at the Long Beach Arena.  Game time is 8:00 p.m.   The winner will advance to Arco Arena to the State Finals, meeting the NorCal champion.

What we've done, as with the first round, is to update the bracket (below) and are also post complete results by culling together the highlights from the pros who write about this stuff for a living, providing as many perspectives of the same game as possible, which, in some divisions means from about three or four different newspapers (with links of course back to the original newspaper source).  Here's what happened.

Westchester 91, Fresno Clovis West 74 

From the Long Beach Press-Telegram

Senior guard Brandon Heath scored 20 of his team-high 28 points in the first half, including four 3-point shots, to lead the top-seeded Comets at L.A. Southwest College.  Junior forward Trevor Ariza had 16 points, and senior guard Hassan Adams, an Arizona recruit and McDonald's All-American honoree, added 12 points for Westchester.  Sophomore Tyrese McDaniel had a game-high 33 points for Clovis West (28-4).

From the LA Times
By Mike Bresnahan
Sports Writer

Brandon Heath scored 20 of his 28 points in the first half to stake Westchester to a 48-33 halftime lead, and Trevor Ariza scored on an acrobatic dunk in the third quarter to all but finish off Clovis West (28-4).  With 4:25 left in the third quarter, Ariza stole a cross-court pass, dribbled down court and dunked over two Clovis West players to give the Comets (30-2) a 61-39 lead.  "I didn't see anybody," said Ariza, who finished with 16 points. "I just saw the rim and me going up." Heath made four three-pointers in the first half. "I was feeling it," Heath said. "I've been working hard all week to get in a rhythm. It was time for me to step up and play."  Tyrese McDaniel scored 33 points for Clovis West, which scored 10 of the final 12 points of the game.  Mike Bresnahan

From the Daily Breeze
Comets streak into the final
By Phil Witte, Correspondent

The Westchester High boys basketball team was too physical, aggressive and talented not to mention an inhospitable host — while knocking off Fresno Clovis West, 91-74, in a regional semifinal game of the Division I playoffs Saturday at L.A. Southwest College.  “We hadn't seen any film on them, but we decided we were just going to play our game,” Westchester coach Ed Azzam said. “We put the pressure on offense and defense, and I think that bothered them.”  The win sets up Westchester for a final showdown against Long Beach Poly, a 76-66 winner over Fairfax in the other semifinal, Saturday at 8 p.m. at Long Beach Arena. Brandon Heath led Westchester (30-2) with 28 points, hitting 4-of-8 3-point attempts.  “I worked all week on my shooting and I got into my rhythm early, and that was key for me,” Heath said. Trying to counter Westchester's athleticism, Clovis (28-4) sought to slow the tempo early. It spread the ball around in the half-court offense, running the shot clock down to single digits and finding a player inside, who usually drew a foul. Clovis hit 7 of 9 free throws in the first and trailed 21-15 at the end of one.  Westchester increased the tempo in the second, using a 17-6 run, paced by three 3-point shots by Heath, to go ahead 48-33 at the half.  “We wanted to keep it relatively close and see if our press could get to them in the fourth quarter,” Clovis coach Vance Walberg said. “They are just so talented and should be state champs.”   Despite moving the ball around well and getting good positioning inside, Trevor Ariza repeatedly disrupted Clovis' play inside. The 6-foot-7 center blocked four shots and pulled down eight rebounds, to go with his 16 points. Any hope Clovis had of closing the gap ended early in the third quarter, as Westchester blew the game open with some razzle and a lot of dazzle. Ashanti Cook threw a behind-the-back pass to Keith Everage for an easy layup and then hit Brandon Bowman for an alley-oop.  Westchester closed out the 13-4 run with Ariza and Cook both stealing cross-court Clovis passes and going end-to-end for dunks.  “I just think we wanted it more tonight,” Ariza said. “They ran their offense well and made us play defense the whole game.” Tempers heated up in the third period when Westchester's Keith Everage walked in front of Clovis' Nick Debban as he walked off the court, but the referees kept order.  Clovis threw its press at Westchester in the fourth, but it was too little too late. It failed to put together four straight scores until the closing moments.  Tyrese McDaniel had a game-high 32 points and Tyson Parker added 19 for Clovis.  For Westchester, Everage had 10 points and seven assists and Bowman had eight points and eight assists. Westchester's players are excited to face Poly (30-3). “I expect the game to be more physical and up-tempo, and that's our style,” Heath said.

