With most of the county’s girls basketball teams beginning league play next week, the focus this week will be on the Matt Denning Hoops Classic at Mater Dei on Saturday.
The seven-game showcase begins at 10:30 a.m. with Huntington Beach taking on Canyon. Santa Margarita and No. 10 Sonora play at noon.
After Valencia of Valencia and Palisades of Pacific Palisades square off at 1:30 p.m., No. 1 Fairmont Prep will play Mark Keppel of Alhambra at 3 p.m. For the Huskies, it will be the first time forward Anjali Ghadi, a transfer from Woodbridge, will be eligible to play for them this season.
No. 3 Mater Dei and Westchester of Los Angeles will play at 4:30 p.m.
Fourth-ranked Troy closes out the tournament at 7:30 p.m. against perennial power Windward of Los Angeles at 7:30 p.m. Warriors guard Kianna Smith is off to a stellar start this season, averaging 21.5 points per game. She will go head-to-head with Wildcats sophomore standout Charisma Osborne.
Notes from around the county:
• Aliso Niguel will have this week off following a second-place finish at the Larry Doyle/Dan Wiley O.C. Tournament of Champions. The Wolverines defeated Orange Lutheran in the semifinals, but lost to a much bigger Long Beach Millikan team in the finale.
“The girls have nothing to hang their heads about because they played their hearts out,” Aliso Niguel coach Lindsey Sundin said. “It’s great for us to prepare for CIF (playoffs) with this. I don’t see anything negative from it at all. … I think it’s a huge finish for our little south Orange County public school girls to finish second in this tournament.”
• Aliso Niguel will be the team to beat in the South Coast League. Junior Madelyn Brauer displays superb vision and decision-making at the point guard position. The Wolverines, who also have capable scorers in Suzette Quinlan, Charlotte Vurgun and Abby Miller, will have no problem scoring points.
• No. 2 Brea Olinda will host Orangewood Academy on Saturday at 7 p.m. in a nonleague game. The Ladycats won the West Coast Jamboree’s Gold Division championship last week, winning their four outings by an average margin of 37 points. Tyiona Watkins, Jasmine Rachal and Stephanie Lee each averaged more than 10 points a game in the tournament. Lee drained 10 3-pointers in the semifinal and championship games.
Orangewood Academy will be playing its first game in 16 days when it travels to Brea. The Spartans will be looking to bounce back from a 22-point loss to Huntington Beach at the Nike Tournament of Champions.
• Rosary has won 10 in a row and is 12-1 overall behind an offense that is sharing the ball as well an any team in the county. The Royals have had at least three double-digit scorers in eight straight games. Six players – Camille Lira, Rebekah Obinma, Kate Goostrey, Alexandria Iannone, Allison Lou and Caylee Santos – have produced 10 or more points over that span.
Rosary will take on the defending CIF-SS Division 1AA champ, Ventura, on Saturday in the Providence High Shootout in Burbank at 4:30 p.m.
• Kennedy (11-3) won the Garden Grove Tournament last week with a 47-44 win over Hawaii Baptist Academy in the final. Junior forward Katelyn Bomar scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the championship game and was named the tournament’s MVP. Bomar averaged just shy of 15 points a game in wins over El Modena, La Habra, Legacy and Hawaii Baptist.
• The CIF-SS will release its first Open Division watch list next Monday. Last year’s Open Division was a 16-team bracket that included four county teams: Fairmont Prep, Brea Olinda, Mater Dei and Troy. As the county’s top 4 ranked teams this season, those squads will likely be included on the preliminary watch list.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com
