CARLSBAD, Ca. – The Bishop Montgomery High basketball team has been, pretty much, without two starters and a gifted transfer since the first week of the season.
But the Knights of Coach Doug Mitchell keep chugging along with the same approach that has made them one of the better programs in California for a good long while.
And that was the case again Saturday night when two seniors, Will Crawford and Josh Vazquez, turned in the kind of performances we have rightly come to expect from the four-year varsity veterans.
Crawford (20 points – including six 3s in eight attempts – to go with seven rebounds and four assists) and the University of Montana-bound Vazquez (16 points – with four 3s in seven tries – with four rebounds, five assists and three steals) were the ring-leaders in their squad’s 68-51 victory over one of San Diego County’s best programs, Torrey Pines.
That contest wasthe finale of the seven-game, first-ever BSN Sports Showcase, of CIF “Southern Section vs. San Diego Section” matchups at Carlsbad High.
Major props are due for Carlsbad Coach Sam Eshelman and his support staff for putting on a superb display of how a basketball “event”should be run by way of quality teams, tremendous organization and a textbook example of making it “media friendly” in the process.
We loved those programs that included complete rosters, as well as the full statistical box scores at the half and conclusion of each game! Bravo!
Back to the hoops . . .
Bishop Montgomery has been without 6-foot-6 Crean University transfer Isaiah Johnson all season (he becomes eligible on Dec. 26, after a 30-day “sit-out”), and seniors Gianni Hunt (ankle) and Nick Shrader (knee) with injuries suffered during the Ryse Williams/Pac Shores Tournament at Redondo Union High.
Hunt (who signed a letter of intent with Oregon State last month) and the 6-6 Schrader (who was the Knights’ best player in the Ryse Williams event before suffering his injury late in the semifinal with Washington Prep) could be back in action for the Mission Prep Tournament that gets underway Thursday afternoon when the Knights play White Mountain of Alaska.
They’ll take a 7-2 record up the 101 Freeway with only narrow championship losses to unbeaten Fairfax (at Ryse Williams) and Westchester (in the Comets’ Trevor Ariza event).
No better example of the caliber of club the Knights could become, at full strength, was in the manner in which they systemically pulled away from a quality opponent Saturday with nifty offensive execution, directed by Vazquez (PICTURED), as well strong play by “bigs” Crawford and junior Bradley Ezewiro (19 points and eight rebounds).
The absence of Hunt has also meant the development of freshman guard Jalen Vazquez (Josh’s brother) has had to accelerate.
And he’s responded to the challenge nicely, as illustrated by his five-point, seven-rebound and four-assist effort in 15 minutes off the bench Saturday night.
The most entertaining of Saturday’s action took place in Game 6, when defending Southern Section and State Division I champion Chino Hills hooked with the 2018 San Diego Section Open champion, Mission Bay.
And, though the San Diego club returned the Section’s Player of the Year in Duke-bound Boogie Ellis and pretty much everyone and Chino Hills had just one returning starter, that one was one too many for Mission Bay.
That’s because that lone returning starter is 6-9, USC-bound Onyeka Okongwu, California’s Player of the Year as a junior and the most outstanding player in the state during each of his first three “classes”.
Mission Bay took unbeaten and No. 2-ranked (in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 25) to the wire Friday night – leading by six points in the second half – before falling,75-70.
But “Big O” and his much-improved teammates were firmly in control Saturday night, winning 75-63, with an advantage that climbed to 20 points early in the third quarter only slipping below double figures once, when Okongwu went to the bench with four fouls.
He dropped the hammer on the Bucs once he returned to the floor to start the fourth quarter, however, racking up 10 points, four rebounds,a couple of blocks as an assist before picking up his fifth and disqualifying foul with 1:06 to go and his team up 15 points.
His final number: 22 points, 20 rebounds, four assists and five blocked shots.
Fellow starters Nick Manor Hall (14 points and six rebounds), Phaquan Davis (10 points, six rebounds and three assists), Anthony Bell (12 points and three assists) and Will Pluma (11 points, five rebounds and four assists) also scored in double figures, with Bell (a transfer from Etiwanda) and junior reserve Aibigho Ujadughele (who hit a couple of 3s) taking turns turning in solid defensive efforts against Ellis.
The 6-3 Ellis, who hit just five of 23 shots from the field Friday night, struggled again Saturday while finishing with 27 points but needing 30 field goals (he hit just nine, including five of his final six in the fourth quarter) to get them.
In the other five games:
*Damien 79, La Jolla Country Day 61: TheSpartans picked up one of the five wins collected by the Southern Section teams Saturday while overcoming a 32-point effort from Princeton-bound Ryan Langborg.
Damen got double-figure scoring from four players (led by sophomore Malik Thomas’ 25 points) while terrific freshman R.J. Smith grabbed 17 rebounds with three blocked shots and two steals.
*Temecula Valley 82, El Cajon Christian 75: Seniors Kryztian Walton (22 points,12 rebounds and five blocked shots) and Raphael Allen (18 points) combined for 40 points as the Golden Bears pulled away in the second half after the score was tied at intermission.
*Carlsbad 64, Rancho Mirage 48: Eshelman took about 90 minutes off of his event CEO duties to coach his club to a victory that was even more lopsided that the final margin – the Lancers led by 33 points going into the fourth quarter.
Seniors Chase Murray (19) and Brogan Pietrocini (18) combined for 37 points for the Lancers.
*Murrieta Mesa 71, Westview 54: Senior forward Devin Fortune had 22 points and 12 rebounds for the victorious Rams.
*Oceanside El Camino 75, Brea Olinda 33: The Wildcats gave the Wildcats the “running clock” treatment in the fourth quarter of the day’s first game.
Keavie Love, one of San Diego’s better sophomores, led the winners with 17 points, nine rebounds and five steals.
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