LB Poly 76, Fairfax 66

From the Long Beach Press-Telegram
Poly boys gain some respect, defeat Fairfax
By Louis Johnson, Staff writer

The Poly High boys basketball team has heard rumblings all year long about playing up to its potential and meeting the expectations most had for them before the 2001-02 season began.  Well, if the Jackrabbits' dominant run through the CIF Southern Section Division I-AA playoffs wasn't enough to silence their doubters, then their performance in Saturday night's CIF Southern California Regional Division I semifinal against L.A. City power Fairfax should have all but laid any lingering criticism to rest.  Getting major contributions from seemingly everyone who stepped on the court, Poly played a brilliant first half to take a 15-point halftime lead and then came up with enough big plays at crunch time to hold off a late charge by the Lions en route to a 76-66 triumph at L.A. Southwest College.  The victory sends the third-seeded Jackrabbits (30-3) to the regional final for the first time since 1990, in which they will face state top-ranked and USA Today preseason No.‚1 Westchester (30-2) Saturday at the Long Beach Arena.  And even though it's taken 12 years to get back to this point, this season's berth couldn't have come at a better time, with Poly playing what's clearly its best ball of the season with an opportunity to take down the high-powered Comets in its backyard.  "The past few years we've been known as a football school, and we're trying to make a name for ourselves as a basketball school, too," said senior forward Reggie Butler, who paced four Jackrabbits in double figures with a game-high 22 points. "We're really starting to play good basketball ... Everything seems to be clicking for us right now."  Fairfax (30-5) was playing without star swingman and McDonald's All-American Evan Burns, who was inactive for the second consecutive game because of a hand injury.  The Lions certainly missed the UCLA recruit's presence in the opening half, when the Jackrabbits were executing flawlessly on offense. They shot 18 of 25 (72 percent) from the field on the way to building a 46-31 halftime edge.   Butler, who shot 10‚for‚14 from the floor, was sensational from the start, scoring 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the first 16 minutes.  Poly took control of the game by closing the second quarter with a 15-5 run sparked by sophomore reserve guard Richard Han, who scored all six of his points on a trio of spectacular drives to the basket.  "Rich came out and shocked all of us, even though we knew he had it in him," said senior point guard Carlos Rivers, who scored 9 of his 14 points in the opening half. "He stepped up big and gave us a real boost tonight."  To its credit, Fairfax didn't fold after the first-half onslaught. The Lions turned up their defensive pressure and harassed the Jackrabbits into 11 second-half turnovers.  With senior swingman Jahsha Bluntt scoring 15 of his 18 points after halftime, Fairfax, which trailed by as much as 17 in the second half, crept within 60-55 on a layup by sophomore guard Thomas Woods with just under 5 minutes left.   However, Rivers (10 assists) fed senior forward Mike Roche (6 points, 2 blocks) for a layup to push the lead back to seven.  After Bluntt sank a pair of free throws to cut his team's deficit to 63-57 with 2:29 remaining, Butler (7 rebounds, 3 blocks) and senior forward Marcedes Lewis (11 points, 7 rebounds) scored back-to-back baskets on layups to give Poly a 67-57 edge with 1:29 to play.  The Lions got no closer than six points the rest of the way, and Butler and senior forward Bobby Jones (12 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks) both threw down vicious dunks on lob passes from Rivers in the waning seconds to keep the game out of reach.  "We played great basketball in the first half, and even though we did some things that hurt us a little (in the second half), you can't help but be pleased," Poly coach Ron Palmer said. "We've worked all year to get to these kinds of games, so I have no complaints."  Junior forward Alex Bausley scored a team-high 19 points, and senior guard Kevin Bell added 13 for the Lions.

From the LA Times
By Ben Bolch
Sports Writer

Fairfax trimmed Long Beach Poly’s 17-point lead to five on two occasions and looked like it was capable of winning a second consecutive game without its leading scorer, Evan Burns, whose right hand was swathed in bandages, accidentally cut a finger on glass earlier in the week.  But that’s when Jackrabbit forward Marcedes Lewis stepped up to score five of Poly’s next 10 points as the Jackrabbits pulled away at Los Angeles Southwest College. The fourth-seeded Jackrabbits (30-3) will play top-seeded Westchester, in the regional final at 8 p.m. Saturday at Long Beach Arena. It will be Poly’s first appearance in a final since 1990. Reggie Butler led all Poly scorers with 22 points, Carlos Rivers added 14 points and Bobby Jones had 12. Alex Bausley scored 19 points for second-seeded Fairfax (30-5), which rallied after falling behind, 48-31, early in the third quarter. Lion guard Jahsha Bluntt’s third three-pointer of the quarter pulled Fairfax to within 54-46. After Jamal Boykin scored inside to cut the deficit to 58-53 early in the fourth, Bluntt (16 points) and Kevin Bell (13) missed three-pointers that could have made it a two-point game. Ben Bolch

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