Eagles, Highlanders holding strong
- Updated: February 1, 2020
West Hills during a time out on Friday night. / photo by Dave Dickens
West Hills goes up with a shot on Friday night. / photo by Dave Dickens
2020 EAST COUNTY PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
EastCountySports.com staff report
EL CAJON – The Granite Hills Eagles continued their winning ways by defeating the host El Cajon Valley Braves, 77-50, to improve to 5-0 in the Grossmont Valley League race.
Deon Spear scored 24 points, grabbed eight rebounds had made five steals for Granite Hills, which improved to 12-9 overall.
“The key at this point in the season is the treat every game like a championship or playoff game and not let up when we get a lead and stay solid on the defensive end,” Spear said. “Tonight, everyone was in the right place at the right time and it allowed us to force turnovers. We played very well all around tonight. Tonight’s performance was for Kobe and Gianna, in loving memory.”
The Eagles won an up-tempo first quarter 24-18 and Granite Hills led 35-25 at halftime.
John Vrzich had 14 points, five steals and 11 rebounds for the Eagles in the contest.
John Yakou had 13 points for GHHS.
McKay Roberts scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Eagles. Roberts made four three-point field goals.
“Deon, McKay, and Vrzich had great games ut Caleb Erickson played great defense,” Granite Hills head coach Dan Duffy said. “We came out ready to play defense tonight. The score is a bit misleading as El Cajon had foul trouble late, they’re a tough out, we played well at both ends tonight to beat them.”
Erickson had nine points on 3-of-3 from three-point range.
“I think the main part of their offense was focused around screens and sometimes rolling to the hoop off of that,” Erickson said. “So it was most important that we had ball pressure and helped off the screens so they couldn’t get right to the basket, and if they tried that’s where a lot of the turnovers were.”
HELIX 71, VALHALLA 47 – The Highlanders came back from a halftime deficit and won at Valhalla in relatively easy fashion behind senior Maurice Holmes’ 19 points.
Isaiah Robinson added 13 points for Helix, including a three-pointer in the third quarter as Helix opened up a big lead after trailing the Norsemen 31-28 at halftime.
But Helix blitzed the Norsemen in the third quarter, with a 24-5 edge, as Holmes scored eight points in the third.
Jahari Hill added 12 points for the Highlanders.
Sammy Stewart finished with 11 points for the Highlanders.
Keishon Trice scored eight points for Helix, as did Jayden James.
“I made sure I came out with a tenacious mentality and high intensity,” Trice said. “Our team knew that most of our points would start from the defensive end, so we make it a point to force as many turnovers as we can.”
Joe Avalos led Valhalla with 14 points, including three three-pointers, hitting two of Valhalla’s three treys in the opening period.
Josue Amaya had eight points for Valhalla.
Helix improved to 16-8 overall. Helix is now 6-0 in the Grossmont Hills League.
Valhalla is 11-13 overall.
EL CAPITAN 55, SANTANA 47 – El Capitan knocked off Santana for its first Grossmont Valley League victory of the season.
It was a big win for the Vaqueros which dealt the Sultans their second league loss, putting Santana two games behind first-place Granite Hills.
Santana started out with the early lead on the road, but the Vaqueros outscored the Sultans, 22-10, in the second quarter.
Jake Pfitzner scored 20 points for El Capitan.
Daisean Desinor added 10 points, three rebounds, and a blocked shot.
The Vaqueros moved to 9-12 on the season and 1-4 in league play. Next up for El Capitan is Monte Vista in Lakeside on Tuesday night. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
“We started with a ton of energy,” El Capitan head coach Elias Totah said. “We had two really good practices leading up to this game. A lot of detail and fine-tuning defensive concepts towards the sets they run.
Pfitzner also grabbed 14 rebounds, dished out a pair of assists, made four steals, and blocked a shot.
“Pfitzner led by example being in the right place at the right time and crashed when he needed to,” Totah said. “We executed very well. I’m extremely proud of our guys and staff.
Freshman big man Micah Odell played a huge difference to start the game. He had blocks on the first six possessions.
“He set the tempo,” Totah said.
El Capitan got two three-pointers from R.J. Lugtu.
“We came together as a group tonight and battled in a must-win game,” Totah said.
WEST HILLS 76, MOUNT MIGUEL 53 – The Wolf Pack won at home against the visiting Matadors as Kyle Dobyns poured in 24 points for the Wolf Pack.
West Hills pulled away with a 20-9 second-quarter advantage to open up the 17-14 edge that the Wolf Pack built in the first quarter.
West Hills during a time out on Friday night. / photo by Dave Dickens
Jayden Moreno added 10 points for the Wolf Pack.
Eric Lozano added nine points for the Pack.
“We knew that we had to win this league game,” Dobyns said. “Everyone was scoring tonight and contributing to the win. The main goal was to have ball movement. Everyone was unselfish and passing to the open guy for easy shots.”
Ashton Avestro had 13 points, including three three-point field goals.
Cash Creighton also knocked down a three-ball.
“Ashton and Cash were able to knock down threes,” Dobyns said. “Eric Lozano and Jayden Moreno were able to make difficult shots and giving us momentum in the second half. Ayden McClure had a great game on offense and defense tonight.”
Shawn Parks scored 25 points to lead Mount Miguel. He made a pair of three-pointers in the game.
Dominic Morales added 12 points for the Matadors.
Ronald Graves scored knocked down a pair of three-pointers in the first half for Mount Miguel.
GROSSMONT 55, STEELE CANYON 43 – In what had to be one of the most bizarre contests in recent memory, the Cougars ran out to a 16-4 lead on the road at Grossmont.
The Cougars eventually led 33-16 at intermission.
However, the Foothillers, outscored the Cougs, 24-10 in the third quarter, then shutout the visitors, 15-0, in the fourth quarter.
Noah Velasco led the charge in the second half for the Grossmont comeback. He led Grossmont’s three-point charge in the third, as the Hillers made a trio of three-pointers.
Mykol Rodriguez was also instrumental in the comeback. He combined with Velasco for four free throws in the fourth quarter.
Elijah Williams and Rodriguez paced Grossmont’s scoring in the opening two periods.
Steele Canyon’s strong start was led by Chance Stout, who had a pair of three-pointers in the first half.
Stout finished with 19 points, including eight from the free-throw line.
Fred Murray knocked down a three for Steele Canyon in the third quarter.
T-Max Nyumah had a three-pointer in the second quarter for Steele.
Arthur Simpson was also a big contributor to the strong start with six first-quarter points.
ST. AUGUSTINE 61, CHRISTIAN 51 – The eighth-ranked Patriots fell to the second-ranked Saints in a big Western League tilt as St. Augustine pulled away late in the fourth quarter.
The Patriots led 18-17 after the first quarter.
The Pats extended the lead to 31-25 by intermission.
However, the Saints came roaring back in the fourth quarter, outscoring Christian 18-6, for the win.
Christian fell to 17-5 overall and 2-3 in the Western League.
The Saints are now 4-1 in the Western League and 20-4 overall.
The Patriots’ Dasean Lynch had a three-pointer in the first quarter, as Christian led 15-11.
Lynch’s trey in the third quarter gave Christian a 23-31 lead.
Kobe Sanders had a pair of field goals in the third quarter as Christian maintained a short lead at 38-34.
Lynch tied the game in the third quarter with under a minute to play when he scored to make it 43-all. He added a field goal early in the fourth to tie the score at 47-all.
The Patriots trailed 52-50 after Vincent Warren made a free throw with just a couple of minutes left.
