OT thriller, underclassmen headline Rose City 1st day

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PASADENA, Ca. – There were a couple of wildly entertaining games and a couple of blowouts in the first day of the Pasadena High-hosted ninth Rose City Roundball Classic.

Well, .500 isn’t bad at all.

Long Beach Jordan and La Verne Lutheran (with Jordan eking out a 64-63 overtime decision) and Chino Hills and Reseda Cleveland (with Chino Hills zipping its way to a 97-79 victory) provided all of the thrills and “real-game” entertainment.

L.A. Price (91-57 over Ventura) and the host Bulldogs (72-29 over Canoga Park AGBU) overwhelmed vastly overmatched opponents to advance to Wednesday evening championship quarterfinal contests.

Jordan, among the most underrated teams in Southern California going into this season, got solid play from veterans Kaleahl Ferguson, Raushead Johnson, Deonta Wingfield and Andre Springer, and prolific jump shooting from sophomore Seth Guillory (four 3s) to edge Lutheran, which was led by senior guard Jay Miller, a very good jump shooter, and 6-foot-4 junior Joseph Rushing.

Two of the Southland’s quickest teams will be on the floor when Jordan and Price – led by Arizona State-bound guard Chance Murray – hook up Wednesday evening at 6:30,

The other championship quarterfinal (at 8 o’clock) Wednesday could prove to be one of the best matchups of the first week of the season.

Chino Hills has one of the better juniors (6-5 Bishop Mency) and one of the top freshmen (6-2 Lonzo Ball) in Southern California – and beyond, in reality.

Each was superb Monday night and will offer challenges to the defense of Coach Tim Tucker’s Bulldogs.

Pasadena has a plethora of standouts, including sophomore Jeffery McClendon and Burbank transfer Andre Spight.

Another Monday night standout (albeit in a losing cause) was Cleveland sophomore point guard Michael Oguine, who was pretty much too hard to guard for 32 minutes by Chino Hills.

I would be surprised if he isn’t an All-L.A. City selection come March.

I will attended the other half of the first-round games played on Tuesday: 3:30, L.A. Washington Prep vs. Montebello Cantwell; 5, Muir vs. Renaissance Academy; 6:30, El Camino Real vs. Granite Hills; 8, Sylmar vs. Leuzinger.