September 18th
In two hard fought wars at Dino Trigonis' Full Court Press Fall Classic, Branch West moved to the semi finals to be played Sunday at Lynwood H.S.
Taft H.S. is possibly one of the pre season favorites to win the City Championship, and it was an all out war in the first half. Taft was without Brian Dinwiddie and that certainly would have made a big difference.
The game was much closer that the final score. Branch West led precariously by only 7 at the half. Mathew Ponce, 5'10" pg from Ayala H.S. in Chino Hills, came off the bench, and really was the spark that pushed Branch West to its initial lead in the first half, and finding open shooters off his penetration.
Mathew is a first class playmaker who has started at Ayala H.S. since his freshman year and has been all league both years. Mathew is one of the Ponce triplets, all of whom start for Ayala H.S., and all of whom are very good players.
In the second half, Rees Morgan 6'2" gd from Peninsula H.S. in Palos Verdes went on one of his patented tears, raining 3 pointers all over the place to push the lead to 17, in the middle of the second half.
Reese Morgan finished with 31 points, but it was really a defense oriented win. With Taft have an unbelievable front line bolstered by their All State 6'5" transfer wing from Georgia, only tremendous team defense enabled Branch West to continually hold Taft H.S. at Bay.
Twins, Justin and Jordan Young 6'5" from Mark Koeppel H.S. were also important factors, especially defensively and on the boards.
In the La Verne Lutheran H.S. game, although Branch West led the entire way, by mixing man and various zone defenses, La Verne Lutheran H.s. came from 10 pts down to close within one point, mid way in the second half. We finally seemed to make just enough adjustment to move the lead back up to 10 and were able to hold on.
Derrick Taylor, the well respected Taft H.S. head coach should have a great season. Sometimes a game like this can be a wakeup call to a top notch team. I would not be surprised, especially with Dinwiddie back, that they might win the City Championship, although Westchester H.S. always seems to be there at the very end, and all LA City Championships, always have to go through them.
Coach Eric Cooper has built a powerhouse at LaVerne Lutheran H.S. in just a very few years. Without question, Grant Jerratt 6'10' is the best big man in SoCal Class of 2012, although others like Skylar Spencer from Price H.S., are coming on fast. Grant is rated in the Top 25 players in the USA in the Class of 2012, and he seems much improved from the summer.
In this game, he was a major force. We certainly did not contain him, but we did a reasonable job of minimizing the damage. He can shoot, drive, post, rebound, block shots. He will be recruited by every major school in the USA next year.
C.J. Cooper is being recruited by a great many NCAA D1 schools at the point guard position and Bruce English, 6'1" off gd, could be the best athlete in Southern California with an incredible leaping ability. He also is being well recruited at the NCAA D1 level.
Unfortunately, Coach Cooper's son, Class of 2012, who could be the best of all of them has been plagued with injuries and missed most all of last year, and is still not quite ready to return.
La Verne Lutheran and Price H.S. are both major threats to win state titles this coming year.
September 19th
In playing our third tough game against one of the top high school teams in the USA, two time defending Nevada State Champion Bishop Gorman H.S. of Las Vegas in the semi finals of the Full Court Press Fall Classic.
Last year they were 30-2, won their second consecutive state title with one of the losses being to Mater Dei in the Nike Extravaganza held at Mater Dei, last February. They finished ranked #16 in the USA by Max Preps and may be ranked even higher this year.
Branch West led almost the entire game, often by as much as 10 points, but Bishop Gorman is a highly talented, well coached group that continually fought back and finally took the lead with about two minutes to go and won 52-49 at Lynwood H.S. They outplayed us with the game on the line and deserved to win.
Bishop Gorman has two of the best high school juniors in the USA. Shabazz Mohammed 6'6" wing is considered the #1 Class of 2012 player in the entire USA by some.
His good buddy 6'8" wing Roscoe Allen has been offered scholarships by UCLA and every major university in the country. We contained their perimeter scoring reasonably, but got hurt badly on the boards, especially by Shabazz.
Congratulations to good friend Bishop Gorman Head Coach Grant Rice. They out played us in the last few minutes and deserved the win.
Branch West ended its 2010 season 31-11.
