REDONDO BEACH – Siblings Marcus Jr. and Maximo Adams helped show why the Narbonne High Gauchos came into the season with something more than a strong chance to win the L.A. City Section’s Open Division title.
Marcus (who spent last season at a prep school in Corona) and Maximo – one of the elite freshmen anywhere in the west – combined for 38 points to help their squad edge Long Beach Jordan, 64-62, on Wednesday’s second day of the Ryse Williams/Pac Shores Showcase at Redondo Union High.
In the other three games played Wednesday:
*St. Paul outlasted St. Monica, 45-40;
*Beverly Hills stunned Long Beach Poly, 46-44;
*And the host Sea Hawks held off Long Beach St. Anthony, 53-47.
Action continues Thursday, with Garden Grove Pacifica facing Newport Sage Hill (2:30); North Hollywood Campbell Hall taking on L.A. Washington Prep (4); L.A. Windward hooking up with Playa del Rey St. Bernard (5:30); San Gabriel Academy challenging Studio City Harvard-Westlake (7); and Jordan wrapping things up with Lawndale Leuzinger (8:30).
Limited to just six shots and seven points in the first half that ended tied at 31, the elder Adams (pictured, left) cranked it up a couple of notches, shortly after the Panthers had scored the first seven points of third quarter.
He nailed a deep jumper for three points to kick his focus into overdrive and later dished to his 14-year-old, 6-foot-6 brother (pictured, right) for another 3-pointer.
Marcus closed out the quarter by hitting five of seven free throws and flushing a dunk as his team took a one-point advantage into the fourth quarter.
And Big Brother (close to 6-8 and maybe 220 pounds) was way above the rim on nearly every shot attempt in the fourth quarter, banging in a couple of dunks among his three buckets and ripping down six rebounds.
Marcus Adams Jr. finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and a couple of blocked shots after his sibling had been primarily responsible for keeping their team deadlocked at the half with 12 points (including two 3s).
Six-five senior Jaysen Owens added 12 points for Coach Kumase DeMesma’s Gauchos (who opened their season with a 45-42 loss to Etiwanda at Centennial in Corona on Nov. 19).
Senior guard Franklyn Chambers (a transfer from Dominguez) showed while he’ll be one of the better players in the Moore League while scoring 23 points for the Panthers.
Narbonne (which will debut in the Platinum Division on Dec. 27 during the Classic at Damien) returns to Redondo Union on Friday night (6) to face Windward, and then takes on St. Monica on Saturday (3).
In those other Wednesday games:
*Senior guard Jameson Caruso, after pulling down a rebound of the missed free throw by Poly’s Kairi Shepherd with 5.5 seconds, sprint-dribbled – yeah, that’s a thing – and was fouled by Ryder Maddox while sinking a high-degree-of-difficulty layup just before the buzzer for the lead.
How just before?
Without benefit of a replay monitor, the officials had three-tenths (.3) of a second put on the game block before Caruso shot his free throw.
Caruso missed the attempt – I’ll guess, on purpose – and the buzzer sounded just as soon as the ball fell into Maddox’s hands.
The stunning finish brought the Normans’ record to 6-0 while Poly (which hadn’t played since its game with Rancho Cucamonga on Nov. 19) remained winless after two games.
Caruso scored 17 points and 6-6 junior Jon Mani added 14 while often hooked up in a terrific tussle with Poly’s extraordinary 6-5 sophomore Jovani Huff (19 points, 13 after intermission).
St. Anthony, after getting a bucket by Joseph Wicker just before intermission, scored the first nine points of the third quarter to take a six-point advantage over Redondo.
But the Sea Hawks, playing their first home game in Reggie Morris Jr.’s second stint as the program’s head coach, answered with a 11-zip run of their own and never trailed the rest of the way.
Redondo (which opened its season on Nov. 19 by knocking of LACES, 76-48, in an event at St. Monica) got 13 points apiece from 6-6 Cole Stokes and 6-4 S.J. Madison.
Stokes, at about 210 pounds, signed a National Letter of Intent last month to play baseball at the University of Oregon. He’s a right-handed pitcher who throws BBs (supposedly clocked in the mid-90s) and is an apparent likely candidate to be selected in the June Major League Draft.
But he’s got the goods to be a forceful low-post presence in his final season of “organized” hoops, as his strong low-post pivot work (he also hit a 15-footer from the right short corner in the third quarter), 10 rebounds and two blocked shots bore out Wednesday night.
And Madison hasn’t wasted any time showing why he was considered one of the prime middle-school players in Southern California last year, with a couple of spectacular transition dunks and three nifty jumpers among his six buckets to go with seven rebounds and four steals.
Servite transfer guard Tyler Small led the Saints (2-5 with their fifth loss in a row) with 19 points while Wicker continued the impressive start to his freshman season with 11 points.
St. Paul got key playmaking, scoring and poise out of reserve sophomore point guard Osami Maciel (three assists and eight points – five of those in the fourth quarter) and a strong performance (13 points and six rebounds) from another Servite transfer, 6-6 junior Kamron Fontenot, in its win over the Mariners.
Six-four senior Anthony Ivey led St. Monica with 13 points while 6-5 sophomore Mouhamed Kandi added 11.
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