Prep Beat
Wednesday, December 22, 1999

No. 12 takes down
No. 8 Montrose in
Iolani semifinals

By Aaron Custodio
Special to the Star-Bulletin

In the battle of nationally ranked prep powerhouses, Dominguez (Compton, Calif.) upset Montrose Christian (Rockville, Md.), 56-37, last night in the semifinals of the Nike Iolani Basketball Classic.

Dominguez, ranked No. 12 by USA Today, was led by Tyson Chandler. The 7-0 center finished with 18 points, six rebounds, four blocks and a steal.

"It's a difficult loss but Dominguez is one of the best teams in the country," No. 8 Montrose coach Stu Vetter said. "We couldn't execute our offense. When we had open shots, we weren't able to convert.

"Of course, they have the big guy inside, which made it hard to penetrate and forced our offense away from the basket."

The Dons' defense gave the Mustangs problems from the start. Montrose was held to 5 points in the second quarter. Chandler punctuated a 29-15 first half with a two-handed jam that roused the crowd at Iolani School.

"Defensively we did a great job,'' Dominguez coach Russell Otis said. "(Montrose) is a good ball club, and to hold them to 15 points, that's very good.

"The players are willing to do whatever it takes. They want to win. They want to be the top team in the country and they are showing that on the basketball court."

Dominguez picked up in the second half where it left off in the first. Chandler's alley-oop dunk from Keith Brooks opened the third quarter on their way to the victory.

Dominguez faces defending USA Today national champion Oak Hill, which is ranked No. 4, tonight at 8:00 in the championship game.

Montrose was led by Marvin Lewis' 17 points.

OakHill (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) 89, Central (Ark.) 62: Oak Hill's five starters scored in double digits in rout of Central.

Abdou Diame's 24 points led the Warriors. Central's Bruce Evans finished with 21 points, including three 3-pointers.

Provo (Utah) 65, Wilson (Florence, S.C.) 58: Jacob Chrisman's 26 points helped Provo hold off a resilient Wilson squad.

The Tiger's Darian Durant led his team with 16 points.

Washington Union (Fresno, Calif.) 79, East Anchorage (Alaska) 77: Preseason All-American De-Shawn Stevenson scored 45 points as the Panthers edged the Thunderbirds. DeShawn Ander-son added 24.

Stevenson hit seven of his nine 3-pointers in the first half. East Anchorage's Peter Bullock finished with 20 points.

Radford 48, Iolani 45: Iolani was held to seven points in the fourth quarter. Sa Tanuvasa scored six of Radford's 10 points in the final period.

Iolani's Bobby Nash had a team-high 11 points.

Roosevelt 40, St. Louis 39: St. Louis gave up 12 points in the second half in the losing effort.

Van Dorsey led all Rough Rider scorers with 10 points. The Crusaders' Joey Borja finished with a game-high 12 points.

Baldwin 59, McKinley 41: Baldwin held the Tigers' offense to five points in the final quarter on its way to the victory.

Kenneth Silva's 12 points led the Bears in scoring. McKinley's Jay-R Laforteza was the game's top scorer with 15.

Waianae 62, Kapaa 45: Waianae outscored Kapaa, 36-27, in the second half to cruise to victory.

Waianae's Jonah Nunuha finished with 12 points. Kapaa's Rhyan Greenleaf had 11 points.