HOOVER STILL IMPRESSING
By Hamlet Nalbandyan, Glendale News-Press and Leader
June 15, 2005
NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Yes, it’s only the summer, and Vigen Jilizian
is fully aware of that.
Still, even he admits his Hoover High boys’ basketball team is
capable of doing some special things next winter.
“Nobody’s going to give us a CIF ring for this,” said Jilizian after
his Tornadoes defeated archrival Glendale, 44-30, in Tuesday’s Hoover
High Summer League contest at the Tornado gym, which improved Hoover
to 3-1 in the summer.
“But our kids are working hard. I just want them to keep improving,
and we’ll see what happens.”
What’s happened so far should bring smiles to the faces of Tornado
fans. The Tornadoes competed over the weekend in the Southern
California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Assn. Summer Classic at
Glendale Community College.
There, they defeated Pasadena Marshall handily, 59-37, in the opener
before pulling off an upset victory against powerhouse
Harvard-Westlake, 46-37.
The Wolverines won the CIF Southern Section Division IIIA title last
season and return 10 of their 14 players from that group. Jilizian
said Harvard-Westlake had a vast majority of its roster at Saturday’s
game.
After beating Harvard-Westlake, the Tornadoes then faced small-school
power Campbell Hall later that day and just lost, 50-46. Campbell
Hall went 32-0 last season and won the Division IV state title.
“I think Hoover’s going to be outstanding next year,” Nitro Coach
Steve Snodgress said. “They’ve got a lot of pieces. They have a very
strong big guy and a really good young guard.”
Indeed, the Tornadoes have talent.
The big guy Snodgress was talking about is junior-to-be Zare
Zargaryan, who finished with 11 points and eight rebounds Tuesday.
Zargaryan looked stronger and faster than last season, as did
sophomore-to-be point guard Shara Babakhanians, who finished with
nine points.
The Tornadoes also added 6-foot-4 power forward Ray Beginyan, who
finished with seven points and six rebounds, and they’ve got good
role players in Razmik Hossepians (six points) and Artash Davtyan
(five points). And best of all, all of the aforementioned key players
are all underclassmen.
“We’re only going to have three seniors next year, so eight of these
guys have at least one more year after next year,” Jilizian said.
While the Tornadoes — who finished last in the Pacific League but
still won 11 games a season ago — have the pieces to their puzzle
pretty much set, the Nitros (0-1) are still in the searching stages.
Glendale graduated its top two scorers from last season in Raymond
Dagher (14.2 points per game) and Leonard Khechumyan (12.0), which
means Snodgress is looking for a go-to player.
“We return a lot of our support group, but someone from that group
has to emerge and lead us,” Snodgress said. “We’re going to rely on
guys like David [Lee], Hamlet [Hovhanesian] and Theo [Minassian], and
two of those three have to step up in every game.”
In Tuesday’s game, there were stretches where that trio played well.
Glendale grabbed an 8-6 lead with 15 minutes left in the first half,
but then got outscored 12-0 in the next 10 minutes.
The Nitros pulled head, 24-23, three minutes into the second half,
then got outscored, 21-2, during the next 15 minutes Lee led Glendale
with 10 points and Hovhanesian added nine, all on three-pointers.
Minassian finished with five off the bench and junior-to-be center
Haig Darakjian added four.
* HAMLET NALBANDYAN covers sports. He can be reached at (818)
637-3226 or by e-mail at [email protected].
From: Baghdasarian