Canyon is averaging 71 points a game. That is the third-highest average in Orange County, behind Mater Dei’s 76 points a game and Santa Margarita’s 72.
The Comanches won one of the county’s better December tournaments, the North Orange County Championships, with a 70-63 win over Edison on Saturday. Canyon beat Sonora, 74-73, in the semifinals.
Canyon scored 37 points in the third quarter of an 88-35 win over Bell Gardens in a first-round game. The county record for most points in a quarter is 44, scored by Santa Ana Valley in a win over Estancia in the 1976-77 season.
Comanches senior guard Nick Anderson, who was NOOC MVP, still sees room for improvement.
“We can score with the best of them,” Anderson said. “Our Achilles’ heel, though, is rebounding. We’re not that big of a team so we’ve to make up for it by being aggressive and boxing out.”
The Comanches will have to do that against some good rebounding teams like La Mirada, Esperanza, Foothill, Tesoro and Orange that they might face in the Orange Holiday Classic that starts Friday at Hope University in Fullerton.
Jump stops around county basketball:
• La Mirada beat Sonora in the NOOC third-place game. Gahr of Cerritos beat El Modena in the tournament’s fifth-place game, Servite beat Lakewood in the seventh-place game and Diamond Bar beat JSerra in the ninth-place game.
• Besides Anderson, other county players who were NOOC all-tournament: Chandler Dignam and Kaleb Phillips of Canyon; Jake Haar and Brae Ivey of Edison; Legend Demps, El Modena; Trevor Treinen, Servite; and Josh Rodriguez, Sonora.
• Mater Dei’s winning streak ended at 46 games Saturday in the City of Palms Classic in Florida, and the Monarchs lost their second in a row Monday. Mater Dei lost to Wesleyan Christian Academy of High Point, N.C. – ranked No. 2 in the nation by USA Today – on Saturday, and fell to Paul VI of Fairfax, Va., on Monday.
• The second day of the Orange County North/South Challenge today at El Toro High has six games. Among them are San Clemente vs. Corona del Mar at 6 p.m., and Woodbridge vs. Foothill at 7:30 p.m.
• Esperanza won the Irvine World News/Gary Raya Classic championship Saturday with a 60-57 win over San Clemente. Tournament MVP Jarrett Brodbeck scored 36 points in the final.
• All tournament at the IWN/Raya: Garrett Geiger and Tyler Thomas, Esperanza; Nick Crankshaw and Sam Darnold, San Clemente; Jake Garrett, Fountain Valley; Brandon Smith, Godinez; Elijah Mosham, El Dorado; Jake Linsky, Northwood; George Wilson and T.J. Shorts, Tustin; Connor Tuttle, Irvine; Jordan Jenkins, Valencia; Kiron Dey, University; and Cole Doudge, Dana Hills.
• Tustin beat Woodbridge, 47-34, in the IWN/Raya third-place game. El Dorado beat Northwood, 57-55, in double overtime in the consolation final. Mosham and Linsky scored 24 points each.
• Los Alamitos won the Charlie Wilkins Memorial Tip-Off Classic. Jack Kaub, a 6-foot-7 senior forward, was tournament MVP. Other Los Alamitos players who made all-tournament were Conner Goen, Eyassu Worku and Ryan Kusch.
• Also on the Wilkins all-tournament team were Bo St. Geme and Sam Kobrine of Corona del Mar, Tyler Burch of Westminster, Grant Vis of Huntington Beach and Domenic De Fiore of Kennedy.
• Garden Grove is 12-2. The Argonauts won the Garden Grove Tournament. Paul Sing scored 25 points and Felix Ramirez scored 22 in a 90-54 win over Santa Ana in the championship game Saturday.
• Buena Park won the Loatella Tournament. The Coyotes beat Ocean View in the championship game, 78-58, Saturday as Joe Galvan had 24 points for the winners. Deontae Beckham of Buena Park was tournament MVP.
• Villa Park lost to Morningside of Inglewood, 63-59, in the Titan Pride Classic final.
• Foothill went 3-1 in the Nike Invitational at Clovis West High. The Knights’ loss was to Clovis West, 59-51, a game in which Foothill shot three free throws and Clovis West shot 30. Eric Patton and Reed Nakakihara were all-tournament for Foothill, which is averaging 70 points a game, fourth-most in the county.
• Crestview League teams Canyon, Esperanza, Foothill and Villa Park are a combined 31-7 this month.
• Orange Lutheran lost to state No. 1 Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland, 70-62, last week in a tournament in Hawaii.
• Mater Dei is No. 3 in the state rankings compiled by CalHiSports.com. Between O’Dowd and Mater Dei is No. 2 Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
