The inaugural East County Showcase tipped off Jan. 2 at Helix Charter High School with 10 boys basketball teams displaying their wares across five games.
The event tipped off with a noon contest pitting Granite Hills against Santana and followed that up with matchups pitting Valhalla against Foothills Christian at 1:30 p.m., West Hills against Monte Vista at 3 p.m., Steele Canyon against El Capitan at 4:30 p.m. and wrapped up at 6 p.m. with a clash between El Cajon Valley and host Helix.
Winners included Granite Hills (66-53 over Santana), Valhalla (73-64 over Foothills Christian), Monte Vista (73-65 over West Hills), Steele Canyon (53-44 over El Capitan) and Helix (83-22 over El Cajon Valley).
Valhalla improved its season record to 10-4 while Monte Vista and Steele Canyon both improved to 10-6. Granite Hills moved closer to the 0.500 mark at 7-8.
El Cajon Valley saw its record dip to 8-5 while West Hills dropped to 9-6 on the season. Santana saw its record even at 7-7 while El Capitan moved to 5-10.
Helix (10-8) bounded out to a 19-0 lead and extended its dominance on the court with first half leads of 28-3 and 34-14. Eleven players scored points in the win over the Braves, led by junior Donovan Bryant with 19 points, senior Sergio Vazquez with 18 points and junior Brian Hammerstrand.
Foothills freshman Joel Richards Jones poured in 33 points in the loss to the Norsemen (10- 4). He is averaging 25.9 points per through 11 games for the Knights (1-12).
El Capitan freshman Kash Curo dropped in 18 points in the loss to Steele Canyon (10- 6).
In statistics compiled through 18 games, sophomore Trey Cavazos paced Helix in scoring with a 14.5 points per game average, followed by Bryant at 12.0 ppg, Vazquez at 9.7, senior Jason Black at 11.5 ppg and Hammerstrand at 8.2 ppg.
Black and Hammerstrand keyed the Highlanders with 5.3rebounds per game while senior Ziggy Robinson led the team with 2.9 assists per game.
Christian (8-8) is the highest ranked boys basketball team among East County schools at No. 18 while Helix shows up on the section radar at No. 28, followed by Steele Canyon at No. 34, West Hills at No. 44, Valhalla at No. 45, Monte Vista at No. 46 and Mt. Miguel (9-7) at No. 47.
Christian held down the No. 16 ranking among the section’s Division I teams entering the week while Helix was ranked No. 6 among Division II teams, Steele Canyon at No. 10, Monte Vista and Mt. Miguel at No. 14 and No. 15, respectively.
Granite Hills and Foothills Christian were ranked 14th and 20th, respectively, among the section’s Division III teams.
West Hills and Valhalla were ranked third and fourth among Division IV section teams while Santana was No. 11 and El Capitan was No. 14.
El Cajon Valley and Grossmont (4-7) were ranked fourth and seventh, respectively, among the section’s Division V teams while Mountain Empire (5-3) was ranked 13th.
East County girls team to crack the section’s top 30 include No. 6 Grossmont (10-4), No. 13 El Capitan (12-5) and No. 23 Christian (10-3).
Grossmont is in line to crack the section’s Open Division lineup (top eight teams) while El Capitan would be a high seed among the remaining Division I teams. Christian is ranked fourth among the section’s Division II teams.
