Pats’ Stowers towers over Clairemont backcourt in win

By Bill Dickens
Updated: January 6, 2016

2015-16 EAST COUNTY PREP BOYS BASKETBALL

By Bill Dickens
© East County Sports.com

EL CAJON (1-6-16) — There are faster point guards, perhaps more crafty passers, but few have the size or competitive knack to match strides with Christian senior KYLE STOWERS.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound point guard – who just celebrated his 18th birthday over the weekend – pulled off a triple-double with 12 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds as the Christian High Patriots opened the Central League season on Tuesday (Jan. 5) with a 66- 52 victory over visiting Clairemont.

“There aren’t many point guards my size in high school basketball,” Stowers said. “So it’s up to me to take advantage of that.”

And so he did.

“I didn’t know I was that close to a triple-double until coach told me to get back in the game, that I needed 4 rebounds to complete the trifecta,” Stowers recalled. “There were about four minutes left and it took me about two minutes to run my rebound total to 10.”

“It was a pretty fun game and I kinda had a feeling things were going my way,” he added. “I really didn’t have a clue that I was that close, like I did last year when I pulled off two triple-doubles.”

Six-foot-4 senior TRAVIS BALLARD nailed 6 of 12 shots from the floor and 8 of 9 free throws for 20 points to go along with 12 rebounds.

Patriots assistant coach TIM BROWN said of the prolific point guard, “Stowers was able to get a lot of assists early, giving our shooters quality looks.”

The Patriots (10-5, 1-0 CL) took a 36-26 halftime lead and never looked back.

Christian: Travis Ballard 20 (12 reb), Kyle Stowers 12 (10 reb, 10 ast, 1 blk), Layne Larsen 9 (2 reb), Grant Taylor 7 (2 reb, 1 ast), David Todd Jeremiah 6 (3 reb, 1 ast), Jacob Sandusky 6 (2 reb), Daniel Welch 4 (2 reb), Dominic Bristol 2 (2 reb, 1 ast), Joe Vrzich (1 reb, 3 ast, 1 blk), Daniel Guerrero (1 reb).