Etiwanda basketball in a good state for next year

If the Etiwanda High School boys basketball team can lose eight of its top nine players and come within three points of defeating the top-ranked team in the state for the CIF championship, imagine what it can do when it returns five of its top seven players next season.

Granted, the Eagles got a boost, to put it lightly, when Byron Wesley moved into their school zone prior to this year. The 6-foot-5 junior committed to USC may have been the best player in San Bernardino County this season. Coming back from the team that nearly topped Mater Dei and lost a heart-breaking CIF State semifinal by three to Long Beach Poly on Thursday are three starters and the first two players off the bench.

One of those returning starters alongside Wesley is point guard Jordan Daniels, who if he were five inches taller would be raking in the scholarship offers. The lightning quick 5-foot-9 junior may play some college basketball yet the way he is progressing. He is a pass-first point guard who has great range and is a defensive whiz. The other returning starter is junior post man Tyler La Cour, who seemed to find his stride near the end of the season.

Perhaps moving into the starting lineup will be 6-foot-3 guards Evan Jenkins and/or Troy Fiawoo, both of whom have adopted Etiwanda's devotion to defense. Fiawoo is a capable 3-point shooter and Jenkins is a hard-nosed player capable of getting to the rim with regularity, the combination of which may make the Eagles more dangerous next year without losing anything defsnsively. Replacing seniors Zach Smith and Aaron Crockett will be no small task, seeing as both played vital roles as starters this season. Crockett was a fierce rebounder and capable of scoring in bunches with his smooth jumper, though his number wasn't called often on the offensive end. Smith was plain and simply the Eagles' defensive stopper, a role essential to this team built around defense.