Glendale Gets Past Canyons : Hoffman Scores 46 With Deadly Jumper

In the debut of its new fast-break offense Tuesday night, College of the Canyons waited too long to run and gun, and lost, 97-93, to Glendale College at home.

Glendale took the lead on a Tod Grissom jump shot at the start of the game and never relinquished it to win the battle of the two defending conference champions. The Vaqueros, who won the Inland Conference last season, were paced by forward John Hoffman, who scored 46 points.

“I can’t remember a player ever getting that many points against us,” Canyons Coach Lee Smelser said. “I think Valley College’s Larry Middleton scored 40 against us last season, but nobody has ever done this.

“We saw him play for three days when we were playing exhibition games over the weekend in Sacramento and he didn’t shoot like that. He’s outstanding.”

Glendale Coach Brian Beauchemin agreed.

Said Beauchemin: “Hoffman is the best jump-shot shooter in the state. I’m not trying to hype the guy up, he’s just the best shooter. I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t know it was true.”

It may be too early in the season to tell what player has the best shot, but Beauchemin seems steady in his praise.

“Middleton was a different type of shooter,” he said, referring to the state’s leading junior college scorer last season. “Hoffman is a jump-shot player. Middleton scored on a lot of layups. How many layups did you see Hoffman make?”

Three. The rest were from the line or from the field. He was 16 of 21 from the field and also grabbed 11 rebounds. With Hoffman in the lineup, along with two other returning starters from the Vaqueros winning season last year, Glendale (2-0) may win another conference title.

Canyons, which is the defending Mountain Valley Conference champion, looked impressive, if at times sloppy, in its first outing of the season.

“I think, overall, we ran the ball pretty well,” Smelser said. “It did look sloppy at times but we did well.

“The thing is, we’re going to run the ball all season so we’re going to throw it away a lot more.”

Last season, the Cougars relied on big men and a half-court attack to get to the state tournament. This season, the Cougars have a faster look.

One asset is freshman Kevin Honaker, the former Hart High standout, who came off the bench to score 11 points.

Said Smelser: “We didn’t get the ball to Kevin that much early in the game but when we gave it to him late, when we were trying to come back, he shot very well.” Honaker scored nine points in the last 14 minutes.

With Glendale leading, 94-85, and only 1:10 left on the clock, the Cougars’ Chris Botkin stole the ball and passed to Honaker who hit from 12 feet out. With 39 seconds left, Honaker hit from the top of the key to pull Canyons within six, 96-89. But Hoffman hit two free throws and teammate Darren Hubbell hit one to put the game out of reach.

Hubbell ended the night with 22 points. Canyons’ James Mixon had 18 points, Derek Hughes had 15, and Vincent Ray led the Cougars with 17. Ray also had eight rebounds. Canyons’ Ron Stapp picked up 11 points off the bench.

“I don’t know,” Smelser said. “It may have been first-game jitters. Actually, the score doesn’t tell the truth. It make sit looks closer than it actually was. That Hoffman is a fine shooter. I was a little disappointed that our defense didn’t put enough pressure on him. We’re going to work on our defense.

“I’d be crazy if I didn’t say that.”