MISSION HILLS, Ca. – A future UCLA Bruin got his senior season off to a sweet start while the No. 8-ranked team in Southern California had to hold off a scrappy squad that was led by a coach making his varsity high school debut during Thursday’s opening-day of the eight-team “Opening Weekend” Tournament at Bishop Alemany High.
Six-foot-six Jaime Jaquez, who signed a National Letter of Intent with UCLA the day before, scored 36 points to help Camarillo hold on to score an upset – albeit somewhat of the “mild” variety, considering it Jaquez in uniform – by knocking off Santa Clarita Christian, 82-75.
Camarillo will play Saugus (which stunned the host school Thursday, 62-56) in a Friday night semifinal at 6 o’clock.
Santa Clarita Christian, the State Division IV champion last season, got a combined 33 points from juniors Kaleb Lowery (17 of them) and Caden Starr.
But the multi-skilled Jaquez had to much impact on the game – as a scorer, rebounder, defender and, especially, in his ability to make his buddies more effective by his presence – for the Cardinals to overcome.
Culver City returned just one player, in senior guard Ryan Blackmon (PICTURED), who played significant minutes last season under Coach Reggie Morris Jr. (who is now on Lorenzo Romar’s staff at Pepperdine).
But the left-handed Blackmon – who had a strong fall “season” – continued to show why he’s one of the more underrated players in Southern California, while scoring 23 points hung reasonably tight with that No. 8 squad – Damien — before falling in another opener, 66-54.
Under Roy Walker, who played for Morris at Leuzinger High (where he graduated in 2005) and assisted him at Redondo and Culver City, and has replaced his mentor, the Centaurs demonstrated that they are going to be a “tough out” for anyone they play this season.
And Blackmon appeared up to the challenge of being the on-court leader for a program that lost Tevian Jones (to Illinois) and Cyrus Johnson (to Sam Houston State), as well as Keith Dinwiddie (Fairfax) and T.J. Wainwright (Santa Monica) thru transfers.
Damien built its lead to 16 points early in the fourth quarter but the Spartans could never deliver a de facto “knockout punch” against the scrappy Centaurs.
Fresno State-bound guard Jarred Hyder (a transfer from Cajon) scored 21 points for Damien despite suffered an ankle twist late in the third quarter.
The Spartans also got 17 points apiece from junior Austin Cook and sophomore Malik Thomas.
They play Valencia (which rolled to a 78-56 decision against Maranatha in Thursday’s finale) in the other Friday night semifinal at 7:30.
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