friday previews southern section games

Here's the schedule of today's games, in the order of play, from start to finish.

V-A --Price v. Antelope Valley Chrisitian	Fri., Mar. 5, UCI Bren Center - Afternoon Session, 3 p.m.
V-AA--Pasadena Poly v. Santa Clara	Fri., Mar. 5, UCI Bren Center - Evening Session 4:45 p.m.
IV-AA--Serra v. Twentynine Palms	Fri., Mar. 5, UCI Bren Center - Evening Session, 6:30 p.m.
IV-A--Verbum Dei v. Crossroads	Fri., Mar. 5, UCI Bren Center - Afternoon Session 8:45 p.m.

Note also that the LA City Final between Manual Arts & Fairfax is tonight at 8:00 p.m. at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, so you'll have to make a choice about what to see.

Again, for the CIF-SS event, tickets are $8.00 for General Admission, and $4 for student presale and children at the door.

We're definitely going to go see No. 1 Price v. No. 2 Antelope Valley Christian, and we're looking forward to the matchup between Price's Chris Alexander (6'-3" So. PG/SG) and Antelope Valley's Matthew Nurse who is averaging about 23 ppg. Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times also had a little blurb about the game in his column today, highlighting the father-son relationship of Matthew Nurse and his father, David, who also happens to be the coach of the team: "Coach David Nurse of Antelope Valley Christian and his son, point guard Matthew Nurse, have a typical father-son relationship. Unless there's a game in progress. "When he's out there playing, I'm not 'Dad,' " David said. "I treat him just like another player." In the championship game of the Fillmore tournament last December, Matthew fouled out in the first half and the Lions (21-2) lost to Nordhoff, 55-53. "After he picked up his third foul, he said, 'Dad, I won't foul any more,' " David said. "Needless to say, he did. I've been 'Coach' during games ever since then." Whatever happens on the court stays on the court. "When we're at home, I go back to being 'Dad,' " David said. "We don't talk about games at all." "

Antelope Valley Chrisitian also features Peter Beaudin, another top scorer, while Los Angeles Price also features Andrew Howard, a high scoring threat. We haven't seen Price play since the early season when they beat Buckley in an exhibition game, but they've also just hammered most of their opponents, including such teams as Montclair Prep and other higher division teams. Like Santa Clara, if it wasn't for lower enrollment allowing them to play "down" in V-A, they could easily be competitive at the V-AA or IV level.

The second game of the day, Poly v. Santa Clara is also one that we'll be sticking around to see, and it should be a tough one for No. 1 seeded Poly, because, as coach Brad Hall noted today in the Pasadena Star-News, no one has yet figured out a way to stop Nick Jones and B.J. Ward, and the two of them usually account for about 2/3 of the total points scored by Santa Clara. Here's what Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times also had to say in his colum today in the Valley Edition: "In a matchup almost identical to two years ago, Santa Clara will face undefeated Pasadena Poly in the Southern Section
Division V-AA championship today. Pasadena Poly (27-0) had the same record when the teams met in the 1997 championship, won by Santa Clara, 76-70. To win this time, Pasadena Poly must stop Nick Jones and B.J. Ward of Santa Clara (25-3). "If I knew how to do that, I'd be a popular guy," Panther Coach Brad Hall said. "They're going to score two-thirds of the points Santa Clara scores. It doesn't look to me like anybody's stopped them yet." Koko Archibong, a 6-foot-7 senior who has committed to Pennsylvania, is a force down low for top-seeded Poly, putting center Terrance Dotsy on the spot for second-seeded Santa Clara. Dotsy has played well recently, collecting nine points and seven rebounds before fouling out in a 77-56 semifinal victory Tuesday over Pacific Hills. "He played one of the best games of his life," said Coach Lou Cvijanovich of Santa Clara.

In the next game, Serra v. Twentynine Palms, a game which we may not get to see all the action because we'll be traveling to Pauley to make the 8:00 p.m. tip off , Serra, which is 18-12 on the year, will take on Twentynine Palms, a team which has surprised a lot of people and in the process amassed a 23-5 record. Serra was unseeded going into the tournament, and beat Morro Bay, 57-49 (which incidentally is the site of the Central Section playoff featuring Coast Union--why are they Central and Morro Bay is Southern Section??? We don't know, but we're sure someone does) in the first round, then they beat No. 1 seed Laguna Beach in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals Serra eked out the win over St. Paul, 66-64, and our Jason Day filed his report of that one. We can honestly say we haven't seen much of No. 3 seed Twentynine Palms this season. In a game involving another High Desert dweller, in the first round Palms beat Rosamond, 61-51, then they beat Alpha League's Paraclete, 77-59, in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals in a game witnessed by no one from south of Lancaster, Palms bet Crespi 65-53 in the semifinals. We've already done a preview of Serra, so you know that they have Earl Lewis (6'-5" Sr. F) and Aerick Sanders (6'-8" Jr. C). According to all the info we've been able to gather, it looks like Twentynine Palms is led by 6-4 senior forward Maurice Buchanan (18 ppg) and 6-7 center Vili Morton (13 ppg). We'll be seeing Vili at the Rockfish Spring League sooner or later (we're betting he's hoping it's later) but this team is not going to be a pushover, and it should be a great game.

In the final game of the evening, Verbum Dei, with all of the usual suspects (Dalron Johnson, Marlon Parmer, Washum Dashiell, Ricardo Suazo) will battle Crossroads' Isaiah Fox and company. Of course in each Division, both the runner up and the winner will advance to the State Tournament, which starts on Tuesday, so regardless of the outcome, you'll be able to catch all these teams playing again in the Southern Regionals of the State Tournament. Of course, a Championship not only brings banners, trophies and rings, it also gets a better seed for the State Regional Tournament and a higher travel priority. We've got to believe that Verbum Dei, a team which plays in Division IV, but which is the defending state champion and one of only two teams to beat nationally ranked No. 9 Artesia at the Best in the West, is the deeper and stronger team.

Here are the rosters for the Verbum Dei v. Crossroads game, (at least these were the rosters when we did our previews. . .the teams may have added or dropped a few players, but these are pretty accurate):

Crossroads	Verbum Dei
Isaiah Fox (6'-9" So. C) Felipe Williams (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF) Chad Gordon (6'-3" Sr. SG) Devrin Anderson (6'-2" Jr. SG/PG) Mischa Taylor (6'-6" Sr. SF/PF) Albert Gersten (6'-3" Sr. SF/PF) Kristofer Lofgren (6'-3" So. SG/SF) Daniel Utsinger (6'-1" Sr. SG) Robert Cave (5'-10" So. PG) Adam Shimolian (6'-3" Sr. PF) Joe Abrams (6'-1" Fr. G) Jed Harmsen (6'-3" So. SG/SF) Anthony Locke (5'-7" So. PG)	Robert Watkins (6'-1" Jr. G) Kyle Jones (6'-3" Sr. G) Dalron Johnson (6'-9" Sr. F/C) Rashawd Cobbs (6'-0" Sr. G) Marlon Parmer (6'-1" Sr. PG) Washum Dashiell (6'-3" Sr. G/F) Earl Shuford (6'-6" Sr. F) Jamaal Dean (5'-11" Jr. G) Larry Davenport (6-4" Sr. G/F) Huston Holy (5'-5" Sr. PG) Larry Diggs (6'-2" Sr. G) Ricardo Suazo (6'-5" Sr. F) Nick Dodson (6'-9" Sr. C)

Whichever games you decide to see, you'll probably see one of us from SoCalHoops there. And whether you do or not, if you're at one of these games, be sure to send in the results and details or post them on the board, because we can always use all the help we can get from our readers.