Armijo has a long tradition of participating in the tourney, and for a number of years the families of the Los Gatos team members have hosted the visiting players in the their homes during the four-day tourney.

Armijo and Los Gatos met for the championship this year and the Indians pounded out a decisive 65-45 win which might have generated some interesting good-byes as the Indians hit the road back to Fairfield.

Armijo's Derek Simmons played well enough to win the tournament's Most Valuable Player award, and teammate Leroy Moore was named to the all-tournament team. Rounding out the all-tourney list were Ted Hull and Jordan Vandenberg from Los Gatos, Mike Kaufmann from Pioneer, Danny Wallace from Saratoga and Matt Van Keulen from Live Oak.

Los Gatos made it to the championship game by virtue of a 51-40 win over Willow Glen in round one followed by a hard fought 82-76 overtime victory against Saratoga in the semi-finals.

Vandenberg popped in 16 points from his forward position against Willow Glen to lead the Wildcats. He got help from Hull and Al Palafox, who chipped in nine each, while Bret Hampton and Vincent Bellotti added six each.

The young Rams had a tough time getting untracked against a strong Wildcat defense as Los Gatos built a 24-17 halftime lead and pulled away in the fourth quarter. Junior Lawrence Montepio led the Rams with 12 points, including a three-pointer. Sophomore Steven Skavdahl and junior Hienock Habte bagged nine points each. Sophomore Kyle Schroeder added seven.

After dropping the opening round game to Los Gatos, Willow Glen grabbed a consolation semi-final win of 49-41 over Branham. It was the first win of the young season for the Rams.

The Rams outscored Branham by 10 points in the second quarter to build a 27-16 halftime lead that they never relinquished. The shooting of Habte, who led the Rams with 16 points, was key. Will Robinson tossed in 15 to add support from the outside. Both Skavdahl and Schroeder added seven each.

The Rams ran into a tough Live Oak squad in the consolation final and battled closely for three quarters before a disastrous fourth quarter did them in. Willow Glen was up 32-28 headed into the final stanza of action and was outscored 20-7 in the final eight minutes to allow Live Oak to claim the consolation trophy.

Habte and Robinson had the hot hands for the Rams, knocking in 12 and 11 points, respectively. The Rams had the long ball working with Habte banging two three-pointers and Robinson, Schroeder and Montepio popping in one each.