Eagles pounce on prey early for Valley win

By Bill Dickens
Updated: January 27, 2016

Granite Hills attempts a shot against El Capitan Tuesday night in El Cajon. / Photo by Charles Merino

2015-16 EAST COUNTY PREP BOYS BASKETBALL

By Bill Dickens

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EAGLES (1-27-16) — It didn’t take long for this Grossmont Valley League showdown between Granite Hills and El Capitan to turn lop-sided.

After the visiting Vaqueros took an 11-2 lead in Tuesday night’s (Jan. 26) action, the game belonged to Granite Hills, ending in a 66-40 Eagles victory.

A Granite Hills player is caught in the air Tuesday night against Visiting El Capitan. / photo by Charles Merino

The Eagles erupted for a scoring spree that carried them to a 30-17 halftime lead.

From there the coals got even hotter for the Eagles, who toasted El Capitan as 11 Eagles contributed to the lop-sided scoring.

CAMERON SPITZER knocked down 14 points, dished 4 assists, made 3 steals and grabbed 1 rebound, while DARIEN COSSIO shared the scoring honors with 14 points and 6 rebounds for Granite Hills.

Spitzer hit a pair of 3-pointers while Cossio hit 4 long-rangers.

“We don’t have any one special guy that we can go to,” said Spitzer, a point guard for the Eagles. Some might say that Spitzer is 6-foot-1, but he argues that he’s “6-2 with shoes on, and fortunately we play the game with shoes on.”

“We didn’t come out with a lot of energy, but once we picked up the pace we were able to put the ball in the hole,” Spitzer said.

El Capitan attempts in shot under pressure Tuesday night against host Granite Hills. / photo by Chuck Merino

He praised the work of DYLAN GARCIA off the bench.

“He brings a lot of energy and we feed off of that,” Spitzer noted.

Garcia contributed 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists for the Eagles, who also got 8 points and 8 rebounds from RYAN KELLY.

DAVID SETTERBERG scored all 10 of his points in the second half for Granite Hills.

“The thing about us when we play good defense like we did today, it helps lead our offense to attack,” noted Granite Hills coach RANDY ANDERSON.

Meanwhile El Capitan was playing with one wing down. That is, sharp-shooter KADE KYGAR, who was playing with a dislocated thumb, played sparingly but still managed to hit a pair of 3s and 3 free throws to finish with 9 points and a rebound. Usually he plays the entire game.

BRYANT IRWIN led the Vaqueros in scoring with 12 points, grabbed 3 rebounds and made 2 steals.

Granite Hills: Darien Cossio 14 (6 reb, 1 ast), Cameron Spitzer 14 (1 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl), Dylan Garcia 10 (6 reb, 3 ast), David Setterberg 10 (3 reb, 1 stl), Ryan Kelly 8 (8 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk), Jorden Rogers 7 (1 ast), Mario Mezo 2 (2 reb, 1 ast), Wyatt Mason 1 (3 reb), Jacob Burton (7 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk), Erin Swinson (1 reb).

El Capitan: Bryant Irvin 12 (3 reb, 2 stl), Kade Kygar 9 (1 reb), Colton Sandoval 6 (2 reb), Trevor Shenefield 3 (1 ast), Dominic Iudiciani 2 (4 reb, 1 ast), Carson Tabor 2 (1 ast), Brendon Head 2 (1 reb), Ren Neuhoff 2 (2 reb), Jacob Lopez 2, Devin Dulay (1 reb).

HELIX 53, STEELE CANYON 51 – The Helix Highlanders pulled a narrow escape as they clipped the visiting Steele Canyon Cougars by two points on Tuesday (Jan. 26) in the Grossmont Hills League.

Helix improved to 1-1 in league (12-8 overall), while Steele Canyon fell to 0-3 (9-12 overall).

Steele Canyon took a 36-31 lead after three quarters. That advantage was bolstered by a 14-4 run in the third period.

Both teams had an opportunity to secure the victory in the final minutes, but neither could put down the definitive shot, although Steele Canyon’s JAVON NUTTER powered in 19 points and THOMAS FISHBURNE added 11.

“The biggest difference in the game is they made their free throws and we did not,” said Cougars coach DEREK STEPHENS.

