LONG BEACH, Ca. – Saturday’s Pangos Best of SoCal Fall Showcase, held at the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church gymnasium, was an eight-game affair featuring many of the best high school hoopsters in the region across all four classes.
And the event offered a bit of a preview of what to expect from a few middle schoolers when they matriculate to high schools.
The Top 20 seniors contest was the last contest of the evening and it was a whopper.
Judah Brown (pictured), a quick- and big-jumping forward at Pacifica Christian (in Newport) who plans to sign a National Letter of Intent with Coach Randy Bennett’s Saint Mary’s program in November, scored 34 points and blocked a half-dozen or so shots to lead the team wearing the dark jerseys to a 109-105 overtime victory over the white jerseys.
But it was a pass to guard Riles Neff (St. Bonaventure in Ventura) that proved Brown’s biggest play of the contest – Neff turning the pass into a 3-pointer with five seconds remaining that tied the score at 103 and sent things into an extra two minutes of play.
Westchester High junior T.J. Wainwright – playing in the Top 20 seniors clash an hour after scoring 24 points to lead his squad to a 110-98 victory in the Top 20 juniors contest – scored 39 of his day-high 41 points for the white jerseys in regulation of the seniors’ game.
Wainwright was often pitted against one of the unsung point guards in the Class of 2020, Stacy Johnson (Oxnard).
The 6-foot-1 Johnson, who earned a spot in the Top 20 game after 31 points and doing pretty much anything he wanted in the Top 40 game, scored 17 of his 23 points after intermission of the Top 20 game, and did a reasonable job down the stretch of regulation and in OT defending the mostly un-guardable Wainwright.
Guard Atin Wright (Fairmont Prep in Anaheim) and forward Logan Cremonesi (Mater Dei) added 23 and 22 points, respectively, in support of Wainwright.
The most “talent” was on display in the Top 20 juniors’ game, though.
Joining Wainwright on the winning white jerseys were likes of highly touted (and heavily recruited) forwards Tyler Powell (Ribet Academy), with 21 points, and Wilhelm Breidenbach (Mater Dei) and Luke Turner (Rancho Christian), with 13 points apiece.
Guard K.J. Simpson (Chaminade) added 11 points and also produced some of the more spectacular players in the contest, at both ends of the floor.
The black jerseys got balanced scoring, with forwards Peyton Watson (Long Beach Poly) and Nick Davidson (Mater Dei) scoring 17 and 16 points, respectively, with Judah Brown’s Pacifica Christian teammate, Houston Mallette, getting 12 of his 14 points via 3-pointers.
The white jerseys prevailed, 110-104, in the Top 20 sophomores contest, behind guards Isaac Peralta (JSerra; he was at Mater Dei as a freshman/he had a game-high 31 points), Tajavis Miller (Servite), Gabriel Quiette (Mater Dei; he was out most of the summer with a knee injury) and Ben Shtolzberg (Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks).
Guards Barrington Hargress (Ribet Academy) and Brandon Perez (Notre Dame) – teammates in the spring and summer with the Why Not 15s on the Nike/EYBL circuit – scored 28 and 22 points, respectively, for the black jerseys.
Yet another Notre Dame player, 6-4 Dusty Stromer, was the top scorer in the Top 20 freshman game. He scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half of the black jerseys’ 87-52 win.
Among the other standouts in that game was Kylan Boswell of Colony – likely one of the elite point guard prospects in the class anywhere – who scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half while also chipping in with numerous assists and steals for the black jerseys.
The Pangos All-West Frosh/Soph Camp is set for Sept. 21&22 at Lynwood High.
Many of the Saturday standouts in those classes will be in attendance, as will a limited number of current eighth graders (Class of 2024).
And guys like Isaiah Elohim (Heritage Christian Middle School in Northridge), Jack Turner (the brother of Luke Turner; he’s being home-schooled) and Carter Bryant (Winners’ Circle Academy in Corona) figure to hold up quite well against the older competition in two weeks.
The 6-3 Elohim scored a game-high 26 points (18 in the first half) as the white jerseys prevailed, 96-64, in the Top 20 8th grade contest that started things Saturday.
Turner hit three 3s while scoring 19 points for the losing team.
The 6-3 Bryant (who played on Turner’s squad) is the son of former Lynwood High and Long Beach State standout – and now Fountain Valley head coach – D’Cean Bryant, and the nephew of Travon Bryant, a Jordan High and Missouri graduate who had a long career overseas and is now an assistant coach with the New Jersey Nets.
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