Boys Basketball: San Dimas, Rowland and Walnut all winners in opening games of Glendora tournament

Glendora Boys Basketball tournament
Monday’s Round Robin results

San Dimas 64, Sierra Vista 35 — The Saints advanced in pool play behind Reggie Brown and Jordan Stokes, who scored 15 and 12 points, respectively.
Rowland 65, Serrano 59 – The Raiders used 19 points from Joe Dionisio and 15 from Chris Arzadon to win in pool play. Saeed Montoya added 14 points.
Walnut 74, Northview 60 – The Mustangs opened up a 15-12 first-quarter lead, increased it to 39-27 at halftime and were never challenged. Walnut (4-2) was led by L.J. Besong with a game-high 21 points. He added four rebounds and had two steals. Jeff Huang added 11 points. Northview was led by Daniel Johnson with 17 points. Uly Aparicio and James Cunnigon had 16 and 11 points, respectively, for the Vikings.
Keppel vs. West Covina — Result not posted or called in.

Tuesday’s Round-Robin
Nogales vs. Keppel at Rowland, 6 p.m.
Monrovia vs. Rowland at Rowland, 7:30 p.m.
Walnut vs. Bassett at Glendora, 6 p.m.
Glendora vs. San Dimas, 7:30 p.m.

Azusa Boys Basketball Tournament
Monday’s Results

Covina 60, Temple City 48 – The Colts’ Mike Peters narrowly misses a triple double with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists.
Gladstone 37, South Hills 35 – The Huskies’ Ben Kane finished with 14 points and 18 rebounds
Diamond Ranch 60, Mountain View 41 – The Panthers’ Nnadi Udengwu finished with 21 pts.
Azusa 58, El Monte 50 — Azusa’s Kevin Perez dropped 21 points.
Tuesday’s Round Robin at Azusa
South Hills vs. Diamond Ranch, 3:15 p.m.
El Monte vs. Covina, 4:30 p.m.
Mountain View vs. Gladstone, 5:45 p.m.
Azusa vs. Temple City, 7 p.m.

By John Sherrard, Correspondent
The future looks bright for a young Los Altos High School boys basketball team.

The Conquerors, led by a trio of sophomores who scored in double figures, defeated Santa Fe, 79-69, in the opening game of the inaugural Pioneer Pride Classic on Monday at Pioneer High.

Guard Cristian Espinoza had a game-high 23 points, center David Jimenez scored 14 and guard Michael Barrera added 13 points for the Conquerors.

Los Altos (3-2) had three other sophomores who totaled 18 points.

Santa Fe (3-4) was led by a pair of juniors. Forward Cristian Perez scored 22 points and guard Jonathan Parral had 20.

Los Altos, which was 2-2 in the Bosco Tech tournament to open the season, advanced to the second round of the winners bracket and will play Brea Olinda today at 3 p.m.

Santa Fe plays in a consolation game against Hoover on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

The Chiefs, who hosted and defeated a team from Sydney, Australia last week, trailed by as many as 20 points, 73-53, early in the fourth quarter before outscoring Los Altos, 16-6, in the last 4:10.

Highlighting the fourth quarter for Santa Fe was four 3-pointers, two by junior guard Michael Cole (11 points), but the deficit was too much to overcome.

“I love the effort we gave in the fourth quarter, but it needs to be for four quarters,” Santa Fe coach Leonard Romero said.

Los Altos led 65-51 entering the final quarter, with most of the advantage coming from Espinoza’s 13 points in the third quarter.

“We have a young group this year,” Los Altos coach Jeff Lucas said. “We only have two seniors (along with four juniors and six sophomores).

“We got down there pretty quick and came out pretty flat, but we responded well and our defense created a lot of offense for us.”

Santa Fe jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead behind two driving layups by senior forward David Garcia (nine points), but Los Altos outscored the Chiefs, 21-11, to take a first-quarter, 21-16 lead. Jimenez had eight points for the Conquerors.

Los Altos responded in the second quarter by scoring 29 points, led by Barrera’s 11 points, three of which were from beyond the 3-point arc.

Parral had 10 of the 14 points for the Chiefs in that quarter.

“He (Barrera) did a real good job for us off the bench,” Lucas said.

Espinoza, who played as a freshman last year, is the Conquerors’ leading scorer this season.

“I think I was just getting my legs and wasn’t forcing anything early,” Espinoza said of his second- and third-quarter scoring frenzy.

Espinoza had 21 of his 23 points in that span.

“Now that we know how to play (with) each other and know our weaknesses, we have to come out stronger,” Espinoza said.

Los Altos’ three other sophomores, Chris Li, David Tolmachoff and Zach Monroy all had six points.

Montebello defeated Bell, 40-36, in another opening-round game and will play the winner of the Price/Artesia game in a winners bracket game today at 4:30 p.m.

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