Notebook /Sam Farmer : Crescenta Valley Finds Home a Pleasant Place to Play a Tournament

The Crescenta Valley High boys’ basketball team clinched its own tournament by beating Burroughs in overtime, 79-66, Saturday.

Center John Gilmore, who scored 5 of his 32 points in the overtime period and had 16 rebounds, was named the tournament’s most valuable player.

“The last game showed we can come from behind,” said Coach John Goffredo, adding that the Falcons do not have spectacular talent but have found their groove. “Our JV team was OK, not great. We’ve just meshed real well, at least for now.”

And it did not take long for Crescenta Valley’s offensive scheme to fall into place. The Falcons won the El Segundo tournament and point guard Raffie Eskandarian was named MVP.

Goffredo said that in his 11 years at Crescenta Valley he has never coached a team that is so deep.

Add Crescenta Valley: The Falcons crushed Burbank, 59-14, in a semifinal game.

Burbank made a paltry 9% of its shots and scored just 2 points in the fourth quarter. “We had about five or six blocks early and they got real gun shy,” Goffredo said.

Crescenta Valley hardly had a banner night, making 19 of 53 shots.

Buried by Burroughs: La Canada (3-1) did not fare as well in the Crescenta Valley tournament. After cruising to an easy victory over Burroughs Ridgecrest, the Spartans were eliminated Friday by Burroughs Burbank, 79-62, in the semifinal round.

Spartan Coach Tom Hofman says the game clearly indicated that his highly touted La Canada team, at times, lacks heart.

“This was a bitter loss,” Hofman said. “Our intensity is not nearly that of a championship team.”

Chad Givens, who scored 18 points in the losing effort, says the game was a fluke.

“The Burroughs players played the game of their lives,” Givens said. “We let them have it. We just gave it to them. We have a talented team and if we can bring these guys together, a team like this shouldn’t stay with us.”

Burroughs forward Dan Murphy disagrees. “When La Canada falls behind by 10, they always get down on themselves,” he said.

However, Hofman did not place the blame entirely on the Spartans’ lack of intensity. He said he did not fully utilize the strengths of forward Greg Thompson, who scored 12 in the first quarter but only 1 more the rest of the game.

“We should have taken better advantage of the height difference,” said Hofman, whose team is considerably taller than that of Burroughs. “We should have gone to our bread and butter. Chad and Greg. Greg and Chad.”

The Spartans took third place in the tournament by beating Burbank, 46-38.

Hillman, the sequel: Hoover guard John Hillman is effectively picking up where brother Joe left off. Joe, who plays at Indiana, averaged 23.6 points a game in his junior season at Hoover and 41.3 his senior year.

John, a junior, has averaged 30.8 and scored 43 against St. Francis. Hillman is carrying nearly half the Tornadoes’ offensive load (66 points a game), but opponents are averaging 67.

Three for all: St. Francis guard Allen Freemon has no qualms about taking a couple of steps over the center stripe and launching 3-point shots from considerable distances, even if some of his teammates have yet to get downcourt.

But Coach John Jordan is not concerned. “Basically I give my kids the green light and don’t worry,” he said.

Freemon has made 27 3-point shots in 7 games.