STOCKTON, CA – After Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa knocked off Cal-Hi Sports No. 19 Bear Creek on Saturday at the Bishop O’Dowd MLK Classic, the Cardinals had another tiger by the tail in their matchup on MLK Day at the St. Mary’s MLK Showcase with a CIF San Diego Section perennial power La Jolla Country team that was coming off an 84-64 thrashing on Saturday of host St. Mary’s.
What transpired was one of the best, equally matched and interesting of the eight games contested on MLK Day, and ended with Cardinal Newman going home with an impressive 2-0 record in its two appearances at the separate events after s 52-46 victory.
What made it so interesting is the game featured two junior stars, Te-Hina Paopao of Country Day and Anya Choice of Newman putting on a show.
The 5-foot-11 Paopao, who is finally back in action after enduring more injuries again this season that forced her to miss eight games in two separate stints, is still not 100-percent after missing most of the first two years of her high school career, but she still looked splendid and had a slight personal advantage over Choice.
Paopao, who was the focus of a lot of over 50 Division I and other college coaches in attendance, and who was coming off a 32-point performance on Saturday in the defeat of St. Mary’s, had a double-double 24 points on four three-pointers with 12 rebounds, plus four blocked shot.
Choice, a 5-foot-8 combo guard who one college coach noted “is looking like one of the most improved players in California,” had a double-double 22 points and 10 rebounds with four assists.
While Paopao and Choice kind of evened things out between them, the difference in this game was the output of other players. Country Day had the only other player in double figure scoring with the 12 points of Jazzy Anousinh, but they got creamed on the boards, and particularly in the fourth quarter. In fact, besides Paopao the rest of the team only had seven rebounds combined.
Overall, Prep2Prep North Coast Section No. 6 Cardinal Newman (18-4) had a 43-22 advantage on the boards despite not playing anyone over 5-foot-9 in the game. Aysia Dural, a 5-foot-8 sophomore guard, only had nine points, but she had 10 rebounds, with four of them and a blocked shot coming in the final period. Junior guard Christina Bacci had seven points and seven rebounds. Junior guard Emma Nordby had seven rebounds, and Hawaii Pacific-bound senior team leader Avery Cargill chipped in with five points, six rebounds and three assists.
Prior to the game Newman head coach Mo0nica Mertle had said would likely use Cargill to guard Paopao to avoid foul trouble for Choice, but with the Country Day star having her will early on a switch was made.
“I told coach ‘please, please let me guard her,” Choice said.
And as for what the experience was like?
“It was fun. I loved it,” responded Choice. “I look forward to going against a player like that to prove I’m at that caliber.”
Choice might not be at quite the level of Paopao but based on the buzz of the college coaches interest in her is warming up.
McClatchy turns it around in win over Cathedral Catholic
McClatchy-Sacramento (18-3) has been looking like it has the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome that is now seemingly the norm among a lot non elite and even some elite teams, and because of it the reality is Coach Jeff Ota and his girls looked nothing like the Lions team that itself was mauled by Heritage-Brentwood last week at the Elite Is Earned New Year Classic at Orinda Miramonte.
After suffering a 29-point defeat to Heritage the Saturday before last, the Sacramento girls turned it around in their game against Cathedral Catholic-San Diego in a very impressive 70-44 victory that wasn’t as close as the score indicates.
University of Washington-committed Nia Lowery didn’t even have her best game but the 5-11 senior wing still tied for team high with 21 points plus eight rebounds and three assists.
Junior forward Samaya Beatty was aggressive on both ends of the court and equaled the 21 points of Lowery while adding five rebounds, four steals and three assists.
Senior wing and West Point-bound Kamryn Hall had a very solid game and finished with 10 points and nine rebounds plus three steals and two assists.
Cathedral Catholic (15-6) was coming off a win over West Campus-Sacramento on Saturday’s MLK Showcase action but on MLK Day the young Dons girls were no match against an experienced group of McClatchy girls.
