SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The front-court of DeAndre Ayton, Alfred Hollins and Shamiel Stevenson accounted for a collective 50 points and 30 rebounds Friday night.
And that was more than enough as Hillcrest Prep of Phoenix pulled away in the second half for a 73-51 victory over Houston Westbury Christian during the HoopHall West Invitational at Chaparral High.
It was a five-game, eight-hour first day of the event, with action tipping between New York City’s Christ the King and Phoenix St. Mary’s at about 4 o’clock and wrapping up with the Hillcrest Prep-Westbury Christian a few minutes past midnight.
Hillcrest Prep was without the heavily touted Ayton (who signed a national letter of intent with the University of Arizona last month) last week for a tournament in Kentucky, reportedly as he was in the Bahamas as an apparent issue concerning his visa was rectified.
The 6-foot-11ish Ayton was far from scalpel-sharp in the first half, losing the handle on some potential rebounds, missing a couple of follow slam attempts and clanging a couple of jump shots.
But he was at his “no worse than one of the top two or three prospects in the 2017 class”-best after intermission while helping his team pull away from what was just a seven-point advantage.
Ayton hit a couple of 3s while scoring 15 of his game-high 20 points and collecting 10 of his also game-best 18 rebounds.
The 6-5 Hollins, who attended Sacred Heart Cathedral in San Francisco before moving to Arizona for his senior campaign, added 17 points and seven rebounds.
Westbury Christian (which plays a very gifted LaLumiere School of La Porte in Indiana Saturday night at 8 o’clock) started three sophomores Friday night and one of those, 6-7 Quinn Slazinski, had teams across the board with 19 points, seven rebounds and three steals.
In other games Friday:
*NYC Christ the King 60, Phoenix St. Mary’s 45: Georgia Tech-bound point guard Jose Alvarado had a nifty game for the winners with 19 points, five rebounds, three assists and four steals and just two turnovers in 31 of a possible 32 on-court minutes.
Coach Joe Arbitello started an all-sophomore frontcourt that bordered on the massive via the 6-10 (and, give or take, 275 pounds) Kofi Cockburn, 6-7 Phillip Joseph and 6-6 Jared Harrison-Hunte.
A junior guard, Tyson Walker, was the only other CTK player to score in double figures (with 14 points) while 6-9 junior K.J. Hymes went for 19 points and five rebounds for St. Mary’s (which has another toughie at 5:30 Saturday against California powerhouse Santa Ana Mater Dei).
*Chino Hills (CA) 84, Las Vegas Bishop Gorman 70: Brothers Gelo (30 points) and Melo (19 points, three rebounds, seven assists and six steals) Ball didn’t shoot exceptionally well but still did more than enough to help the Huskies extend their two-season winning streak to 41.
And while the Ball Brothers combined to miss 29 of their 46 shots from the field, Loyola Marymount-bound Elizjah Scott and sophomore Onyeka Okongwu were bouncing opponents around like human pin balls, powering their way to a combined 26 rebounds and five blocked shots.
Scott scored quite the “efficient” 20 points while hitting eight of 10 shots from the floor and four of five free throws.
*Tempe (AZ) Corona del Sol 99, Hayward (CA) Moreau Catholic 67: Arizona’s No. 1 team had little in the way of on-court speed bumps while rolling one of Northern California’s best programs.
CDS’s “major college backcourt” of Alex Barcello (who signed with the University of Arizona last month) and Saben Lee (Vanderbilt) never let the proverbial peddle off the metal until Coach Neil MacDonald began to sub liberally in the fourth quarter.
Barcello went for 28 points (12 of 19 from the field, including two of six from behind the stripe), eight rebounds, three assists and two steals while Lee had 12 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists.
Senior guard Damari Milstead (playing in front of his future coach, Dan Majerle of Grand Canyon University) hit 24 points with seven rebounds and two assists while 6-5 freshman Kyree Walker strong-armed his way to 23 points, five rebounds and four assists.
*Chandler (AZ) Basha 59, Lake Oswego (OR) 49: The team from Oregon was overwhelmed in the early going, ball being by 20 points multiple times in the first half (the last of those at 30-10 at intermission).
Only two Basha players got as many as 20 on-court minutes, with Terrell Brown and Gabe McGlothan leading the way with 16 and 12 points, respectively.
Junior J.R. Schilling scored a game-high 21 points for Lake Oswego while pacing his team’s too-little, too-late surge.
The complete schedule for the second and final day of the event on Saturday: Noon, Scottsdale (AZ) Chaparral vs. Northridge (CA) Heritage Christian; 1:30 p.m., Lake Oswego (OR) vs. Gilbert (AZ) Perry; 3, Chandler (AZ) Basha vs. Hayward (CA) Moreau Catholic; 4:30, Tempe (AZ) Corona del Sol vs. NYC Christ the King; 6, Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei vs. Phoenix St. Mary’s; 8, La Porte (IN) LaLumiere School vs. Houston Westbury Christian.
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