Day to remember at Tip-off Classic

Kevin McCarthy
 

At NorCalPreps.com, there are no comfy, over-stuffed chairs, nor luxurious, with-a-view corner offices for the staff. Because of this oversight--and surely that’s what it must be--we prefer to be out and about with our ears to the ground and noses in the air. Saturday found us in Newark for the inaugural NorCal Tip-Off Classic.

The First Annual NorCal Tip-Off Classic, the brainchild of Gerry Freitas, was a tremendous success last Saturday. Our measurement tool? That being every game except the last ended up featuring evenly matched teams per the final scores on the scoreboard. As for the last game, give a hat tip to Bishop O’Dowd for the willingness and heart to open the season against the 2007-08 Archbishop Mitty juggernaut.

Here’s a quick look at all the results:

University 71, Woodside Priory 65
Acalanes 54, El Cerrito 51
Piner 53, Weston Ranch 47
Valley Christian 80, Clovis East 75
Sacramento 76, Fremont 71
Newark Memorial 67, Sacred Heart Cathedral 62
Archbishop Mitty 75, Bishop O’Dowd 41

University wins 71-65

Despite a dearth of size, University (San Francisco) simply went about running its sets, using good ball and player movement and a solid team defensive effort in negating the height of Woodside’s 7-1 Greg Somogyi. With nobody above 6-2 on the Red Devil roster but aided by the experience of seven seniors and a number of juniors, University made the shots it needed to, wisely conceding the paint to Somogyi.

Acalanes outlasts El Cerrito 54-51

El Cerrito, the much more athletic, even acrobatic, of the two teams, appeared to be in control after an early game run but the Dons of Acalanes High eventually came back to keep it close in the second half. Near the end, Acalanes led 52-51 but El Cerrito stole the ball and called timeout. When play resumed, Acalanes stole the ball right back. Brooks Baker was then fouled and made two free throws with 5.3 seconds left leading to the eventual final score. The Gauchos then fumbled the basketball and never got a game-tying shot attempt.

With the advantage of 6-8 Daymon Warren plus Ken Rancifer, Dave Emerson and Reggie Lambert, all checking in at 6-5 on the Gaucho frontline, El Cerrito would have come away with a victory but for errors and unforced turnovers. But woulda, coulda, shoulda never appear in the record books. Backcourter Alex Harris was the best Gaucho on display Saturday while Rancifer also had his moments. Do keep in mind that this was also an Acalanes squad with 6-5 frontcourter Hunter Hayden sidelined.

Dons senior Joey Anderson was big down the stretch and finished with 18 points for Acalanes, followed by Baker with 10. The Dons ran sets, employing backdoor cuts for layups more than once and utilized a pass inside/pass outside offense for open looks at twos and threes. El Cerrito employed much more of a one-on-one, breaking-down-the-individual-opponent style of offense.

Piner wins in comeback 53-47

Ultimately, this one boiled down to a Lucas Devenny/Piner versus James Nunnally/ Weston Ranch match although the two rarely battled each other directly. The 6-8 Devenny is a throwback, a bulldozer of a paint player but he was nailed for two early fouls and had to take a seat with 1:02 left in quarter one. The smooth and sleek Nunnally nailed some long range threes and, in particular, had a nice dribble-drive dunk along the baseline.

The Cougars of Weston Ranch performed well in limiting Devenny’s touches throughout most of the game but this required paying more attention to the Piner big man than his teammates. Creeping back, Piner'’s Pioneers were down by one, 45-44, but forced Weston into a shot clock violation.

Then guard Scott Tinsew nailed a three-pointer to put Piner up 47-45. Nunnally came back down and tied the game 47 all. Pioneer Simon Semere followed with a layup, putting Piner up 49-47 and Devenny blocked the next Weston shot attempt. After that, it was a parade to the foul line, combined with a Cougar travel violation.

Valley Christian takes Clovis East 80-75

The Clovis East Timberwolves thought they had come to Newark to play Saturday afternoon. Little did they know that instead they arrived in Hooper-ville, home of the picture perfect jumpshot. My, my was the hospitality on the rude side as Valley Christian’s Max Hooper nailed 10 three-pointers in the game. Clovis actually led 16-10 at the end of the first quarter and had the momentum but the Timberwolves found themselves behind 43-30 at the half as VC exploded for a 33-point second quarter outburst. The Warriors from San Jose generally held a comfortable lead thereafter, the final score sounding closer than the game actually was.

This was a game where high major recruit Tim Harris was a non-factor for Valley Christian as it was the sophomore Hooper who inexplicably kept getting ignored by the Clovis defense despite his hot hand. He kept receiving pass after pass and calmly turned and shot from long distance to great effect. Harris was in early foul trouble, leaving at the 2:35 mark of the first quarter but when he was on the court it appeared he was looking for a degree of difficulty measurement, a la Olympic diving, in his shot attempts. Look for him to bounce back strongly next time out.

Sacramento a bit better than Fremont 76-71

It was high major talent Chase Tapley and his Sacramento High Dragon mates against James Albright and the squad from Fremont Oakland. A close game throughout, Sacto led 13-11 after one. At the half, it was 32-31 Fremont after a Powell Lee bankshot for three near the buzzer. The game at times appeared to be a rugby scrum in and around the boards as players physically battled for rebounds. In the end, it was too much Tapley, a junior who scored from long range, on layups and with dribble drive floaters.

With the score 72-70 in favor of Sacramento and 1:06 left after 6-7 Bobby Evans put in back-to-back left-handed shots in the paint for the Dragons, James Albright was fouled with 48 seconds remaining. He missed both free throws and Fremont thereafter was forced to foul.

Newark Memorial takes the measure of Sacred Heart Cathedral 67-62

This one turned out to be Chris Jones and E.J. Farris against Jerry Brown and Teandre Hubbard and the hometeam Cougars pulled out a close one from the visitors out of San Francisco. At the half, it was Newark Memorial 31 to 28, with neither team able to establish a decided advantage. The Cougars stretched the lead to seven, 50-43, at the end of the third quarter but it became closer near game’s end. At the 1:18 mark with the score 62-58 in Newark’s favor, Hubbard made a steal and nailed a floater to cut the lead to two. Farris followed with a scoop layup to stretch the difference back to four, 64-60. Sacred Heart missed two free throws but got a layup to close the game to two but that was it.

Mitty way too much for O’Dowd 75-41

Bishop O’Dowd hung tough for a while, led by Justin Brue and Jordan Turner, but Archbishop Mitty had too much firepower and this was even with Monarch 6-8 senior Enoch Andoh out ill for the game. UCLA bound Drew Gordon shut down the inside defensively for Mitty and had his usual assortment of breakaway dunks. Collin Chiverton, himself headed to St. Mary’s, scored from outside and inside as the game was figuratively, literally and actually over at halftime, if not earlier.