Take Flight Challenge: The Best of the Best efforts
NORWALK, Ca. – Trying to limit the individual standouts during the two-day, fifth Take Flight Challenge to a dozen is a bit of a thankless task:
No matter the depth of your objectivity, there are always going to be a lot of folks responding with “Hey, why didn’t you pick (a whole lot of options here)?”
Ah, it goes with the territory . . .
Anyway, here goes:
This list is alphabetical and includes four seniors (Bernard, Johnson, Samuels and Tynen), five juniors (Bradley, Lucas, Jaquez, Kyman and Mansel) and three players from the Class of 2020 (Anderson, Christopher and Frank).
Amound Anderson (6-2 Lawndale Leuzinger): The left hander’s performance was well short of his very-best efforts of this sophomore season while scoring 17 points, to go with five rebounds and three assists, in the Olympians’ 65-56 win over L.A. Brentwood Friday evening.
But he remains one of the two or three most underrated (by “media-types” and college coaches) members of the West’s Class of 2020 and that will probably remain the case until sometime in the spring with many in those two categories finally catch on.
Jules Bernard (6-6 L.A. Windward): UCLA-bound Bernard was his usual relentless self in and around the lane while grabbing nine of his eventual event-best 17 rebounds in the first quarter.
But he struggled with his jumper while finishing with 18 points in the Friday loss to Camarillo, hitting just six of 17 shots from the field (and just one of five in the fourth quarter).
Doctor Bradley (PICTURED/6-6 Gardena Serra): Bradley is having (get ready as I reach into my sports literary bag of clichés) a “breakout” season for the Cavaliers, as was illustrated so very nicely by his 27-point, high-flying efforts in his team’s 68-65 overtime win over a quality North Hollywood Campbell Hall squad.
Josh Christopher (6-4 Lakewood Mayfair): Christopher is becoming the “James Harden of SoCal prep hoops” in a fashion in that he is nearly impossible to contain on the drive without fouling him these days.
He too, struggled with his jumper and (like Bernard) hit just six of 17 field-goal attempts in the 84-79 loss to Sierra Canyon in the Saturday night finale.
But he helped keep the Monsoons close until the bitter end by hitting 14 consecutive free throws after missing his first two attempts.
Terren Frank (6-7 Chatsworth Sierra Canyon): Frank was the most consistently effective player on both nights for the Trail Blazers with 10 points (five of nine from the field) and six rebounds in the Friday night, come-from-ahead-late loss to Bishop Montgomery and then 33 points in the win over Mayfair.
His late-summer to early winter progress has been remarkable.
Jarod Lucas (6-3 Hacienda Heights Los Altos): Lucas missed his four shots Saturday afternoon but didn’t miss much the rest of the say during the Conquerors’ 69-53 victory over Pasadena Muir and Fordham-bound Chris Austin.
Lucas hit nine of his final 12 shots from the floor (including six from behind the arc) and was perfect in eight attempts from the free-throw line while finishing with 32 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (6-6 Camarillo): He rose up in sterling fashion in the unofficial “Nike-EYBL/The Truth vs. adidas/Compton Magic 1-on-1 battle” (of sorts).
He scored 36 points while often matched Jules Bernard – including a gut-crunching 3 over Bernard in the closing seconds that put his team up by four points – during his team’s 66-60 Friday night victory.
Cyrus Johnson (6-5 Culver City): After a mostly injury-plagued first three seasons of high school hoops, the son of first-ever John R. Wooden Award winner Marques Johnson, continues to turn in impressive efforts and numbers for the Centaurs.
He scored 18 points and grabbed 14 rebounds – 10 and nine in the first half – to help his team hold off L.A. Loyola, 79-68.
Jake Kyman (6-7 Santa Margarita): In a game in which most of the pre-game buzz in the stands was about Crossroads’ Shareef O’Neal (son of you-know-who), Kyman was the best player on the floor while scoring a career-high 31 points (three 3s) to go with five rebounds and five assists in his team’s 72-61 win.
The 6-10 (or thereabouts) snatched a single rebound to go with 14 points.
Romelle Mansel (6-9 Playa del Rey St. Bernard): Flush from a standout four-game performance while helping his team get to the Platinum final during The Classic at Damien, he went for 16 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots as the Vikings held off Redondo Friday night, 62-61.
Taurus Samuels (6-1 Vista): After three narrow losses (to St. Bernard, Oak Park and Rancho Christian, following a narrow win over Long Beach Poly) during The Classic at Damien’s Platinum Division competition, one of California’s best point guards helped his team dominate Santa Monica Saturday afternoon, 62-45.
Fletcher Tynen (6-6 Torrance Bishop Montgomery): Playing as part of a starting lineup that was minus three injured starters (Gianni Hunt, David Singleton and Will Crawford), the Boston University-bound forward scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter while having his hand in just about every critical play down the stretch Friday night to lead the unbeaten Knights past Sierra Canyon, 65-62.