Boys and Girls Basketball
Question of the week: Who is the area's most improved boys and girls basketball teams?
Below: Renaissance Academy's Justin Cook (21) goes for a shot during game against Pacific Hills.
Star-News Boys Basketball top ten rankings
1. Pasadena (23-2)
Muir will give Bulldogs a better than expected test on Thursday
2. Renaissance Academy (21-1)
How big of power is coach Sid Cooke building here?
3. La Canada (22-2)
Too bad the Spartans have to compete in a division with Harvard-Westlake and Price
4. La Salle (20-5)
Undefeated in Camino Real. Sure do miss those league games against Verbum Dei
5. Maranatha (17-7)
Trying to sweep Pacific Hills on Thursday and run table in Delphic
6. Keppel (16-8)
Should be an all-out slugfest for Almont title against Schurr on Friday
7. South Pasadena (18-7)
Victory over Blair ended in brawl.
8. Muir (13-11)
How in the world did they recover and move into second in Pacific?
9. Marshall (17-7)
When Shawn Benn gets healthy, Eagles are contender in V-AA playoffs
10. Alhambra (15-9)
Needs a victory over Montebello on Friday.
CIF rankings of note:
Div. II-AA: 1. Pasadena, 2. Bishop Montgomery, 3. Colony, 4. Hart, 5. Temecula Valley
Div. III-AA: 1. Campbell Hall, 2. Price, 3. La Canada, 4. Oak Park, 5. Savanna, 6. Lompoc, 7. South Pasadena, 8. Santa Ana Valley, 9. Crossroads, 14. Keppel
Division III-A:1. Serrano, 2. Renaissance Academy, 3. Cathedral City.
Div. IV-A:1. Twentynine Palms, 2. St. Anthony, 3. Whittier Christian, 4. La Salle, 5. Cerritos Valley Christian.
Div. V-AA1. Maranatha, 2. Pacific Hills, 3. LA Adventist, 4. Murrieta Calvary Chapel, 5. Fairmont Prep, 6. Liberty Christian, 7. Marshall.
Above: La Canada's Joy Lelo hopes to lead Spartans against Wildcats on Thursday.
Star-News Girls Basketball top ten rankings:
1. Muir (23-1)
If everyone stays healthy, they win a CIF title
2. Monrovia (16-4)
Running table in Rio Hondo would be impressive
3. Keppel (19-7)
Aztecs' 11-straight wins clinches Almont title
4. La Canada (15-9)
Can they beat Wildcats on the road to clinch tie for league title?
5. Flintridge Prep (19-3)
Far and away, best of best in small school race
6. South Pasadena (16-5)
They're good, but Monrovia and L.C. are just better
7. Westridge (15-3)
Let's see if playing FPrep at home makes a difference
8. Rosemead (12-11)
Still contending for Mission Valley League title
9. Alhambra (12-11)
Finishing third in Almont isn't bad at all
10. Maranatha (15-8)
Making Star-News rankings debut
CIF rankings of note:
Div. I-A: 1. Hart, 2. Redondo, 3. Muir, 4. JW North, 5. San Clemente, 11. Burroughs.
Div. II-AA: 1. AB Miller, 2. Diamond Ranch, 3. Norco, 10. Monrovia
Div. II-A: 1. Ayala, 2. Vista Murrieta, 3. Cajon, 4. Perris, 5. Keppel
Div. IV-A:: 1. Laguna Hills, 2. Flintridge Prep, 3. University, 4. Westridge, 5. Sierra Vista
Div. V-AA: 1. Whittier Christian, 2. Village Christian, 3. Providence, 4. Villanova Prep, 5. La Reina, 6. Maranatha.
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About this blog
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
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IS MARKUS MONROE FROM MONROVIA POSSIBLY ONE OF THE TOP PLAYERS AROUND???
GIVE ME FEEDBACK BECAUSE I SEEN HIM PLAY AND I WAS IMPRESSED!!!!
It was good to see Monrovia make the playoffs. All 3 team (MHS, SP,TC)all played each other tough and to the wire. SP has a long road trip but if there perimeter shooting holds up they should been in good shape. Monrovia has enough atheltic ability to play Shurr close and if they don't let there emotions get the better part of them they should have good shot at beating them. If TC can keep playing the way they have been they should also be in good shape. LC has the best brackett to do the most damage.
The top 2 teams in this division is clearly Campbell Hall & Price which surprisely so, came from the smaller schools division of couple years back. The next 2 are Oak Park & LC . It will be intresting to see how our teams do in the payoffs.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL
the game last night was quite exciting.. so. pas was on fire and monrovia just couldnt catch up, despite marcus's 30 point game.. all in all good season for both teams. i think t.c. couldnt have been defeated but oh well
The Cats fall tonight to So Pas 80-59...
