SAN DIEGO – Coach Miguel Villegas’ Los Angeles Windward basketball team recorded consecutive upsets this week to earn its way into Friday night’s championship game of the National Division of the 22nd Torrey Pines Holiday Classic.
But if the Wildcats win the title Friday night, it would have to be classified as something well beyond an upset.
That’s because Villegas’ squad takes on 8-0 Hyattsville (MD) DeMatha in the game set to tip off at 8:15 p.m. Pacific Time.
Coach Mike Jones’ Stags are rated as high as No. 4 in the national Top 25s.
The Wildcats, after stunning San Jose (CA) Mitty the night before, polished off Woodland Hills Taft – the best team in the L.A. City ranks – Thursday night behind the 30 points of Loyola Marymount-bound Nick Stover, 71-59.
Windward overcame the presence of one of the nation’s best juniors, 6-foot-8 Aaron Gordon, when it knocked off Mitty Wednesday night.
The Wildcats will have to cope with another elite-level 11th grader Friday night in the person of DeMatha’s 6-9 BeeJay Anya.
But the Stags have a whole lot more around Anya than Mitty has to go with Gordon.
Among those players are 6-8 Jerami Grant (a Syracuse signee) and 6-3 James Robinson (a future Pittsburgh Panther).
Thursday night’s semifinal losers, Taft and Newark (CA) Memorial, play for third in the National Division at 6:40.
Del Mar (CA) La Costa Canyon and Santa Maria (CA) Righetti meet for the American Division title, also at Torrey Pines High (3710 Del Mar Heights Road) at 5:05.
Follow my commentary on the games on Twitter – FrankieBur.
Leave a Reply