SAN DIEGO – If you showed up at Torrey Pines Thursday morning at about 9:30 expecting some 13 hours of post-Christmas hoops merriment, you didn’t head home muttering “bah, humbug” – or whatever the basketball equivalent might be.
The first day of the National Division of the Holiday Classic promised to showcase some of the better high school teams and players from coast to coast.
It delivered on that promise.
Eight games were played and something approaching four times that many future major college players were on display. And, no doubt, there were some athletes with their names attached to future NBA paychecks displaying their vast array of skill as well.
Four teams (L.A. Loyola; San Diego St. Augustine; Chatsworth, CA, Sierra Canyon; and Corona, CA, Centennial were coming off tournament championships).
And two others, Chino Hills, CA (to Etiwanda, unbeaten and one of the best teams in the West) and Oakland Bishop O’Dowd (to Santa Ana Mater Dei, the top-ranked team in the West coming off three consecutive California State titles), were coming off narrow defeats in title games Saturday night.
Thursday’s results set the stage for what promise to be some terrific quarterfinals in what is likely the elite “division” in any post-Christmas prep tournament in the U.S. of A.
Those quarterfinals begin Friday afternoon at 2:15 when Loyola (11-0 after its win over Sacramento Sheldon) faces The Patrick School of Elizabeth, NJ (which had a bye into the quarterfinals because New Jersey rules allow its schools to play a maximum of three games in a tournament).
Following a 3:50 consolation game between Montebello (CA) Cantwell-Sacred Heart and Newark (CA) Memorial, quarterfinal action resumes at 5:25 with Sierra Canyon against O’Dowd (easily the best team in Northern California).
Westtown (PA) and Corona Centennial follow at 7 with Chino Hills and Wesleyan Christian (High Point, NC) wrapping up things at 8:35.
Here’s a brief look at each of the eight games I watched at Torrey Pines Thursday – I’m at La Costa Canyon for eight American Division games on Friday:
Torrey Pines 73, San Ysidro 51: In a non-counting game (Torrey Pines automatically advanced to the consolation side of the National bracket while San Ysidro competes in the Mayor’s Division the rest of the way) between San Diego teams, Torrey Pines improved to 11-1 being the 23 points and all-around play of 6-foot-3 sophomore Brandon Cyrus.
Five-seven (or so; I would doubt he is anywhere near the “5-10” he’s listed at on the roster) Lynard Steward did his best to keep his team close with 30 points.
Corona Centennial 71, Montebello Cantwell Sacred Heart 65: The Huskies superior quickness and depth more than negated the huge size advantage they faced at the post positions to head off each of several rallies by the Cardinals.
Junior point guard Sed Barefield led Coach Josh Giles’ team with 19 points while wings Khalil Ahmad (a junior) and Jordan Griffin (a sophomore) added 12 and 11, respectively.
Senior guard Joe Covarrubias kept his team from getting blown out with 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
\ Sierra Canyon 56, Faith Baptist (Ludowici, GA) 46: The freshmen- (led by 6-7 Cody Riley) and sophomore- (point guard Deveral Ramsey the main guy) dominated Trailblazers blazed their way into the quarterfinals despite a sluggish first half.
Riley and fellow 6-7 frosh Ira Lee, who helped their team improve to 11-0, will get their figurative high school varsity baptism in fire Friday against O’Dowd’s 6-9 Ivan Rabb, who may be the best junior prospect in the country right now.
Chino Hills 66, San Diego St. Augustine 55: San Diego State-bound guard Trey Kell (26 points) did all he could at both ends of the floor to keep the defending California State Division III champions within striking distance.
But, ultimately, there were two too many Ball Brothers (sophomore Lonzo and freshman LiAngelo, who combined for 34 points), and too many other quality athletes who converted Lonzo’s terrific passes, to cope with.
Westtown 68, Newark Memorial 61: In a game that threatened never to end, the play of Maryland-bound Jared Nickens and 6-3 junior Edvinas Rupkus (a Lithuanian national who has only been in the U.S. for four months) helped their team build a huge lead and then finally prevail after 44 minutes of play – a regulation 32 minutes play three four-minute overtime periods.
Loyola 88, Sheldon 54: The only suspense tied to this game was in what the final margin might be.
And it could have been much more pronounced had not Cubs’ coach Jamal Adams substituted so frequently and so generously.
Junior Max Hazzard (with 24 points) was better than I’d ever seen him whiles senior point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright (Arizona) and senior center Thomas Welsh (UCLA) were, yeah, pretty much un-guardable as well.
Another senior, Yale-bound Khalil Bedart-Ghani, also did his “I’ll dunk anything that isn’t nailed down”-thing.
Things should come much tougher against The Patrick School Friday – at least one might think so.
Wesleyan Christian Academy 62, Lakewood Mayfair 57: When it comes to the category of “Best First-Day Performances”, everyone else was battling for No. 2 Thursday.
That is because WCA’s North Carolina-bound Theo Pinson – with 35 points and at least a combined dozen assists and rebounds and countless “hustle plays” – kept the team from Southern California out of the championship quarterfinals with his stunning effort.
Junior guard Kendall Small got off to a wobbly jump-shooting start for the Monsoons but closed rapidly – finishing with 25 points – in order to keep his team close until the end.
O’Dowd 68, Seattle O’Dea 52: The Dragons, with several team members (including Coach Lou Richie) coping with various degrees of head and chest colds (hence the three bags of throat lozenges sitting on the scorers’ table neared the O’Dowd bench), trailed by five points after a quarter against a team that came into the game unbeaten.
But one of the better “inside-outside” junior combinations in the country – Ivan Rabb and 5-11 Paris Austin – began showing off the skill that nearly helped the team toppled Mater Dei in Las Vegas Saturday night.
Austin finished with 21 points while Rabb had 13 points and – I guess – at least as many rebounds.
