The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Mustangs in Shootout final Homestead loses in overtime to Prospect By Dick Sparrar Both Homestead and Prospect opened the Saratoga Shootout boys basketball tournament with a couple of close victories. But when they met in the Shootout finals on Saturday night, they played the closest game of them all. The Panthers pulled out a 58-56 overtime win over the Mustangs to win the Saratoga Shootout championship. The clubs had finished regulation locked in a 53-53 tie, but Prospect edged Homestead 5-3 in the extra period to win it all. Monta Vista beat Pioneer 49-42 in the third-place game earlier in the night, and host Saratoga handled Menlo 58-45 to win the consolation championship. Prospect's Barry Sharpe was named the tournament's most valuable player after pumping in 46 points in three games to lead the Panthers to the crown. He was joined on the all-tourney squad by teammates Mike Senteio and Thomas Turner. Homestead's Dat Lai and Matt Hovik won all-tournament team honors along with Chris Chalfant of Monta Vista and Micah Weger and Geoff Lamotte of Saratoga. Sharpe buried 17 points, including three three-pointers, to lead Prospect to the tight 58-56 overtime win over Homestead in the finals. Turner shared game-high honors with 17 points for the Panthers. He also hit a three. Lai was the scoring leader for the Mustangs with 16 points, including a three. Hovik hit three three-pointers on his way to 13 points, and Steve Lambert also had 13 points. A.J. Peper supported with five points, Matt Hoffman hit a three and Max McKay, Arash Kiadeh and Joe Whiteman had two points each. The Mustangs opened up what appeared to be a commanding 19-7 lead in the first period of the title game, but Prospect chipped away at the 12-point lead with six in the second (18-12), four in the third (15-11) and two in the fourth (13-11) to tie it in regulation. Homestead, now 3-6 for the year, opened the tourney with a 41-36 win over Lincoln. Trenton Hill led the Mustangs with 10 points, and Jim Kiel added seven, including a three. Hoffmann finished with six points, Keith Morikawa five, McKay four, Hovik three, Lambert, Peper and Whiteman two each and Matt Root one. Hoffmann, Hovik and Morikawa each hit three-pointers. Homestead advanced to the tourney finals with a close 37-34 win over Monta Vista. The Mustangs led 16-4 after a period, but held on in the fourth as Monta Vista closed the lead to just three points. Hovik had the hot hands for the Mustangs with 23 points, including five three-point buckets. Lai supported with nine points, Lambert five, Hill four and Peper two. Chalfant and Ajay Nagdev led the Matadors with eight points apiece. Maz Astar chipped in with six points, Kevin Coolidge five, Allen Lin four and Kenneth Mah three. Monta Vista, 6-7 this season, battled back with a 49-42 win over Pioneer to clinch third place in the Shootout. Mah led the Mats with 10 points and Chalfant pitched in nine. Daniel Shnapek hit eight points, Coolidge seven, Nagdev five, Astar and Phil Bonin three apiece and Nick Jackson and Lin two each. Mike Nakamura led the Mustangs with 11 points. Louis Carter added 10. The Matadors had opened the tourney with a hard-earned 39-33 win over Menlo. Coolidge led the Mats with 11 points and Mah jammed nine. Fremont wins The Fremont boys rolled to a 53-35 nonleague win over Lynbrook last week. Cameron McNeil led the Firebirds with 15 points, including a couple of threes, and Reynold Carlos fired in 13 points. Carlos also had a three. Melvin Rabena had a couple of three-pointers on his way to eight points, and Glenn Marasigan hit a three on his way to five points. Renato Carlos and Ryan Castro each drilled three-point buckets, and Jacab Esau and Tam Kim had three points apiece. The win helped Fremont improve to 2-4. Mustang girls win Junior guard Vickie Chiang scored just two points for the Homestead girls basketball team in a 63-40 win over Oak Grove last week. But Homestead coach Wade Nakamura was pretty happy to see that field goal fly into the hoop. Chiang was making her return to the court after a sprained knee sidelined her before the final game of the Monta Vista Invitational. Chiang was unable to play in the tournament third-place game, but still won a spot on the all-tourney team. And last week she made her return to the court, seeing limited action in the win over Oak Grove. "She's been playing really well," said Nakamura of Chiang. And the Homestead boss expects her to be back playing at that level when the Mustangs return to action Dec. 28-30 in the Del Mar Tournament. Michelle Wald, Marie Levey, Julie Speckels and Shelly Mellberg led the scoring attack for the Mustangs in last week's win over Oak Grove. Wald and Levey poured in 11 points apiece to lead Homestead in the scoring column. Wald bombed a pair of three-pointers in the win, and she also led the club with six rebounds and six assists. Speckels had a three among her 10 points, and she added five rebounds and four assists. Mellberg finished with 10 points, including a pair of threes. Julia Randall and Chris Strombel supported with six points apiece. Rachel Fredrickson added three points and Nadja Fabian and Diana Lee had two each. The Mustangs, now 10-2, finished the week with an easy 64-13 win over Eastside Prep. Strombel and Lee led a balanced scoring attack with eight points apiece. Levey, Stephanie Malcolm and Randall had six points each, Speckels and Mellberg hit five each and Wald, Chiang, Tanya Green, Fabian and Fredrickson had four each. 'Birds win one, lose two The Fremont girls basketball team won a game, but then lost two last week to slip to 4-4 for the year. The Firebirds pounded Yerba Buena 48-12, but lost 38-32 to Saratoga and 45-37 to Del Mar. Junior forward Josie Wells tossed in 10 points to lead the 'Birds to the win over the Warriors. Monique Gammon and Robin Glass chipped in with seven points apiece. Glass hit a three-pointer. Valerie Lund tossed in six points, Leilani Castro five, Kristin Kam four, Shade Akanbi, Daynelle Parker, Sarah Harvey and Kristi Larkin two each and Sammy Hess one. Fremont jumped out to an overwhelming 29-6 lead by the half and cruised from there to the easy win. Yerba Buena could score no more than four points in any single period. Fremont was to take part in the Cupertino Tournament Dec. 21-23 and will be back on the court on Dec. 30 at Pioneer, 12:30 p.m. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.