SF Chronicle December basketball recap

-- The AAA favorite is Washington (10-5), led by the trio of 6-1 junior Brenden Glapion (15.8 points per game), 6-3 senior Byron Jones (14.1) and 6-foot junior Jeremy Jetton (10.9).


December basketball recap

Mitch Stephens, Special to The Chronicle

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

(01-04) 21:23 PST -- Salesian-Richmond hasn't missed transfers Jabari Brown and Kendall Andrews as much as we thought they would.


The Pride are 10-1 and their only loss was to undefeated Los Angeles power Loyola, breaking a 25-game win streak.

The defending boys Division IV state champion has jelled despite season-long injuries to potential starters Quincy Smith and Devon Montgomery. The Pride have received expected strong play from 6-foot-7 preseason All-America Desmond Simmons (20 points per game) and surprising contributions from freshman guard Mario Dunn.

"Last year, we were so young, it took us half the season before we found our confidence," Salesian coach Bill Mellis said. "We came right out of the gate believing in ourselves."

What else we learned from a busy December of basketball:

-- With wins over De La Salle-Concord (46-42) and St. Mary's-Berkeley (53-52), Serra coach Chuck Rapp once again has shown he's one of the Bay Area's best. Serra (9-1) should be a co-favorite with Bellarmine (10-0) and St. Francis (8-2) to take a balanced West Catholic Athletic League. The Padres were 11-16 last season but with experience, tenacious defense and the all-around play of Jordan Reudy, Ryan Tana, Connor McGrath and Jake Moore, Serra is vastly improved.

-- San Francisco WCAL schools St. Ignatius (9-1, strong perimeter play), Riordan (7-3, small and quick) and defending state champion Sacred Heart Cathedral (5-3, young and talented) are all dangerous.

-- Riordan's 6-foot senior Ivan Dorsey is the Central Coast Section's second-leading scorer at 25.3 per game. "He's almost impossible to guard straight up," Rapp said.

-- The best-coached boys team thus far is Newark Memorial. Craig Ashmore's short squad shocked nationally ranked Los Angeles schools Price (No. 34) and Taft (No. 14) at last week's MaxPreps Holiday Classic in San Diego. The Cougars (10-2) are tenacious defensively and somehow get most of their scoring down low with 6-3 forwards Khion Sankey and Andrews.

-- With all youthful teams, the Oakland Athletic League figures to be wildly up and down. Other than Fremont-Oakland (11-6), every team in the league has 6-8 losses and 5-7 wins.

-- The San Francisco team that is likely to advance furthest is University (10-2), which has impressive wins over ranked teams St. Joseph Notre Dame-Alameda (65-57) and Redwood-Larkspur (58-48).

-- The AAA favorite is Washington (10-5), led by the trio of 6-1 junior Brenden Glapion (15.8 points per game), 6-3 senior Byron Jones (14.1) and 6-foot junior Jeremy Jetton (10.9).

-- The Metro Area's most talented offensive player might live in, of all places, Pleasant Hill, where College Park's 6-5 junior point guard MacKenzie Moore averages 22.1 points, 5.1 assists and 6.5 rebounds per game.

-- Bishop O'Dowd-Oakland (7-3) very well could end up with two teams at the top of the rankings. The boys (7-3) have lost to three of the state's top five teams and feature a beefy front line of Brandon Ashley, Richard Longrus and Jordan Barton. The girls, coming off a third-place finish in the top division of the West Coast Jamboree, are young and tall, led by 6-foot forward Robie Mayberry.

-- Carondelet-Concord (7-3), which has split two games with O'Dowd, returns all five starters from last year's 29-4 team, including the Bay Area's best backcourt of Hannah Huffman and Ricki Radanovich.

-- Perennial national power Sacred Heart Cathedral still has dominant 5-11 center Kamilah Jackson, but coach Brian Harrigan has retired and last season's other standout underclassman, Rayven Brooks, transferred to Dougherty Valley-San Ramon, which has turned into an East Bay power at 11-1.

-- The surprise girls team is tiny Eastside Prep-East Palo Alto, which won the Diamond Division of the West Coast Jamboree behind MVP Felicia Anderson, who had 91 points and made 17 three-pointers in four games.

-- Look for more notes and All-Metro and All-Decade teams at www.sfgate.com/sports/preps.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/04/SP8F1BDCR1.DTL#ixzz0blV8G5AI