Sunday hoops were popping at Lynwood, Westminster

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LYNWOOD and WESTMINSTER, Ca. – Courtesy the 710 and 405 freeways, Sunday proved a productive day for zeroing in on some of the best high school basketball individual – and team – talent in Southern California.

The first stop was at Lynwood High, where middle school hoops impresario Julius von Hanzlik held a “Julius V Select 24” double-dip, the first game pitting some of the best in the Southland’s Class of 2019 (freshmen) and the second with the Class of 2018 (sophomores) on display.

Many of the players who participated on Sunday also participated in the Sept. 26&27 Pangos All-West Frosh/Soph Camp at Cerritos College (in Norwalk).

And some of the most impressive among the 2019s in that category included 6-foot-5 Jake Kyman (Santa Margarita in Rancho Santa Margarita), 6-4 Jamie Jaquez (Camarillo), 6-1 Makani Whiteside (Bellflower St. John Bosco), 6-1 Josh Vazquez (Torrance Bishop Montgomery), 6-2 Oscar Lopez (Lynwood) and the L.A. Fairfax duo of 6-3 Robert McRae and 6-0 Dijuan Chumack.

Kyman was every bit as dominant as he was at the Pangos event, exhibiting again why he may not only be the No. 1 freshman in Orange County but could also rival 6-5 Cassius Stanley (Studio City Harvard-Westlake), 5-10 LaMelo Ball (Chino Hills) and 6-8 Isaiah Mobley (Temecula Rancho Christian) as the freshman that could make the most impact on the Southland scene in 2015-16.

His innate spring (his mom and dad were volleyball players at UCLA and Cal State Northridge, respectively) is surpassed by only Stanley in the and maybe Jaquez in the 2019 class.

But what sets him apart from most kids his size and age are his skills as a jump shooter, handler and passer.

He had a “touch” pass for an assist in transition Sunday of the type rarely seen out of anyone but Lonzo Ball.

Chumack, Lopez and Vaquez displayed all the elements (physical and mental) of “true” point guards while Whiteside (although he didn’t jump shoot nearly as effectively as he normally does) and McRae showed off their multitude of “scoring” skills.

As alluded to earlier, Vazquez rivals Kyman not only in his ability to spring quickly and highly on first, second and third bounces but also in his aggressiveness at both ends of the floor.

Knocking down a lot of deep jumpers in the 2019 game was a player who is spending a second school year as an “eighth grader” and may have the best combination of size, athletic tools and jump shot of anyone in the 2020 classification, Johnny Juzang (Tarzana).

Santa Ana Mater Dei was well-represented in the Class of 2018 by 6-9 Michael Wang, 6-6 Reagan Lundeen and 6-4 Harrison Butler.

They’re joined by point guard Spencer Freedman (he didn’t play at Lynwood Saturday but was exceptional during the Pangos event) as part of a Mater Dei sophomore class that is rivaled by only L.A. Windward and Torrance Bishop Montgomery for both depth and quality.

Wayne Arnold (Compton Dominguez) and Austin Galuppo (Valencia West Ranch) showed off the same jump shooting prowess that was so evident at the Pangos camp, Arnold with the uncanny lift he gets before releasing his jumpers and Galuppo with the borderline-line absurd range in which he drills them.

Another guard – this one wasn’t at Pangos – who impressed about as much as anyone did in the 2018 contest was 6-2 Elijah McCullough (La Verne Damien). He releases – and knocks in – mid- to deep-range jumpers with the greatest of ease while rarely “forcing/hunting” any of them.

Then it was time for smooth and painless jaunts south on the 710 and 405 until finding myself just a few blocks north of the 405 off Golden West and at Westminster High, the new “home” of the Compton Magic-founded “The League”, the strongest such fall endeavor in California (and, likely, all of the West, I would imagine).

The teams projected to be the two-best in California going into 2015-16 (by a reasonably significant consensus), Chino Hills and Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, each appeared with full rosters and gave nice displays as to why they are so heavily touted.

With the west’s best high school player (by a significant margin), 6-5 Lonzo Ball, leading the way, Chino Hills blitzed Riverside JW North, 109-79.

To put that score in perspective, the games were played with 20-minute halves and running clocks Sunday.

For a bit more perspective JWN was playing more or less the same personnel that helped the Huskies go unbeaten in the regular season before losing CIF Southern Section Open Division games with Bishop Montgomery and Redondo Union last spring.

Sierra Canyon, which lost a three-point decision to (after leading by 13 points in the second half) to Chino Hills in the Sept. 20 Ron Massey Memorial Classic semifinals at Long Beach Jordan, Sunday handled a couple of potential – if not “likely” – Southern Section Open Division teams this season in Compton and L.A. Cathedral.

By way of players one-thru-seven, at least, there isn’t a prep team in the west than the one Coach Ty Nichols fields at Sierra Canyon with a stronger pair of posts (in juniors Ira Lee and Cody Riley) or quicker backcourt (via senior Devearl Ramsey and junior Remy Martin).

Long Beach Poly knocked off Mater Dei and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman in the first rounds of the Ron Massey Memorial before being blistered by Chino Hills – 85-55 – in the championship game.

But Coach Shelton Diggs’ team played each of those three games without its best player in 6-2 Drew Buggs, who was visiting the University of Hawaii (where he has since committed) that weekend.

Buggs was in a Poly uniform on Sunday, though, and he was easily the most influential player in his team’s 64-52 against another Southern Section Open Division participant from last season in Corona Centennial.

Centennial was out 6-8 junior Jalen Hill (at a USA Basketball event in Colorado Springs) and its head coach, Josh Giles (his daughter was playing in a softball tournament) while Poly remains without 6-8 Myles Johnson (sidelined following surgery for a knee injury).