Empire League : El Dorado Finds Its Strength in Numbers

Dan Bailey was the essence of democracy in action Friday when the El Dorado High School basketball team fended off tall and talented Katella, 76-70, at El Dorado.

Around El Dorado, where nobody on the team has any height to spare, the Golden Hawks thrive under a system of egalitarian offense.

Instead of one man, one vote, the Hawk philosophy is one man, one shot. There are no designated shooters; every citizen of the court is welcome to exercise his aim at the rim.

This approach suits their personnel--small, fast and sweet-shooting--very nicely.

In the second game of the Empire League season, the Hawks (2-0, 7-1) demonstrated that despite having only one returning starter, there is no false advertising in their title of defending league co-champions.

With a great deal of credit to Bailey, whose listing as 5-foot-10 in the Hawk program bears limited resemblance to the reality of his frame, El Dorado looked like a repeat contender Friday.

And a performance against Katella (1-1, 6-3), the team considered the league favorite, is as good a yardstick as any.

When the Hawk offense starts to lean too heavily on a couple shooters, Conley makes a point of reminding the others not to be afraid to take their chances. Lately, Jim Sammon and Rob Hanna have been playing so well--each averaging close to 20 points a game--that Conley saw signs of over-reliance on the pair.

One person who recently threatened to fade into the woodwork when it came to shooting was Bailey, Conley said. The little guard, who plays with great intensity, had to be prodded a bit to grab some limelight.

“Bailey’s been off the last couple games, and he hasn’t been taking many shots in practice this week,” Conley said. “We told him to shoot a lot tonight.

“We have to tell him to shoot. Otherwise, Sammon and Hanna will do all the shooting. We have five shooters on this team. That’s what I’m always telling them.

“He was the key tonight. After we had a slow start, he got us into the game.”

So while Katella’s 6-9 forward Bob Erbst was doing his defensive best to help Sammon (13 points) have an “off” night in scoring, Bailey bloomed. By the first minute of the second period, he had already scored seven baskets. By no coincidence, the Hawks led, 37-35.

He went on to score 22 points, tying for the team-high with Hanna. Bailey also contributed several steals to keep the Hawks’ moving along at their usual pace--Orange County’s leading threat to the sound barrier.

Katella did a good job in keeping up with the flying Hawks, and, consequently, the game was frequently tied--17-17 after one quarter and 33-33 at the half. But the Knights, who held a five-point lead early in the game, began to flag slightly in the second half. El Dorado edged out to a 54-52 lead going into the fourth quarter.

KATELLA (70)--Sunu 6, Anderson 9, Lucas 9, Erbst 22, Baldwin 5, Petrakis 4, Stierstorfer 14.

EL DORADO (76)--Bailey 22, Glade 4, Krapf 9, Sammon 13, Hanna 22, Page 2, Dahmen 1, Byers 3.

Los Alamitos 80, Esperanza 44--The Griffins raised their league record to 2-0 and 7-1 overall with a easy victory over the Aztecs at Los Alamitos.

J.T. Snow scored 21 points, and had 7 assists and 4 steals to lead the Griffins. Ryan Bossey was the leading rebounder with 11. He also scored 10 points and had 4 steals for Los Alamitos.

ESPERANZA (44)--Burks 3, Cammalo 4, Harvey 10, Vincent 11, Branstetter 4, Gilbert 2, Driver 10.

LOS ALAMITOS (80)--Snow 21, Scmitz 11, Blossey 10, Loe 11, Treece 8, Warner 5, Foster 4, Anderson 6, Bowen 4.

Pacifica 64, Loara 60--Senior forward Rick Chapman scored 15 points and the Mariners held off the Saxons in the fourth quarter to even their league record at 1-1. Pacifica went into the final quarter leading, 41-26, was outscored by 11 points but hung on to win by 4.

Despite another fine performance from senior Gary Miller with 22 points, the Saxons fell to 0-2 in league and 2-5 overall.

LOARA (60)--Miller 22, Clester 15, Trujillo 2, Storm 1, Roberts 5, Parker 12, Hagerman 3.

PACIFICA (64)--Bonham 14, Short 15, Chapman 17, Takemoto 1, Brodt 10, Merry 4, McDowell 4, Beatty 1, Skaggs 2.

Cypress 74, Kennedy 70--Sophomore Bond Weaver scored 20 points and had eight assists to lead the Centurions (2-0) to the win at Kennedy. Weaver scored 12 of his 20 points in the third quarter, as Cypress outscored Kennedy, 23-15, to take control of the game. Guard Mike Cote added 13 point for Cypress. Kennedy (0-2) was led by Darrin Queen who scored 20 points.

CYPRESS (74)--Civitelli 4, Weaver 20, Cote 13, Kawamura 6, Reyes 8, Bumgarner 2, Yoxtheimer 10, Aguirre 11.

KENNEDY (70)--Lauderdale 11, Keith 17, Queen 20, Marres 14, Curri 2, Hansell 4, Kosek 2.