The roundtrip drive – 158 miles visa the 73 Toll Road and 405 and 101 Freeways, spanning about two hours and 20 minutes of real time – was definitely worth it Sunday.
My Laguna Niguel to Woodlands Hills trek gave me the opportunity to watch eight games over about nine hours and 15 minutes during the Buzz Basketball/HoopLove Varsity Fall Classic Sunday in the Taft High gymnasium.
The games – involving 12 teams, three or four of which will rated among Southern California’s 10 best going into the 2011-12 season – put some of the most well-known talent in the Southland on display. It was also an opportunity for some of-yet well known prospects shine in a competitive setting.
First and foremost in the former category is Bellflower St. John Bosco’s 6-foot-4 junior Isaac Hamilton.
The transfer from L.A. Crenshaw and younger brother of Denver Nuggets’ rookie Jordan Hamilton scored with absurd ease and economy while dropping in 32 and 27 points in lopsided victories by the Braves over West Hills Chaminade (78-51) and Westlake Village Oaks Christian (64-34).
Try as I might, I can’t think of a more dynamic and efficient scorer than Hamilton in the prep ranks in California right now – regardless of class.
With the addition of the Hamiltons – Isaac and sophomore brother Daniel Hamilton, who also was jump shooting with remarkable clarity and proficiency Sunday – to go with Mater Dei transfer Kameron Murrell and senior post Darryl Matthews, the Braves should pose a reasonable threat to Mater Dei, the state’s best team, during the Trinity League campaign.
Other individual standouts Sunday included:
- Taft was edged by Corona Roosevelt, 69-65, in the first game as Roosevelt’s 6-3 seniors Jalen Young (a lefty with a smooth mid-range jumper) and Kendal Brown (a 6-3 guard who shot it pretty well from mid- to deep-range). A junior post player showed a lot of promise for Roosevelt: 6-7, 215-pound Tim Myles, who played even more assertively during his team’s 57-48 loss to Oaks Christian two hours later. Myles is strong and reasonably vertically explosive but doesn’t have a lot of low-post polish as of yet.
- Guards Steve Jones (a 6-foot senior who has a reasonable chance to be an all-L.A. City selection for Taft) got into the lane at will, elevating well above defenders for high-rise layups while his junior teammate, 6-4 Kris Yanku, continued the strong play he demonstrated the week before playing for California Supreme during the Fullcourt Press Classic at the HAX in Harbor City. A sophomore Toreador, 6-6 Santa Ana Mater Dei transfer Shaquan Aaron, struggled to get into any kind of fluid offensive rhythm.
- Six-foot senior guard Adam Mills dropped in 15 points to give Beverly Hills a 49-44 win over Reseda Cleveland
- Oaks Christian has a touted 5-9 junior guard in Chas Bryan while 5-10 K.J. Smith – the son of TBC basketball analyst Kenny Smith – is on par with all other exceptional freshman playmakers in Southern California.
- A sophomore I wasn’t aware of until watching Chaminade play for the first time Sunday (vs. St. John Bosco), 6-7 Jack Williams, has an abundance of rebounding and offensive skill despite being only about 180 pounds
- Culver City — which edged Chaminade, 70-68, before falling to Alemany, 59-47, in its second game of the afternoon – has one of Southern California’s most underappreciated (or underpublicized, if you will) seniors in 6-3 ½ Aamahd Walker, who scored on a variety of jump shots, drives and mid-range “floaters”.
- In its only game the Mission Hills Alemany team demonstrated why it could be part of Southern California’s preseason Top 10 clubs with a wire-to-wire victory over Walker and his Culver City teammates. Six-three Marqueze Coleman, who committed to the University of Nevada (Reno) last week, was (along with Taft’s Jones and Culver City’s Walker) one of the three most impressive seniors in the event.
- In the final game of the very long day, Compton Dominguez junior point guard E.J. Johnson (hitting five 3s) scored 19 point in his team’s 51-37 over Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, which was playing without one of the better juniors in California – guard Jahmel Taylor, sidelined with a broken foot.
