LAGUNA NIGUEL – Four of the top five teams in Southern California came out in reasonably fine fashion in last week’s opening of the regular season.
And a freshman from San Diego more than lived up to the megahype he brought along with him to San Ysidro High.
*Top-ranked (in the BurlisonOnBasketball SoCal Top 30) Rancho Christian had to hold off No. 29 Pacifica Christian – the Newport version, that is – in front of a packed Vanguard University gym Friday night, 83-77.
Evan Mobley and the rest of the Eagles’ crew are back in action in the Battlezone at Centennial High in Corona, where they shouldn’t have too much difficulty in their Monday (vs. another Temecula-based program, Great Oak, at 7:30) and Tuesday (6 o’clock vs. Westminster) pool-place clashes.
The going should get much tougher assuming at Friday night bracket semifinal against No. 23 Santa Clarita Christian or San Diego County power Foothills Christian) – and, perhaps, in a Saturday night final against Sacramento Sheldon, which has been runner-up to Sierra Canyon in the past two State Open Division championship games.
*No. 2 Mater Dei doesn’t make its debut until a Saturday (Nov. 30) night home game against San Marcos of Santa Barbara.
But third-ranked Sierra Canyon travel south to near the U.S.-Mexico border last week and returned with three victories over San Diego Section programs (Montgomery, St. Augustine and Cathedral Catholic) during the second San Diego Tip-Off Challenge in Montgomery’s cool (figuratively) gym.
Coach Andre Chevalier’s club faced competitive efforts in the first halves of the Friday and Saturday night games against two of the Top 4 teams in San Diego before cruising to respective 75-54 and 59-46 victories.
The building was packed to the gills with most in attendance to check out the Sierra Canyon and Mikey Williams hype (for on the latter in a few moments), the former notably by way of the presence of the sons of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade on the Blazers’ roster.
Chevalier also has a University of Kentucky-bound transfer in B.J. Boston.
But the guy who put the hammer down on Cathedral Catholic’s upset hopes in the second half, though, was another transfer in 6-foot-5 Shy Odom.
Odom, by way of the Boston area, scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and did a nifty job of checking the Dons’ best player, 6-7 junior Obinna Anyanwu who was limited to six of his 13 points over the final three quarters.
As impressive as they were over the final two and a half quarters or so Saturday – when their full-court pressure and the sturdy in-the-lane play of Odom knocked the Dons around – the squad that could win the program’s third consecutive state title won’t be on display until Chevalier’s best player makes his debut on Dec. 30.
That’s 6-8 Ziaire Williams, a transfer from Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks and Mobley’s most significant challenger as the best player in the western portion of the U.S. of A.
If all goes as expected (state rules force him to miss half the regular season as a result of transferring without changing his primary residence), Williams will be in the Sierra Canyon lineup in the final day of the fourth annual Classic at Damien.
Getting to the championship game of the Platinum Division with Williams on the bench is going to be a formidable challenge for the Blazers since the 16-team division includes 10 other SoCal teams among the first 18 teams in the BurlisonOnBasketball top 30, notably Rancho Christian as well as No.’s 4 Etiwanda and 5 Windward.
*It was an explosive Saturday at San Diego Montgomery for a couple of members of the Compton Magic club program.
Senior forward Chibuzo Agbo, who signed a National Letter of Intent with national championship-runner Texas Tech last week, went for 40 points and 17 rebounds in St. Augustine’s 84-65 decision against Montgomery.
But that 40-banger was out-done by 10 points by the aforementioned marvelous freshman, Mikey Williams, in his San Ysidro team’s 85-77 decision over Mission Bay.
The 6-3 Williams (pictured), who dropped 40 in the Cougars’ 98-46 opening victory over El Cajon Valley Wednesday, went for 19 points against a porous Mission Bay zone Saturday in the first quarter, 11 more for 30 at intermission and was held to five points (while missing his first four shots) in the third quarter then hitting the big 5-Oh on a transition layup with two minutes to go in the contest.
Williams, the only player from the Class of 2023 who played in the Pangos All-American Camp last June, hit 18 of 32 shots from the floor (including eight 3s) but missed eight of 14 free throws while grabbing seven rebounds to go with an assist and six turnovers.
What will Williams’ scoring average be at the end of the season?
IMO – pretty much anything he and his coach, Terry Tucker, want it to be.
*Etiwanda breezed through five Inland-Empire Classic contests by an average margin of 47 points despite knocking off No. 24 Colony by only 38 points (81-43) in the Saturday night finale as junior Jahmai Mashack – with 23 points – become the fifth different Eagle to lead the team in scoring during the week.
Colony, which got 17 points from freshman guard Kylan Boswell Saturday night, played its final four games of the week without standout junior guard Brenton Knapper (hyper-extended knee).
Knapper announced earlier Saturday that he plans to sign a National Letter of Intent with Santa Clara a year from now.
*Windward had three comparable beatdowns at Harvard-Westlake, crunching Renaissance Academy, Washington Prep and Burbank by 28, 31 and 57 points, respectively.
Making that margin of victory in the opener all the more impressive was what Renaissance Academy did in its next two games – it nearly stunned host and No. 6 Harvard-Westlake Thursday night then toppled No. 21 Taft Saturday afternoon.
*Other impressive tournament champion runs were pulled off by No. 26 St. Anthony (over No. 12 Bishop Montgomery in the Saturday night Ryse Williams finale at Redondo Union); Sonora (over No. 14 Damien at Sunny Hills); Capistrano Valley (58-42 over Trabuco Hills at Ocean View in the Jim Harris finale); and Providence (69-63 over Oak Park in Providence’s tourney).
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