The Dons got a very good performance from a freshman that turned some heads among the college coaches and analysts both on Saturday and on Monday, and that’s Isuneh “Ice” Brady. The 6-foot-3 post had a double-double 27 points and 10 rebounds, and even drained a three-pointer.
The problem in this game for Cathedral head coach Jackie Turpin is no other player had more than five points.
[Bold]Bishop Montgomery no match for Nevada Centennial
The marquee matchup of the eight games on MLK Day that pitted Cal-Hi Sports No. 11 Bishop Montgomery-Torrance against nationally-ranked Nevada Centennial-Las Vegas started out looking like the Southern California girls that were coming off a 62-49 win on Saturday over P2P NCS No. 2 Salesian-Richmond at the Bishop O’Dowd MLK Classic in Oakland, were going to make a game of it, but two of the Knights top three players got in foul trouble in the second quarter and that spelled disaster in a 77-55 defeat.
Bishop Montgomery (18-5) only trailed 24-20 midway through the second quarter when UC Irvine-bound guard Kayla Williams and sophomore sensation and transfer Khylee Pepe both picked up their third foul against a Centennial team known for its aggressiveness on defense.
From there Centennial went on a 21-2 run they extended to 31-6 and it was pretty much a done deal.
Williams still finished with 18 points and three assists, Pepe had a double-double 14 points and 10 rebounds with four steals, Kayla Padilla, who couldn’t shoulder the load during the long run, had 11 points and five rebounds, and Cyan Dyke added a solid 10 points and nine rebounds.
Nevada No. 1 and Maxpreps Xcellent 25 No. 6 Centennial (19-1) got a double-double 20 points and 12 rebounds from Arizona State-bound Eboni Walker, a double-double 15 points and 11 rebounds from junior Daejah Phillips, 14 points from sophomore Taylor Bigby, and 10 points off the bench from senior Aja Phoumiphat.
After the way Centennial put on a clinic in all aspects of the game its pretty obvious Coach Karen Weitz and her girls are deserving of their lofty status.
“They have no weaknesses,” remarked St. Mary’s Coach and MLK Showcase organizer Tom Gonsalves, and he should know since he’s had a few teams that have resembled Centennial.
Etiwanda routs host St. Mary’s
After losing big to La Jolla Country Day on Saturday a very young host St. Mary’s was on the very short end of the stick again against a seasoned Etiwanda group of girls in a 75-42 victory by the Cal-Hi Sports No. 10 Eagles over the No. 14 ranked Rams after the Inland Empire girls turned a 9-4 early deficit around with a 17-4 run and drew away from there.
Etiwanda (19-3) got a monster game from Evanne Turner. The UC Davis-bound senior dropped in six three-pointers and finished with 33 points with five rebounds, four steals and three assists.
St. Mary’s (14-6) had two girls in double-figure scoring. Grand Canyon-committed Jada Moss had 15 points and junior Amaya Oliver, who recently returned from missing all of last season and the first half of this season with a knee injury, added 10 points.
In other games Mark Keppel-Alhambra made 14 three-point shots with 10 coming in the first half to overwhelm a Bishop’s-La Jolla team in a surprising 85-61 victory over a Knights team that was a winner over state No. 18 St. Joseph Notre Dame on Saturday. Senior point guard Vanessa Aguirre, who surprisingly has no college offers, ran the show and finished with 22 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. Bishop’s got a strong outing from Renee Chong. The freshman guard made six three-pointers and finished with 31 points.
Fairmont Prep of Anaheim won the early morning game on MLK Day with a 60-45 victory over Stockton Lincoln. Mission Hills got 21 points, eight rebounds, three blocks, three assists and three steals from Cal State-Fullerton-bound Kathryn Neff. And finally in the nightcap Vanden-Fairfield was a 48-41 winner over the local girls from Edison.