Congrats Seniors on a thrilling year...
south pas will play monrovia tonight at 6 at san marino high for 3rd place!
In all the Hoopla there seems to be a team that has been over looked the past 2 weaks. TC did not only complete a sweep of Monrovia but also defeated a SPH team that was ranked in your Top 10 list and ended in 2nd place in league. They should have beaten them in regulation in the first meeting. I hope the coverage for there Baseball team isn't the same as it was for thier Basketball team .
A last-shot-3-pointer-to-win-it from David Potts lipped out and the Cats fell to the #1 Spartans 50-48.
Fred, I hear that the Cats are playing a tie-breaker game vs. So Pas Friday night.
When? Where? Explain.
Congratulations to the Monrovia LadyCats for their impressive dismantling of La Canada 73-47. Monrovia was "clicking" on all cylinders tonight and could seemingly do whatever they wanted. Vanessa Hernandez was hot from the outside, while Shateah West tore the Spartans up inside and Krystyn Jacobs ran the entire show with style. Joy Lelo for LC tried her best to keep her team in the game with 22 points, living mostly at the free-throw line on some questionable calls. But this was Monrovia's year, beating the Spartans for the 3rd time and very convincingly at that.
Tom S -
Duly noted, and agree. Maranatha should start scheduling some bigger schools to prepare for the move up!!!
Tom S -
Duly noted, and agree. Start scheduling bigger schools to prepare for the move up!!!!
Goteamgo and p finchamp
You need to remember that Maranatha is in transition years. Before the new campus the student body was around 425 but with the move 2 years ago the anticipated student body will be around 775. So you now have the freshman and sophomore classes at around 175 students each and the junior and senior classes, where most of the varsity players are from, around 100 students each. So for this year and next year I feel that you still need to look at Maranatha being a small school. After that they move to a La Salle type enrollment.
Yes, they will and should move up in a couple of years.
I do not profess to be an "expert" as to what constitutes a small school, and I agree "small" is a subjective term. I was going to clarify (nice to keep comments short) but Mr. Finchamp seemed to understand my point in his comment.
I assume that the "Star News Small School Bowl" would be Poly, Flint Prep, RHP, and Maranatha (MHS). Per CalPreps Division III bowl divisions, MHS has 565 students, Flint Prep 394, Poly 351, and RHP 87. That means that MHS has almost 1.5 times as many students as the nearest "small school", which means more talent available to build a team around.
I agree - MHS better enjoy being a "small school" now as they should get moved up, and deserved to be moved up to play increased competition. I often think they play in the division they are in to accumulate a good won loss record to feel good about themselves, but it is like a heavyweight taking on a flyweight.
There will always be small schools that play big (RHP) and big schools that play small, but the goal should be to have competition, not domination.
Hey goteamgo--
I think 300 to 350 is upper limit for the definition of small school. I went to a high school of 3600 so 800 was small to us. We complained when we played Fountain Valley because they had 6800 back in 1975!
Maranatha is a difficult fit as a small school. They play big in many sports and may become increasingly so in the years to come but for now they best capitalize on the smaller school venue they are in because chances are they will get moved up in the years to come.
Here's my take on the 3 major sports and their small school champs over the past 5 years:
Football--RHP
Basketball--Renaissance
Baseball--Poly
Tom S
Well I see that my message to Fred illicited a comment from you...I gather as Fred's screening agent. Okay I'll bite. Let us hope that the Star News does not use a winning record as criteria for covering high school sports. I made adequate reference to RH Prep's struggles in basketball while still encouarging coverage of what will likely be another close game. I know winning is not the only thing the SN covers as was demonstarted by the article on the kid from Waverly with only 4 wins to their credit this year. Parents want coverage as much (more) than the kids do. Thanks for your comment about Trevor. A little known stat is his 65 foot shot at the buzzer that went in to win the game against Chadwick. After a visit to the scoring table (it was at Chadwick) it was waved off and RHP lost in double OT. Coach Brad Hall at Poly tells me he has never gotten a call at Chadwick.
I will say this...our football players are better at basketball than most. I believe Vanderlaan is playing for Maranatha but you've got about 300 boys to choose from. Which brings up the comment from GOTEAMGO. I think Maranatha is moving out of the small school profile and I have heard there is a desire to grow to nearly 800 students. So what is small? Renaissance and RH Prep are small. So small they belong in divisions that offer marginal competition--so they choose to play up. Will Maranatha make the same choice? Hard to figure Maranatha being in D-XIII and RHP in D-XII.