The Highlanders netted 12 of 16 free throw attempts, while Steele Canyon was a mere 6 for 13.

“We had some clutch shots, they had some clutch shots,” Stephens said. “We had a chance to put the game away but GAGE SANDERS missed an uncontested 3-pointer.”

JAYLEN ARNOLD rolled a double-double of 11 points and 12 rebounds for Helix in a winning cause, while DYLAN LEE and JUSTIN FLISHER added 15 points and 14, respectively for the Scotties.

Helix: Dylan Lee 15 (6 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk), Justin Flisher 14 (5 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk), Jaylen Arnold 11 (12 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk), Malik Tambwe 8 (9 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk), Carson Baker 4 (5 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl), Amari Green 2 (1 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl), Isaiah Wooden (1 reb, 1 ast).

Steele Canyon: Javon Nutter 19, Thomas Fishburne 11, Nick Hodge 6, Jalen Sayles 6, Gage Sanders 5, Marcus White 4.

MOUNT MIGUEL 69, EL CAJON VALLEY 51 – EastCountySports.com Athlete of the Week DARIAN NORWOOD turned a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds as Mount Miguel bounced ahead of El Cajon Valley in Tuesday’s (Jan. 26) Grossmont Valley League encounter in Spring Valley.

Not to be overlooked was the sharp-shooting of MARQUIS NEAL, who landed 6 three-pointers for the Matadors (11-8-1-2 GVL), and finishing with 19 points.

TREVON ALLEN had one of his better games with 13 points and 6 rebounds for Mount Miguel, while TRANNELL HUDSON added 10.

“We played defense tonight,” said Matadors’ coach JAY ROWLETT. “Tonight was our first league win. I’m hoping we can continue playing good defense on Friday at Granite Hills.”

Six-foot-7 RONNE READUS muscled his way to 13 points and 15 rebounds while blocking 4 shots for El Cajon Valley.

GREG JONES added 10 markers for the Braves.

“We had 16 turnovers in the first quarter,” lamented Braves coach SCOTTY JAMES, “and 30 for the game. That was the game. We need to figure out how to not turn the ball over.”

Mount Miguel: Marquis Neal 19 (4 reb, 3 stl), Darian Norwood 15 (12 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl), Trevon Allen 13 (6 reb, 1 stl), Trannell Hudson 10 (3 reb, 2 stl), Devon Brown 6 (5 reb), Chris Thompson 3 (1 reb, 1 ast), Andres Scott 2 (4 ast, 3 stl), Taj Tucker 1 (2 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl).

El Cajon Valley: Ronne Readus 13 (15 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 4 blk), Greg Jones 10 (2 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl), Dmir Witherspoon 9 (5 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk), Ahmad Sulyman 7 (1 reb, 1 ast), Jeremiah Davis 5 (5 reb), Hussein Al-anezi 5 (1 reb), Ali Alsawafi 2.

MADISON 67, CHRISTIAN 55 – It isn’t your night when your two sharpshooters combine for a total of 6 points.

This was the case for the visiting Christian Patriots in their 67-55 Central league loss to the Madison Warhawks, Tuesday (Jan 26).

Both TRAVIS BALLARD who tallied 4 points and KYLE STOWERS who only dropped 2 points couldn’t get things going along with the Patriots as they trailed the Warhawks 36-19 at the break.

Things didn’t get any better for the Patriots as they were outscored 19-11 to trail 57-30 after three periods of play.

Leading the Patriots in scoring was JACOB SANDUSKY who tallied 13 points on the night. Trailing by 27 points, the Patriots decided to sit their stars and get their bench players playing time. The bench players did pretty well in the final period as they were able to outscore the Warhawks 25-10 but by then the game was well out of hand.

Christian: Jacob Sandusky 13 (7 reb, 1 stl), Layne Larson 9 (1 reb, 2 stl), Dominic Safarta 8 (2 reb, 2 ast), Joe Vrizich 8 (2 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl), Grant Taylor 5 (3 reb), Dominic Bristol 4 (1 stl), Travis Ballard 4 (6 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk), Kyle Stowers 2 (4 ast, 4 stl), David Todd Jeremiah 2.

— Adam Paul