The 13th annual Frank Pekarek Sweetwater Host Lions Club Classic at Sweetwater High School in National City included a smattering of teams from the Metro Conference, Grossmont Conference, City Conference, Coastal Conference, Southeastern Conferenc and even from as far away as San Bernardino in its 16-team line-up this year.
Tournament play tipped off Monday in four pools. Teams play three round-robin games in their respective pools, with additional games scheduled Thursday and Friday.
“It’s a strong field once again,” Sweetwater coach Jesse Aguirre noted.
Participating teams from the Metro Conference include Mater Dei Catholic, Southwest and the host Red Devils.
The field included seven teams from East County: Monte Vista, Mt. Miguel, El Cajon Valley, Valhalla, El Capitan, Steele Canyon and Foothills Christian.
City Conference entrants included Point Loma, Coronado, Hoover and Morse.
Central Union represented the Southeastern Conference (Imperial Valley teams) while San Bernardino was the outlier.
Mater Dei Catholic was the lone South County team to post a win in Monday’s opening round (89-43 over Steele Canyon) while Point Loma, Coronado, Hoover and Morse all came out victorious to lead the charge for the City Conference. Valhalla upset previously undefeated El Capitan to score the lone win for East County squads while Central Union made its trek from the desert an enjoyable one with a victory over Foothills Christian (Coastal Conference).
San Bernardino and Sweetwater both had byes.
Mater Dei Catholic improved to 2-0 in tourney play with a 69-52 win over Foothills Christian in Tuesday’s second round to improve to 7-2 on the season.
Freshman Lincoln Grogan keyed the Crusaders with 24 points in Monday’s victory while junior Sebastin Wiles dropped in 12 points. Overall, five Mater Dei Catholic players scored in double figures. Sophomore Mayseo Elliott had 11 points while junior Josiah Jefferson and senior Kristian Gonzalez both had 10 points.
Sophomore Elijah Bragg had seven rebounds while Elliott led the team with nine assists. Gonzalez had four steals.
The Crusaders, braced by three returners — Gonzalez, Jefferson and senior Michael Roddy — figure to be one of the teams to be reckoned with this season in the Metro-Mesa League after winning the recent West Hills tournament with a 72-62 championship game victory against Bishop’s.
“We are hoping to win league and challenge for CIF,” head coach Anthony Tucker said. “I think we are underdogs behind a couple of teams. Our league is tough. There’s three teams in the top 10 in our league.”
Foothills freshman Julian “JuJu” Lebel dropped in 40 points in the Knights’ 71-58 loss to Central Union on Monday. He led the El Cajon team once again on the scoreboard with 25 points in Tuesday’s contest but it wasn’t enough to way-lay the Crusaders as Foothills dropped to 0-9 to start the season.
Hoover also improved to 2-0 in its opening two games after stopping El Cajon Valley, 79-25, on Monday and San Bernardino, 77-63, on Tuesday.
Senior Ozzeno Diallo keyed the Cardinals with 30 points in Tuesday’s game after tallying 19 points on Monday.
Junior Amanuel Tersfahnengn had 22 points in Tuesday’s game after scoring 18 points on Monday.
Valhalla and Point Loma also faced off the tournament 2-0. After handing El Capitan its first loss in 11 games, the Norsemen shaded Morse, 61-52, on Tuesday. Senior Zaki Monqad keyed Valhalla with 28 points while senior Tony Famoyin tacked on 17 points.
Point Loma defeated Mt. Miguel, 52-39, in Monday’s opening round, then topped Monte Vista, 61-45, on Tuesday.
The Red Devils entered the tournament with a 1-8 record in an obvious rebuilding year. The National City team dropped its opening game, 48-39, to El Cajon Valley on Tuesday,
“No returnees,” Aguirre said up front.
Sweetwater does have a scrappy team that only reasons to get better as the season develops.
Players to watch include 6-foot-2 freshman Talan Jasiulis, 6-foot-4 senior Solomon Ojajuni, 6-foot-1 sophomore Joseph Saludares, 6-foot junior Jerome Smith and 5-foot-8 junior Jacob Torres.
“We have a very young team with 11 first-year varsity players,” Aguirre said. “Hopefully they can gel together and learn our system before our league starts.”
The Devils recorded their first win of the season, 64-37, over High Tech High Mesa on Dec. 15 following a 0-7 start.
Free throws
The Red Devils will host their annual Michael LeMaster memorial game on Jan. 28 against Morse during which John Gilbert, a member of SuHi’s 1990 CIF championship team, and Ralph Solorio, from the 1996 team, will be inducted into the Devils’ Hall of Fame.
Gilbert scored 21 points to lead Sweetwater (29-1) to a 78-71 victory against Mt. Carmel to hand the National City school its first CIF title in 10 years.
Aguirre described Solorio was a top shooter during his playing days and three-point record holder.
