SD Prep Sports:

2006-07 Winter Sports
Grossmont Conference

Boys Basketball

Highlanders topple #2 Colts for third holiday hoops title

Posted Jan. 2, 2007
Helix High School boys basketball coach John Singer may not feel his team is exactly where he wants it to be at this point of the season but the Highlanders are certainly racking up wins — and valuable prestige points in the San Diego Section rankings — at the midpoint of the 2006-07 season.

Photo: Helix' Jordan Payton goes up against Crawford's Tyrone Shelley, the national prep scoring leader.

“Our goal is to get a little better every time out,” said Singer, whose team defeated Crawford, 77-64, to win the championship title of the 18th annual Chula Vista Spartan Classic on Dec. 30. “Right now we’re not the team I want us to be around CIF time (section playoffs).”

Still, the wins have been coming in bunches for the Scotties, who entered the season ranked sixth among section teams. Helix ended the 2006 calendar year with an 11-1 record after its 4-0 run through this year’s Spartan Classic field and a notable win against a Crawford team that had been ranked second in the preseason.

Lawrence Hurdle, a 5-11 senior, scored 34 points and teammate David Jefferson, a 6-5 senior, contributed 19 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Highlanders past the Colts and national scoring leader Tyrone Shelley, a 6-7 senior.

Hurdle matched Shelly, who set a tournament record with 167 points in four games, with 34 points in the championship game. But it was the Scotties’ ability to outplay the rest of the Crawford team that proved to be the decisive factor in the victory.

“It’s all about defense,” said Singer, who is in his 26th year coaching at Helix. “If you don’t transition from defense to offense, you’re not going to be successful.”

The Highlanders opened up a sizable lead on the Colts, leading 22-13 after the opening quarter, and maintained a 36-29 scoring edge over the next two quarters. Crawford (9-3) challenged at times but Helix responded to each challenge with 14-2 and 10-0 scoring runs.

Jordan, a 6-3 senior, scored six points for the victorious Scotties while 6-3 junior Donald McGowen and 6-0 senior Brandon Fountain each scored five points and 6-1 senior Dorian Staton and 6-2 junior Kareem Abukar both scored four points.

Fountain drew the primary assignment of guarding Shelley in the contest, drawing praise from Singer.

Shelley, who pumped in 44 points in 100-31 opening-round win against Lloydminster and added 48 points in a 97-65 quarterfiinal-round victory against Steele Canyon, entered the tourney title game averaging 38.4 points per game.

Some are picking the Highlanders to be the No. 1 team in the section by the end of the season. While the Scotties do appear deep in talent — seven players contributed points in the championship game against Crawford and the Colts’ national scoring leader — Singer suggested the team still needs to come to grips with that talent overload.

“Everybody wants to play but everybody has to understand that not everyone can play,” Singer said after his team opened tourney play with a 70-44 win against Point Loma on Dec. 27.

Jefferson and McGowen keyed Helix with 15 points apiece in the win against Point Loma while Hurdle threw in 23 points in the Highlanders’ 62-40 quarterfinal-round victory against Bonita Vista on Dec. 28. The Scotties advanced to the final with a 63-44 semifinal-round win against Chula Vista on Dec. 29.

The holiday hoops title was the third for Helix in December after previously claiming championship game victories in the Hilltop and Red Bluff tournaments.

Steele Canyon 59, Chula Vista 57
The Cougars closed out tourney play with a gutsy comeback win against the tourney-host Spartans in a consolation matchup on Dec. 30. Jabari Robinson, a 5-9 sophomore, keyed Steele Canyon with 13 points while Riley Balikian, a 6-0 junior, added 12 points and Elijah Carter, a 5-9 junior, contributed 11 points.

The Cougars (4-8) led through the opening two quarters (16-13 after the first quarter and 32-27 at halftime) before falling behind 43-41 entering the fourth quarter. The teams appeared evenly matched, with the lead exchanging hands at various junctures of the back-and-fourth contest.

Steele Canyon received a big boost when Balikian made three successive foul shots in the closing moments of the game. However, Chula Vista had the last shot of the contest with a chance to send the game into overtime but the ball went in and out of the hoop as the buzzer sounded.

Jake Ransom, a 6-2 junior, and Josiah Smith, a 6-3 sophomore, each scored seven points while Nick Stathas, a 6-0 junior, had six points in the exciting matchup.

The Cougars opened the tournament with a 61-54 victory against Mar Vista and followed that with the 97-65 loss against Crawford before topping Grossmont 49-43.

Grossmont 55, Bonita Vista 46
The Foothillers (7-6) received double-digit scoring from four player in recovering from a 23-21 halftime deficit. Ian Cochran, a 6-6 junior, led Grossmont with 15 points against the Barons (5-8) while 5-6 junior Khalid Waters scored 13 points, 5-7 junior Michael Graham scored 11 points and 6-7 senior Justin Rutherford scored 10 points. Richard Ogunsalu, a 6-5 junior, rounded out the Hillers’ scoring with six points.

Grossmont finished 2-2 in tourney play, openin with a 75-42 victory against Castle Park.

Cochran had 23 points in the win against Castle Park while tallying a team-high 20 points in a 66-55 quarterfinal-round loss against Eastlake.

Highlanders win last-second thriller, tourney hoops title

By Ryan Rudnansky
Sports intern

Posted Dec. 12, 2006
It was the way every championship basketball game should end: at the last second.

Coming into its Hilltop tournament championship game duel against Rancho Buena Vista on Dec. 8, the Helix boys basketball team was supposed to be the powerhouse.

But it took a steal by a player who hadn’t even played organized basketball before this season to propel the Highlanders to a 61-60 victory in the final seconds at Hilltop High School.

Helix senior forward Jordan Patton stole a Longhorns inbounds pass in the waning seconds and fed the ball to senior guard Lawrence Hurdle for the game-winning layup before the buzzer sounded.

By the way Patton was celebrating after the play — jumping up and down in circles — you get the feeling he likes this organized basketball thing.

Head coach John Singer, who deemed Patton’s seven-point, 12-rebound effort as “huge,” never imagined the game would be decided at the last second.

“I actually didn’t expect it to be this close,” Singer said. “But (Rancho Buena Vista) is a good team. They’re very synchronized on the offensive end. They play very well together in their system.”

Leading the charge for the Longhorns was senior guard Greg Grimm, who had 21 points and kept them in the lead for most of the game.

But with the Highlanders trailing 60-56, senior guard Kareem Abukar hit a three-pointer with 10 seconds left after missing one the possession before.

“He has no conscience,” Singer said. “He’s a young kid. He believes in himself.”

The next play, Patton stole the ball to set up Hurdle, who had missed a shot at the buzzer to tie Rancho Buena Vista two nights before.

“For the most part tonight, we had to battle from behind,” Singer said. “I’m proud of our kids. We dug ourselves a hole, not much was going right, but we got out of it. It was kind of redemption from the other day when we played them.”

The championship trophy will only fuel the Highlanders going forward this season.
“Anytime you win, kids listen to you more and you can build on it,” Singer said. “Whatever happens the whole game, you never quit and this is a perfect example of why you never quit. It looked like there was no way in hell we were going to win this game. But you find a way to get a ‘W.’”