LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – Some extensive navigating of the Southern California freeway system was involved, but the final Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday of 2012 provided a wonderful way to wrap up the December portion of the high school hoops season.
I spent Dec. 26 at Torrey Pines High in San Diego County, watching the first round of National Division games that made up the 23rd edition of the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic.
Teams that impressed me were Richmond Salesian, Sacramento Sheldon, Los Angeles Windward, San Diego St. Augustine and Oakland Bishop O’Dowd – all of which are capable of winning sectional and state titles in California in March.
St. Augustine stunned Salesian – led by Cal-bound Jabari Bird – in the semifinals but Sheldon was too much for St. Augustine Saturday night. San Diego State-bound Dakarai Allen was an easy choice as the Most Valuable Player for Sheldon.
The best individual matchup of the week took place Wednesday night at Torrey Pines when 6-foot-6 junior Justise Winslow of Houston St. John’s hooked up with 6-8 sophomore Ivan Rabb of Bishop O’Dowd. Call the matchup a (figurative) “push” with Rabb’s team winning the game, though.
Thursday I was few miles south-bound on the 5 Freeway, at La Jolla Country Day High for some American Division games of the TPHC.
San Marcos (in San Diego County) Mission Hills and Mesa of Arizona were the two best teams I saw that day and both moved to the final Saturday night at Torrey Pines, with Mission Hills – led by unsigned senior center Kameron Rooks – edging Mesa.
Mesa has one of the best sophomores in the West in 6-5 left hander Jalen Jenkins.
Friday morning it was a two-hour drive to Palm Desert for me, where I watched a day’s worth of games of the MaxPreps Holiday Classic.
The best game I watched was the Invitational Division semifinal between L.A. Loyola and Richmond (TX) Ft. Bend Travis.
Led by twins Andrew (the point guard who was hobbled by a sore hamstring and was on the sidelines for the final four minutes or so) and Aaron Harrison, the Texans prevailed, 67-64.
Andrew made of plenty of plays, at both ends of the floor, before leaving the game. His brother struggled with his jump shot but got into the lane pretty much at will.
Loyola has a terrific pair of juniors. Everyone knows about point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright. Not so many are aware of 6-10 Thomas Welsh. That won’t last for long, though.
Another Los Angeles-based team, Westchester, came back the next evening and defeated the Harrisons & Company in the final, 70-64.
I stayed a lot closer to home Saturday – Chapman University, located in Orange, is about 20 miles north of my Laguna Niguel residence – for the Orange Holiday Classic.
Making the shorter drive enabled me to watch a couple of “small-school” standouts I otherwise may not have been able to watch during the regular season.
Those young gentlemen are both guards: sophomore Marcus LoVett (Burbank Providence), whose team lost to Kentridge (from Kent, WA), and junior Bryan Alberts (Sun Valley Village Christian), whose squad scored 53 points after intermission to knock off Anaheim Canyon, 82-67.
LoVett is a lot more “scorer” than “true point guard” right now. Alberts is much taller (about 6-3 to LoVett’s 5-10ish) but, although he doesn’t have exceptional speed – a la LoVett – point guard is likely his college position.
In the title game, unbeaten Santa Ana Mater Dei rolled to its third tourney title, 77-55 over another Orange County program, Tustin.
Six-foot-six junior Stanley Johnson picked up his second piece of Most Valuable Player hardware for the Monarchs. He left Las Vegas the week before with the MVP plaque as reward for his work during the first-ever Jerry Tarkanian Las Vegas Classic at Bishop Gorman High.
