NORWALK, Ca. – The Bishop Montgomery High basketball team may come into its Take Flight Challenge 18 game against one of the west’s most gifted starting fives Friday night at Cerritos College.
In terms of out the outcome, though, it was status quo for Coach Doug Mitchell’s Knights.
Bishop Montgomery, minus three starters in UCLA-bound David Singleton (broken nose) and juniors Gianni Hunt (broken leg) and Will Crawford (foot injury), trailed Sierra Canyon by as many as 10 points in the first half and by seven with less than three minutes remaining.
But a whole lot of fellows stepped up in big-time fashion to knock off the Trailblazers (10-2), 65-62, to improve the defending State Open Division-champion Knights to 13-0.
It was the fourth and final game played on the first day of the fifth annual Take Flight Challenge series in front of an estimated 1,800.
In the most impressive individual performance Friday, junior Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 35 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists to lead Camarillo to a mild “upset” over Windward and UCLA-bound Jules Bernard, 66-60.
The Knights, who extended their winning streak against California-based programs to 42, trailed by double-figures (at 24-14) after transfer-laden Sierra Canyon scored the first 14 points of the second quarter.
Bishop Montgomery to within three points (at 30-27) at intermission, and trailed by the same margin (at 48-45) after three quarters.
Consecutive buckets by junior Cassius Stanley (just eligible this week after a 30-day sit-out following his transfers from Harvard-Westlake) pushed the Trailblazers’ edge to seven points (at 60-53) before Fletcher Tynen of Bishop Montgomery converted a layup that was nearly immediately answered by a bucket from L Simpson (another transfer Harvard-Westlake) with a tad more than two minutes to go.
It was to be the last scoring the Coach Andre Chevalier’s squad was to do.
Senior Jalen Washington (in the starting lineup to do the injuries) hit two free throws for Bishop Montgomery and, after a turnover gave the ball back to the Knights, Tynen scored from the right low block while being fouled and converted the free throw, tying the score at 62 with 1:33.
After Stanley missed a jumper with 58 seconds to go, the teams exchanged four turnovers with the Knights getting the ball on the final exchange and Washington fouled with 17.2 seconds remaining.
Washington made the first of his two free throws for the lead and, inbounding the ball after a timeout with 15.9 to go in front of their bench, the Trailblazers lost the ball again when Scotty Pippen Jr. charged into the Knights’ Nick Schrader with 10.7 seconds remaining and, after taking the inbounds pass, Josh Vazquez was fouled and dropped in both free throws a second later.
After yet another Sierra Canyon timeout, K.J. Martin – who had scored five buckets but hadn’t take a jumper all night in real time – was short of the rim by about a foot on a turn-around, 19-footer and the buzzer sounded and the Knights were still unbeaten after maybe the most unlikely of wins in that streak for Mitchell’s program.
Boston University-bound Tynen scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter while grabbing six rebounds and collecting three assists while Lynwood transfer Oscar Lopez, in his first game for the Knights, had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Reserves Jordan Archie and Christian Bood make important contributions for Bishop Montgomery while Schrader, a junior forward, had one of his best-ever prep efforts with 12 points.
Stanley had 14 points and five rebounds.
Games resume at 9:30 Saturday morning (View Park vs. Campbell Hall) and wrap up with the 8:30 p.m. clash between Sierra Canyon and Josh Christopher-led Mayfair.
In other games:
St. Bernard 62, Redondo Union 61: In finish that aptly can be described as every bit o “wild”, Jayden Winfrey, after missing the second end of a two-free throw opportunity that would have tied the score with 3.9 seconds remaining, missed a rushed layup attempt from the left side at the buzzer that would have won the game.
After the ball bounced off the rim on Winfrey’s second free throw, it was saved from going out of bounds by teammate Chimese Maduno and it ended up in Winfrey’s hands but he didn’t have enough time to get on balance for the attempt.
The Vikings actually led by seven points with less than a minute to go before three turnovers almost proved disastrous.
Junior center Romelle Mansel scored nine of his team-high 16 points in the fourth quarter and grabbed nine rebounds with three blocks for St. Bernard while freshman teammate Tyler Powell had 11 points and eight rebounds off the bench.
Senior guard Zekiah LoVett scored 15 of his game-high 18 points for Redondo in the second half
Camarillo 66, Windward 60: With the shot clock about to expire, Jaquez hit a 3-pointer from the right side over the hand of Bernard to put his team up by four points with about 30 seconds rebounding and then added a couple of insurance free throws.
Bernard had 18 points and 17 rebounds but hit just one of shots from the floor in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Carter Alexander added 16 points for the Scorpions while another 10th grader, Marcus Joseph, had 12 points for the Vikings
Leuzinger 65, Brentwood 56: Sophomore Amound Anderson scored 17 points with five rebounds and three assists to lead the Olympians.
He got plenty of help from the likes of speedy junior John Clausell (who scored 11 of his 13 points in the second quarter) and freshman Bryan Mex (five 3s, three of those in the fourth quarter).
Senior guard Charlie Wadler scored 18 points for Brentwood.
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