And finally Maranatha gets its day playing Poly in football. We'll see how good a coach McGrail (?) is if he can get a team with 3 returning players (all others graduate)to win 2 games next year. Timing is everything. I agree we should see a legitimate crowning of a "small school" football champion this fall and the RHP/Maranatha match-up looks promising--but it did the prior three years too.
Goteamgo:
Since you’re the expert on “small schools� maybe you can enlighten me on what constitute a “small school�. Is it a student body of 200, 400, 500, 600 or what?
I got your hoops coverage right here ...
ARROYO KNIGHTS BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL MVL CHAMPIONS! It is the first for the school since 1998. ARROYO Senior Jeremy Morita for League MVP! GO KNIGHTS GO!
I got your hoops coverage right here ...
ARROYO KNIGHTS BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL MVL CHAMPIONS! It is the first for the school since 1998. ARROYO Senior Jeremy Morita for League MVP! GO KNIGHTS GO!
it is to bad maranantha did not schedule Poly this season it would have been fun to see Hirshman and Sherman run all over them.
I (like many others) do not think of Maranatha as a "small school." They have 600 students (per Calpreps, 565 - bigger than Verbum Dei!!!), and plans for more, and they certainly now have the facilities. They need to move up, and stop playing the "small schools" for easy wins to feel good. They should play someone other than Poly.
Sorry to say Paul, but that 9 – 12 overall and 1 – 6 league record doesn’t warrant Star News coverage. But hey RHP is a football powerhouse not known for a strong boy’s basketball team. Nice to see your son Trevor listed 2nd in rebound leaders for those Prep schools reporting status.
I hear that Maranatha is adding Poly to its preseason football schedule next season so we can crown that Star News area small school champion.
For all those interested, we realize Thursday is a huge day for the area because most leagues wrap up their schedules with playoffs starting next week. We apologize that we can't be everywhere, but we're doubling up the best we can with coverage of five games.
In no particular order, we're covering both Muir and PHS boys and girls basketball games, the Maranatha-Pacific Hills title game, the Monrovia-La Canada girls title game, and the Monrovia-La Canada girls soccer championship.
Fred--
Last chance Thursday night to cover the unheralded RH Prep boys basketball team this season. No one expects RHP to produce a power in basketball and they have not disappointed this year. However...this team has had 3 overtime games in league this year resulting in 2 losses. Their other league losses (not counting undefeated Poly)includes a 1 point loss to Flintridge and a 5 point loss to Webb.
RH Prep has shown flashes of brilliance this season but never sustained. They stayed tied with Renaissance through the first quarter of their game and did the same with Poly. Unfortunately we were unable to stop the clock after the first quarter....
I cant wait for the game tomorrow between MHS and la canada. I really dont think that monrovia can lose at home. at least for the girls, I hope that place is packed when I show up to the game, cuz what the girls have a chance of doing will be big. Hey fred if the girls win and go undefeated in league will they have home field advantage throughout the playoffs, they should if they dont thats not fair.
Fred:
Looks like a great boys basetball game is coming up this Thursday night at Maranatha. The Minutemen are playing 2nd place Pacific Hills for the outright Delphic league championship and to maintain their #1 CIF standing in Division V-AA against 2nd ranked Pacific Hills. First game was a close one with the Minutemen winning 54 to 49. Both teams look very even. Maranatha has a 17 – 7 overall and 7 – 0 league record while Pacific Hills is 16 – 8 overall and is 6 – 1 in league play. MaxPreps has Pacific Hills with a 7.9 and Maranatha with a 7.3 ratings.
Fred, Are you going to have anyone covering this showdown?
The correct answer to that question is the ARROYO KNIGHTS boys varsity basketball team. First year coach Lydell McCullough has turned the KNIGHTS into a league champion caliber team extremely quick. The boys are 7-1 in league heading into Wednesdays showdown with that school from the south. If the KNGIHTS are victorious, it will be the first MVL championship for ARROYO in varsity boys b-ball since 1998. GO KNGIHTS GO!
Congratulations to the MHS girls basketball team on their impressive 70-45 victory over San Marino tonight. The win clinched at least a tie for the Rio Hondo League Championship. Now comes the final game at home against La Canada. Should be a great game with LC trying to avoid a sweep and MHS attempting to go undefeated. Girls hoops rocks!!
Fred, the answer to your question is the boys So. Pasadena hoops team. This program has gone through so many different coaches in the last few years and it has shown in their records. For them to finally put together a solid season like this one, is a major accomplishment. Kudos to the team and coach for a great year.
PHS boys ranked 19th in the state by Calhisports