RIVERSIDE, CA -- There was an all-city championship showdown for the 32nd Kiwanis Tournament here Dec. 11.
A sense of all-city pride seemed to accompany that Friday night showdown – especially since a pair of Inland Valley League teams were center stage at Riverside Poly High School.
Host Poly ousted city rival Arlington, 50-45, in a back-and-forth duel.
The pre-tournament buildup was nice, especially since the service club was willing to sponsor this traditional tournament one more time for the locals.
“This is for bragging right," said longtime Arlington coach John Seydel, moments after his team knocked off Rialto in the semifinals.
Tournament directors expertly interspersed five Riverside-area teams – Notre Dame, Arlington, Ramona, Hillcrest and Poly – throughout the 16-team draw. When the Dec. 10 semifinals rolled around, Arlington had to get past Rialto while Poly and Ramona connected.
Arlington’s win over Rialto ensured it would be an all-city championship.
Poly, a multiple winner of the event, knocked off Ramona.
“We won this tournament my first two years,” Seydel said. "Then we combined with Poly to run this tournament.”
Since then, said Seydel, “we’ve taken second place eight, 10 times.”
As for Yancy Dodson, now on his second tour as Poly’s coach, “There’s a tremendous sense of Riverside pride. These are local schools with local kids -- three of the four semifinalists are from Riverside.”
TARK’S FOOTSTEPS?
Any time coaches like Seydel or Dodson step onto the court to coach, they’re following in the footsteps of Jerry Tarkanian, whose first college coaching efforts took place at nearby Riverside City College.
From 1961-1966, Tark’s RCC record was 145-22, including three straight state titles (1964-66), including a 35-0 record in 1963-64. He left for Pasadena City College before embarking on a path that led him to 778 career wins at NCAA Division 1 campuses, namely Long Beach State, UNLV and Fresno State.
As for players, consider that Tark recruited players at RCC right out of area schools. Bob Rule, an NBA star for several years, was a Poly-to-RCC project. There were plenty along the way.
Eventual RCC coach John Smith, who led the Tigers to a state championship in 2009, coached nine seasons (196-87). He was the son of Lucky Smith, one of Tark’s original RCC players.
Dodson might have sounded a little like Tark when discussing down-the-road matchups with Arlington, an Inland Valley League rival.
“John Seydel and I are very familiar with each other,” he said. “It’s always tricky to play a league team in a non-league game (like the Kiwanis tourney championship). You always want to keep some tricks in the bag.”
It’s a tournament that didn’t exist during Tark’s tenure.
2015 RIVERSIDE KIWANIS
As for the current state of Riverside-area hoops, the all-city showdown, Poly’s five-point win over Arlington included 33 combined points from Hassan Berry and Dylan McDowell, a strong inside-outside combination.
Seydel countered with Kayn Calhoun’s game-high 21 points with Emmitt Tucker accounting for 15.
It cracked an all-out tie between a pair of 7-1 teams. Since both are lodged in the Inland Valley League, there will be two more duels.
The Bears had just left the Battle Zone at nearby Centennial-Compton, another area tournament, opening with a two-point loss to Temecula Rancho Christian.
Since that loss, Poly has rolled up wins over Great Oak-Temecula, Rialto, Roosevelt-Eastvale and another 120-year-old campus, San Bernardino, to cap the Battle Zone experience.
In the end, Chino Hills beat Foothill Christian-El Cajon for the Battle Zone title.
Seydel, meanwhile, did his own Tark-like impression. He was trying to figure out why his team – just back from an out-of-state tournament in Arizona – could knock off a team from Toronto, Canada by 13 points, then turn around and lose to the same team by 17 points.
ONE SEMIFINAL – ARLINGTON-RIALTO
Those games against the Canadians answered why Seydel called time out at certain points in the semifinals win over Rialto. Arlington’s lead had been cut to 35-28 after Arlington’s Jacob Lane’s right-corner three-pointer had given the Lions a nine-point lead.
“Two reasons I called that timeout,” he said. “I needed to give them a rest timeout. It was their third game in three nights. The second reason is to tell them we needed (defensive) stops and to slow the ball down on offense.”
Rialto, which led at halftime over Arlington, kept hammering away at the Lions. Knights’ senior Donald Nesby kept fighting with post moves, three-point shots and up-tempo defense against the Lions.
Arlington prevailed, 51-44.
“I give (Rialto) a lot of credit,” said Seydel. “They were getting second chance points, fighting us every step.”
Arlington didn’t score a field goal after Dylan Brown’s inside move off an inbounds play made it 45-35 with 4:32 left. Rialto wasn’t much better.
When it came to “crunch time, my seniors took over,” said Seydel.
Calhoun hit five out of six free throws to seal it.
THE OTHER SEMIFINAL – POLY-RAMONA
In Poly’s semifinals win over Ramona, the Bears built up a 15-1 lead before the Rams – whose home gym Tarkanian started his historical habit of chomping down on towels during his days coaching Redlands High School – started chipping away.
Suddenly, Poly’s lead was two points in the third quarter.
Said Dodson: “We have a general understanding that each game is going to be a 32-minute grind that doesn’t end until the clock runs out.
“There are ups and downs. We had our ups early and our downs happened late in the first half.”
In a 26-point performance, tournament MVP Berry delivered – a 24-foot trey that lifted Poly to a 37-32 lead. An eight-point run – Tyler Simmons free throws, Zack Ritter’s left corner bomb and another trey from Berry – gave Poly some breathing room heading into the final quarter.
Jacob Cockerham hit on a layup and Berry followed in a missed shot, then delivered a trey for a 15-point lead.
Poly won the semifinal, 57-45.
Both teams must rebound from a slow finish last season.
Last year’s Inland Valley League final standings showed city rival North atop at 10-0, trailed by Valley View-Moreno Valley (8-2) and Rancho Verde-Moreno Valley (5-6), which beat Arlington (4-7) in a playoff for third place – Poly taking fifth place.
Said Dodson: "We'll be ready for this year."
"Can't wait to get started," said Seydel.
