“Youth” does the serving at Pangos Fall Showcase

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GARDEN GROVE, Ca. – Saturday’s Pangos Best of SoCal Fall Showcase, held at Santiago High, proved to be a nice preview, of sorts, for next Saturday and Sunday’s Pangos Frosh/Soph All-West Camp at Westminster High.

Many of the best players in the SoCal Classes of 2023 (eighth graders), ’22 (freshmen) and ’21 (sophomores) were on display at Santiago and each of those showed the skill that they hope will make them standouts next weekend when the competition – which will include players from throughout the west – gets considerably stiffer.

For example, Jahmai Mashack (Etiwanda) and A.J. Burgin (San Diego) scored 15 points apiece to lead the black jersey-wearing squad to an 85-73 victory over the white jerseys in the most competitive of the eight games played Saturday.

The 6-foot-3ish Mashack – the best defender on display in any of the games on any grade level Saturday – continued his impressive play over the late summer and early fall after also turning in strong efforts during last months Hoops by Ugland Skills Summit in Irvine and the Crème of the County in Carlsbad on Sept. 1.

Burgin, who help his team to a San Diego Section title as a freshman, is among San Diego’s best “combo guard” prospects.

Among the many other 2021 standouts were guards Malik Thomas (Damien), T.J. Wainwright (Santa Monica; he was a Culver City standout as a freshman), Scotty Washington (St. John Bosco), K.J. Simpson (Chaminade) and David Elliott (Birmingham), as well forwards Luke Turner (Rancho Christian), Tyler Powell (who recently relocated from St Bernard to Ribet Academy), Nick Davidson (Santa Margarita), Paxton Burzell (JSerra) and Derrick Nettles (Rancho Verde).

Powell had the most impressive combination of strength and vertical explosiveness in the game and Turner and Davidson were perhaps the “purest” jump shooters on display in the game.

Freshmen standouts Saturday included Christian Moore (Brentwood), Gabriel Quiette (Mater Dei), Randi Ovalle (San Gabriel Academy) and Skyy Clark (Oaks Christian) while eighth-grade guys who caught my eye were Brady Dunlap of Santa Clarita (his dad, Jeff, is an assistant on Coach Mark Gottfried’s Cal State Northridge staff), Maurice Wright (Palmdale), Dusty Stromer (Northridge), Orlando Greenlow (Santa Monica) and Presley Bruskotter (San Diego).

In the 2020 (junior) Top 20 game, 6-6 Judah Brown (Newport Pacifica Christian) smashed – literally, he had a boatload of dunks – 30 points to help the white jerseys crew beat down the black jerseys, 123-80.

He got a lot of jump shooting help from guard Sam Dudley (Solana Beach Santa Fe Christian), who hit five 3s en route to 25 points. His dad, Chris, is the former NBA center.

Making the dominance of Brown, Dudley & Co. all the more noteworthy is that the white jerseys included the Bishop Montgomery duo of Isaiah Johnson and Bradley Ezewiro.

In the final game of the event, the Top 20 Senior contest, 5-5 John Clausell (PICTURED) of Leuzinger had 14 points and 15 assists – including the most spectacular of the day, a lob to Giordan Williams of Long Beach Poly for a rim-distorting slam – as the black jerseys outran their counterparts, 119-100.

The 6-3 Williams led the winning squad with 22 points while UNLV-bound guard Ethan Anderson (Fairfax) added 18.

Six-four guard Christian James (St. John Bosco) led the white jerseys with 25 points via a nice combination of jump shots and slick drives.