By Cory Kwok
Championship semifinal: Maranatha 73 St Francis 56
Sophomore point guard Jeremy Major continued his dime dropping, high scoring routine in the tournament by pouring down 24 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block to power Maranatha past stubborn St Francis 73-56 and advance the Minutemen into the 2010 La Salle-Temple City Holiday Classic championship.
Maranatha wasted no time and jetted off to quick leads of 12-3 and 21-8 ending the first stanza where Major scored 9 of the last 11 points of that period on a buzzer beating floater with a pair of treys. St Francis matched the strides in the second, answering shot for shot before trailing 22-34 at the break. 40 seconds into the second half, Golden Knights guard Sevan Zarifian, who became red hot and scored all his ten points in the third, hit a three to pull SF within nine, but the Minutemen responded for more cushion with a 9-2 spurt featuring a pair of Ryan Holstein treys for a 16 point, 43-27 lead midway through the third quarter.
Major again became an instrumental factor in helping Maranatha stymie St Francis rally attempts the fourth where eight seconds in he knocked it down from outside for a 21 point Minutemen lead, their largest in the game, before tallying 9 points, four caroms, a dish, and three thefts that period. The Golden Knights got to within a dozen twice, highlighted with an 8-0 run and four three pointers, but were worn down through the stretch. Zach Gardea made sure St. Francis didn’t go away quietly scoring 11 fourth quarter points before finishing with a team high 16. Emerson Castaneda was next with 15.
Other Minutemen in the mix featured Andrew Elffers with buckets in the second and third, RJ Straker’s dozen points, and former La Salle product Josh Chamberlain scoring 19. Maranatha resoundingly crushed St.Francis on the boards 42-23. This championship semi was trey friendly as the teams combined for 17 three pointers. St Francis hit nine, and Maranatha dropped eight.
SF 8 14 12 22 – 56
M 21 13 18 21 – 73
SF – Gardea 16, Castaneda 15, Zarifian 10, Ben Maynard 6, Sean Brennan 5, Andrew Ivankovich 2, Matt Kaufman 2
M – Major 24, Chamberlain 19, Straker 12, Holstein 8, Stephen Van Spronsen 6, Elffers 4
Winners’ bracket 5th/7th play-in: John Muir 55, Mark Keppel 44
Deshawn Hayes lived up to his team-branded billing as the “Helicopter” as he capped his game best 22 point, 11 rebound slate for Muir with a leap and one hand jam off a dish from Dion Nelson late in the contest. Muir sandwiched a 15-5 run in the fourth to pull away from Keppel and win going away, 55-44. The Mustangs advanced to play for 5th place Thursday against Pacific league rival Crescenta Valley.
Nelson also strung together a hot streak of his own as he hit 5 of his first 6 shots before finishing at 13 points. Tevin Polk, adding five caroms, three steals and a block, was the other Mustang in double figures scoring with 10.
Keppel appeared headed for a romp early as Jordan Young shot and hit paydirt on four treys in the opening stanza, rushing the Aztecs to a 16-6 lead after one. Then in the next period, form reversed as it was the Aztecs who were on the short end of a 17-6 rout at the hands of Muir. Jordan Young, along with his twin brother Jordan who posted 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 3 assists, both scored 15. Driving forward Jonathan Marty notched eight second half points on 4-10 shooting and long range threat Garrett Masada hit back to back threes 37 seconds apart from another area code in the third to round out Keppel’s scoring.
Polk, Nelson, and Hayes each had at least two baskets and five points in the second for Muir who took a 23-22 lead into halftime on Hayes’ go-ahead floater with 1:10 left. Muir stayed on top of Keppel in the third quarter thanks in part to Hayes scoring four times underneath.
Keppel 16 6 11 11 – 44
Muir 6 17 13 19 – 55
Keppel – Jordan Young 15, Justin Young 15, Marty 8, Masada 6
Muir – Hayes 22, Nelson 13, Polk 10, Justin Knowles 6, Jelani Mitchell 2, Taturs Mayberry 2
Consolation final play-in: La Salle 56, Hoover 47
La Salle finished on top in a physical, foul filled second half and held Hoover scoreless for the last 5:28 of play onto a 56-47 victory, rolling into the consolation final and a meeting with local rival Arcadia.
Kishon Sanders, the Lancers’ leading rebounder averaging 9.3 caroms per game coming into this tournament, built on his double-double performance from the previous night with five points and another 11 boards. Sanders was a pivotal catalyst down the stretch for La Salle where he collected 7 of the team’s 8 fourth quarter rebounds. The Lancer defense did the rest, forcing 8 turnovers and holding the Tornadoes to only 3 points in the final period.
Artin Mirzakhanyan showered the hoop with two treys before downing a driving hook to inch Hoover ahead 24-21with 2:51 to play in the second. And that was the last wind from the Tornadoes of the first half as they remained scoreless into the break while the Lancers closed it out with a 6-0 run as Ian Schuler capped his nine point, second quarter fiesta with a trey off an Israel Lacy assist.
Lacy pestered Hoover with five thefts and spurred the La Salle offense with four assists, all in the first half, before finishing with ten points and seven steals. Schuler led the team in scoring with 16, adding four boards and two dishes. Gary Mkrtichyan, the Lancers’ man in the middle, worked hard in the paint and provided ten points, nine rebounds. La Salle’s bench outscored Hoover’s 17 to 2.
Hoover’s Arbi Abelian garnered 14 rebounds in this game and is fast making a name for himself as one of the area’s elite rebounders after a 17 board, 14 point output yesterday and a 15 board performance on Monday for a total of 46 and average of 15.3 RPG. Aden Ziraki was the leading Tornado hoopster with 16 points.
Hoover 11 13 20 3 – 47
La Salle 9 18 14 15 – 56
Hoover – Ziraki 16, Mirzakhanyan 14, Kyle Bernardo 6, Abelian 5, Reni Nazari 4, Teo Aghazarian 2,
La Salle – Schuler 16, Lacy 10, Mkrtichyan 10, Darryl Oliver 6, Sanders 5, Jeff Briegel 5, Jared Padiernos 2, Peter Nuguid 2
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