Making it to Cougar final just formality for Norsemen

By Bill Dickens
Updated: January 7, 2016

2015-16 EAST COUNTY PREP BOYS BASKETBALL

By Bill Dickens
© East County Sports.com

SAN YSIDRO (1-7-16) — The visiting Calexico Bulldogs made it from the desert floor over the Laguna Mountains to face Valhalla in Wednesday’s (Dec. 6) round of the San Ysidro Cougar Classic.

Perhaps the Bulldogs should have stayed home. Eleven Norsemen scored as Valhalla (10-5) riddled Calexico 68-38.

Setting the pace was COLE HENDERSON who netted 13 points, snagged 7 rebounds, dished 4 assists, made 2 steals and blocked a shot while playing little more than half the game.

Henderson scored 8 points and JORDAN ELLIS pitched in 6 of his 11 markers as the Norsemen stormed to a 20-5 first quarter lead.

By halftime it was 41-17 in Valhalla’s favor. The Norsemen were ballhawks on defense, recording 17 steals.

Valhalla was also a force on the boards with 35 rebounds.

The Norsemen will host Granite Hills in a crossover game Friday (Jan. 8) at 7 p.m. The girls teams between the two schools will play at the same site on Friday at 5:30.

The next big question for the Norsemen is what role they will play in Saturday’s (Jan. 9) championship game in the San Ysidro Cougar Classic. Most likely it will be against San Ysidro at 8:30.

However, this is the same night that Valhalla will conduct its Winter Formal. . . It will be a tough decision for some, including the coaches, who will try to work it out.

Valhalla: Cole Henderson 13 (7 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk), Jordan Ellis 11 (3 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl), Trey Schimke 9 (3 reb, 1 ast), Ty Schimke 8 (1 reb, 1 ast, 5 stl), Nathan Yousif 6 (7 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl), Daniel Bender 5 (2 reb, 1 stl, 2 blk), Kai Komaki 4 (2 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl), Matthew Sako 4 (6 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl), Malique Shaw 4 (4 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl), Christian White 2 (1 ast, 1 stl), Ivan Habib 2 (1 stl),Chris Attiq (1 ast, 1 stl).