SAN DIEGO – A freshman was the dominant player on the floor most of the way as the San Ysidro High boys’ basketball team won the program’s first-ever San Diego Section championship Thursday night while toppling Coronado, 71-59, in the Division III title game at Montgomery High.
By the way, the aforementioned freshman wasn’t Mikey Williams, maybe the both hyped first-year player in high school hoops (if it isn’t Bronny James of Sierra Canyon).
The standout player on the floor in front of a SRO-gathering of 1,700-plus was 6-foot-4 Jurian Dixon (pictured) scored 13 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter as the Cougars (24-8) had too much firepower for the Islanders (21-10) to cope with.
With Williams on the bench for chunks of the second half with a cramping right calf, Dixon made the bulk of the plays at both ends of the floor prevented Coronado from ever getting closer than within six points (with about 35 seconds to go) down the stretch.
Dixon (credited with 21 rebounds by the CIF SDS stat crew) mostly was just to quick to the ball and too fast in transition for anyone in a Coronado uniform on a night with both teams were guilty of less than prudent shot selection and execution against the other’s zone defense.
Coronado shot .308 from the field (20 of 65, including four of 22 behind the arc) but the Cougars (.324, on 22 of 68 and five of 17) wasn’t a whole lot better. The Islanders were atrocious from the free-throw line (15 of 32 for .469) with Dixon’s 12 of 15 goosing his team’s free-throw percentage to .629.
The Islanders’ best player, 5-11 junior Wayne McKinney, equaled Dixon’s scoring total but was far short of “efficient” while missing 22 of his 33 field-goal attempts while often driving into the middle of defensive congestion.
Williams, who took a 31 ppg average into the contest, finished with 16 points with just one field goal – a baseline jumper – in three shots coming after intermission
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