NEWARK, Ca. – Two of Southern California’s better teams split the final two contests with their Northern California counterparts Saturday night to wrap up the eight-game, 12th annual NorCal Tip-Off Classic at Newark Memorial High.
NorCal’s top-ranked squad, 2018 State Open Division runner-up Sacramento Sheldon, used its stable of veterans and equally impressive depth to stay on top of Playa del Rey’s St. Bernard, 89-66.
And, in Game No. 8 (that ended at about 10:30 p.m. for about 13 overall hours of Saturday action), Orange County’s Santa Margarita built an 11-point third-quarter advantage but had to overcome a five-point deficit in the final period to come away with a 72-66 decision against NorCal’s No. 2-ranked Modesto Christian.
A couple of tall and gifted newcomers, 6-foot-10 Josh Morgan (from Pleasant Grove in the Sacramento suburb of Elk Grove) and 6-6 junior Marcus Bagley (the brother of Sacramento Kings’ rookie Marvin Bagley III), combined for 30 points and 17 rebounds with the Long Beach State-bound senior Morgan blocking three shots to go with his 11 points and 10 rebounds for Sheldon.
The Huskies, making their season’s debut, also got double-figure scoring from returnees Marquis Hargrove (14), Justin Nguyen (15) and Josh Williams (11, including the most scintillating dunk of the event).
Senior Kaito Williams missed 11 of his 13 shots for the Huskies but had seven assists, five steals and four rebounds.
Returning backcourt starters for the Vikings (who won three games in Southern California before making the trip North), Mook Harris and Nick Bowen, scored 23 points apiece but also combined for 11 of the team’s 23 turnovers.
Another LBSU-bound senior, 6-9 Romelle Mansel, scored 15 points but grabbed just two rebounds while often going head up against his future college teammate.
In the finale Saturday night, Modesto Christian (in its first game of the season) trailed by 11 points late in the third quarter before using a 16-0 run to go up by five points.
But the Eagles (now 5-1), with UCLA-bound Jake Kyman converting the tying and go-ahead-to-stay buckets on consecutive possessions, seized control down the stretch with good ball movement and offensive execution, as well as the defensive grit and hustle of sophomore Aldo Ruiz-Ortiz, for the victory.
Kyman (PICTURED), selected the game’s Most Outstanding Player, had game-highs of 23 points and 11 rebounds while fellow seniors Max Agbonkpolo (who signed with USC and had 21 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals), Shengzhe Li (13, as well as seven rebounds for the BYU-bound center) and Kendall McHugh (10 points and six assists) also scored in double figures.
Ruiz-Ortiz recovered two loose balls in the fourth quarter with dives onto the floor and also did a nifty job of pressuring freshman Devin Day defensively down the stretch.
The 6-3 Day hit four 3s off the bench in his high school debut.
In the first six games (in reverse order of when they tipped off):
*Oakland Bishop O’Dowd 60, Sacramento Grant 58: Sophomore Jarin Edwards made his only a bucket a big one, following in William Chavarin’s driving miss with two seconds remaining and the Dragons overcome a 10-point deficit with about three minutes to go.
Trailing by four points (at 46-42), Grant reeled off a 14-0 spurt over the third and fourth quarters to gain that 10-point advantage.
But the Pacers got careless with the ball and took a multitude of ill-advised shots, enabling O’Dowd to mount its own blitz – at 14-2 – to come away with the victory.
Junior Monty Bowser had 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Dragons.
*Hayward Moreau Catholic 60, Sacramento Capital Christian 46: The Mariners were up, 34-13, in the first 16 minutes and Capital Christian was never closer than the final score.
Seniors Glen Byrd (15), Leonard Turner (15) and Amil Fields (11) combined for 41 points for Coach Frank Knight’s club while another 12th grader, David Hector, snatched 14 rebounds to go with six assists and five steals.
The Cougars had eight more turnovers (25) than field goals, with senior Preston Hall leading them with 13 points, 13 rebounds and five assists.
*Newark Memorial 77, Vallejo St. Patrick-St. Vincent 64: Senior guard Isaiah Cabrera scored 29 points with seven rebounds, three steals and five assists without a turnover to lead the host to victory after they trailed by six points at intermission.
Juniors Jalen Scott (a guard who scored 30 points with 10 rebounds) and Dishon Jackson (a 6-9 center with 20 points, 18 rebounds and eight blocked shots) combined for 50 points and 28 rebounds in the loss.
*Dublin 73, San Francisco Archbishop Riordan 69: Junior guard Elijah Alonso scored 24 points – 19 of those before intermission, when his team built a 12-point advantage – to help the Gaels hang on in a game involving squads with large contingents of underclassmen.
Dublin was playing without one of the better Class of 2020 guards in Northern California (Robby Beasley, in street clothes because of an ankle injury).
Another junior guard, Je’Lani Clark, led all scorers with 31 points for Riordan but he needed 25 field-goal attempts (he hit 10 of them, missing all six behind the arc; he also converted 11 of 13 free throws) to climb to that number.
*Union City James Logan 69, Moraga Campolindo 64: Game MVP Brett Thompson scored 20 points with four rebounds for James Logan, which jumped out to a 10-1 advantage before rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit.
Siblings Carter (a junior) and Aidan (a freshman) Mahaney combined for 38 points for Campolindo.
*San Francisco Sacred Heart Cathedral 57, San Francisco Sacred Heart 48: Six-eight junior Oscar Cheng hit all eight of his field-goal attempts and three of seven free-throw tries for 19 points while grabbing eight rebounds for the winners in the “Tony Bennett (the singer, not the Virginia head coach) Matchup”.
Sacred Heart won despite missing all 10 of its 3-point attempts and 14 of its 25 free throws, largely because Stuart Hall was one of 15 from behind the arc.
Six-one senior Miles Amos led Stuart Hall with 16 points but he also had eight turnovers without an assist.
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