Run and Gun Fall League at Lynwood High School, Lynwood, CA

One of the longest-running, and perhaps highest-quality fall leagues began tonight: the Run and Gun League in Lynwood. It runs Monday and Wednesday nights from late September through the first few days in November, and features a collection of high-caliber teams.

This year:

Bishop Amat
Carson (2 teams)
Garfield (2 teams)
J Serra
Long Beach Poly (3 teams)
Long Beach Jordan (2 teams)
Lynwood (2 teams)
Mayfair
Narbonne (2 teams)
Brea Olinda (2 teams)
Downey
Edison
Gahr
Norwalk
Saint Monica

The team I coached with a few years ago participated in this league, and it's fun. There are four games on three courts - 6, 7, 8, and 9 p.m. - for a total of 12 games per night. As a spectator it's fun to be able to bounce between games.

Tonight I caught the Long Beach Poly-Long Beach Jordan matchup. Poly won, of course, but Jordan had some bright spots.

Oregon State Coach LaVonda Wagner was there, as was seemingly everyone else in the LA basketball family/community. It was nice to see some people again.

I'd like to give a shout out to Jose, who is the father of a player on one of the teams there tonight. He walked right up to me and asked me if I wrote the Hoopism blog. Said he thought he'd spotted me at the Watts Games a few months back. Good eye, Jose! Nice to meet you.

I'll be covering more of this tournament, but here's a start. The lighting at Lynwood High isn't the greatest, so neither are the pictures. But I'll work on it.

Bracket is downloadable at the bottom of this page.



Long Beach Poly (green) and Long Beach Jordan players battle for a rebound.



Thanks in part to their strong defense, Poly beat Jordan handily.



Poly's Ariyah Crook-Williams, previously mentioned in this space, walks up the court.