Wolf Pack, Matadors, Sultans win at SoCal

By Ramon Scott
Updated: December 29, 2019

West Hills' Nolie Wiley at the line on Saturday. / photo by Dave Dickens

2019 EAST COUNTY PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL

EastCountySports.com staff report

SANTEE – Holding the visiting Fallbrook Warriors scoreless in the second quarter, the West Hills Wolf Pack captured a 35-21 win in a SoCal Prep Holiday Classic Prep Division game on Saturday.

Caitlyn Stayner at the line for the Wolf Pack on Saturday. / photo by Dave Dickens

Senior Paige Evans scored 10 points for the Wolf Pack, who led 12-8 after the first quarter.

West Hills extended the lead to 20-7 at halftime.

Senior Caitlyn Stayner had six points for West Hills.

Every Pack player registered in the scorebook.

Cassidy Stevenson, Nolie Wiley, and Anastasia Timothy each finished with four points.

Evans and Katie Caires both had a three-pointer in the first quarter and Evans had another trey in the third quarter.

West Hills, which is 1-1 at the event thus far, improved to 10-4 on the season, while Fallbrook fell to 5-5.

MOUNT MIGUEL 58, MISSION SAN JOSE 55 – There’s no telling how good this version of the Mount Miguel Lady Matadors will be in the future.

But the future is arriving quickly for head coach Robbie Sandoval and his team.

The Matadors did another big-news event on Saturday, knocking off the Warriors out of Fremont, who came into the SoCal Holiday Prep Classic game undefeated and ranked in the top 35 teams in the state.

Freshman sensation Jennifer Moreno scored 33 points, including five three-pointers, grabbed four rebounds, dished out two assists, recorded two steals, and had three blocked shots.

Ixchel Rojo had 14 points, including a pair of three-pointers, seven rebounds, one assist and three steals.

“We played really well today,” Mount Miguel head coach Robbie Sandoval said. “It was definitely a game where we did some growing up. I am happy with how we competed and came back. We made plays down the stretch.”

Freshman guard Zanna Hurst had six points, three rebounds, one assist, and one steal for Mount Miguel.

Junior guard Jerzey Edmonds had four points, three rebounds, two steals, and a blocked shot for the Matadors.

“With such a young and inexperienced team it is sometimes difficult because we don’t’ have very much height on our team, which makes certain things hard for us but we always find a way to do our best to get a (win),” said Mount Miguel junior guard Jacquee Brown, who had one point, four rebounds, two steals and a block. “To be the only returning junior on the is really different because everything that we learned had to be re-taught to everyone since we practically have a whole new team.”

Despite a 2-1 record in the tournament, the Matadors finished third in its side of the pool in a three-way tiebreaker that came down to fewest points allowed.

Still, the Matadors finished with a pair of impressive wins.

“The win over Torrey Pines was really unexpected because it was (Torrey Pines’) six-footers versus (Mount Miguel’s) five-footers but we still put in the work to take a crazy win,” Brown said.

Mount Miguel will meet Birmingham, which went 1-2 in its pool, on Monday morning at 9:30 at home.

SANTANA 54, PATRICK HENRY 37 – The Sultans knocked off the Patriots in the Prep Division of the SoCal Holiday Prep Classic at Santana High

“A lot of kids got to play today and it was fun to see success from everyone,” Santana head coach Jordan Franey said. “We work really hard and it was important for us to go out and play Santana basketball today.”

Bella Terry scored 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and recorded three steals for Santana, which improved to 4-10 overall.

“Bella did a great job today,” Franey said. “She took advantage of a height advantage and went to work on the inside. She was also a great tool in our defense.

Briana Jerig scored 12 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, had three blocks, and made four steals.

Sophomore Jordyn Beatty had eight points, five rebounds and three assists for the Sultans.

Lakaila Aguiningoc-David had seven points and five rebounds for the Sultans.

“I’m feeling relieved but also unsatisfied,” Aguiningoc-David said. “We need to do better. We are all tired of losing and I’m hoping we can turn our season around. This needs to be the start of a change.”

Taylinn Warren had seven points and five rebounds for Santana.

“Today was a must-win for us,” Franey said. “We have been struggling with not only our offensive decisions but also imposing our will on people and I feel like we did a great job with both of those two things today. We allow pressure to dictate our offense and when we slow down and run our stuff sharply, we tend to find success.

HELIX 70, STEELE CANYON 37 – Ariy’Ana Duke scored 19 points and Samonah Betts added 15 points for the Lady Highlanders.

Junior Selena Soloman finished with eight points for Helix, which got scoring from 11 different players.

Duke led the Highlanders with 10 rebounds. She also had three steals.

Freshman Alethze Marquez had five boards for the Scotties.

Junior Le’Niyah Jones had seven assists and six steals for Helix.

Betts added five rebounds, four assists, and three steals.

Helix jumped out to a big first-quarter lead, 26-7, then led 43-16 at halftime.

Helix improved to 10-2, while the Cougars fell to 0-10.

LIBERTY CHARTER 43, KEARNY 20 – The Lions had a terrific defensive game against the Komets, limiting them to just eight points through three quarters.

Sabrina Espelet had a pair of field goals during the first quarter that helped Liberty Charter to a 7-3 lead.

Anabelle Shaba had a pair of buckets in the second quarter to help the Lions go out to a 19-3 advantage with just more than two minutes left in the first half.

Katie Peet had four field goals in the third quarter as Liberty continued to lead 36-8 through three. Peet tacked on another pair of baskets in the fourth quarter.

LCHS improved to 7-3, while the Komets fell to 3-7.

O’CONNOR 62, EL CAPITAN 37 – At the SoCal Holiday Prep Classic, the Eagles of O’Connor High out of Phoenix pulled away from El Capitan in the second half.

El Cap’s Emma Driskill had three field goals in the first half as the Vaqueros trailed 31-23 at halftime.

Driskill added another seven points in the second half.

Tiffany Bickford had seven points in the first half for the Lady Vaqueros.

“Our freshman guard, Kaylee Cole, should be coming back soon,” Curtis said. “Jacey (Danks) and Emma were killing it on the boards and it was impressive to watch.”

El Capitan, which scored just three points in the third quarter, fell to 6-6.

The Eagles, who are ranked fourth in the state of Arizona, are now 13-1.

WEST 67, CHRISTIAN 52 – At the Centennial Tournament in Las Vegas, West High, of Torrence, knocked off the second-ranked Lady Patriots in an upset.

Simone James scored 23 points for the Patriots, including 15 in the first half.

Allie Carreon knocked down three three-pointers in the game en route to 20 points for the Pats.

Kristin Williams had a three-pointer in the third quarter for CHS.

The Patriots managed just seven points in the fourth quarter.

“We played terrible, bottom line,” Christian High head coach Vickie Carrington said. “Allie and Simone had good games. KoKo (Akridge) and Kristin worked hard and gave great efforts.”

West High improved to 9-6, while the Patriots fell to 7-3.

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