Players that impressed me were:
The Irvine Sol's Shayla Batson, a senior at Mater Dei, who had a very good first-round game against Inglewood.
Point guard Hazel Ramirez of Inglewood, who had a great game against the Sol. She is headed to Loyola next fall.
Ariyah Crook-Williams of Poly, for her game against Cal Sparks 2011.
Kari Korver of Sparks 2011 - a bright young talent who was on the Sparks Black team this past summer. Only a sophomore, Korver has tremendous energy on the floor and has a penchant for making long 3s.
Kejuana Gardner of Sparks 2010, who kept her team in it against the Hollywood FL Eagles, and was also doing a bit of everything in the Sparks' game against the Sol.
Cal Sparks 2010 (blue uniforms) beat the Hollywood, FL Eagles 42-40 in an exciting game where the Sparks scored the final bucket in the last 10 seconds. It was a big win for the Sparks, as the Eagles are highly-rated.
Defending state 3A champs the Inglewood Sentinels warm up in preparation for their game against the Irvine Sol.
Center Deajanae Scurry (#4) is at the top of the key for a moment.......
......but is in her rightful place a few seconds later to put it in. The Sol won, 62-55.
Sparks 2010 and Eagles players scramble for the ball.
In the evening session, Cal Sparks 2011 (dark blue uniforms) and Long Beach Poly went head-to-head. Poly won, 49-39.
Across the big gym at the same time, Inglewood (dark green) dispensed of Mile High Magic, 47-37.
Kari Korver of Cal Sparks 2011 and Cal Sparks Gold.
Hazel Ramirez of Inglewood.
4 comments:
dang, you do get around. ;) thanks for all you do to keep us informed on the up and comers, sass.
scullyfu
Thanks for that, scull. You just made my day. :)
I noticed you forgot Rashanda Gray who had a pretty outstanding tourney as well and from what I hear is one of the most improved players for Cal Sparks 2011 team and in the country according to ESPN's recruiting site. I’m glad somebody else noticed what a great player Kari Korver is going to become if she continues to work hard and progress, I haven’t heard much buzz about her but I really enjoy watching her play. Same can be said for Hazel Ramirez of Inglewood who looks to be the floor leader of a pretty strong team this year.
I didn't forget about Reshanda "Too Tall" Gray; I just don't want to seem like too much of a homer because Too Tall is my girl! Well, one of them. And I've given her props here before. When does she NOT have a great tournament?
The girl played for Washington Prep's JV team as a freshman in 07-08. Was a huge reason why they won the JV City Championship. Last year at this time she was coming onto varsity as an unknown. But by the end of the first week of Prep's season, people knew who she was. Check out this game I attended that made me high for a day: http://hoopism.blogspot.com/2008/12/taft-48-washington-prep-46.html
Too Tall was her team's leading rebounder and second-leading scorer by the end of the season. She is the centerpiece, literally, of the Prep team.
She began the spring playing for the Cal Sparks' second team, but in late May was moved to the premiere "gold" team. Too Tall has a whole bunch of recruiting letters as she heads into her junior year. All that, and she's on the honor roll at school and a great kid, too. I'm really proud of her.
Kari Korver is only a sophomore, which is why she's not well-known yet. But I prophesize she'll break out like Too Tall. Korver grew by leaps and bounds this summer on her Cal Sparks team, and has become a beast of a presence on the court, with a wicked three-shot. She recently got promoted to the Sparks' Gold team.
Ramirez has so much heart it's ridiculous. But Inglewood still has some work to do before the regular season. They lost several seniors last year, including Tayler Champion, so they have to figure out how to deal with that. In the Mater Dei tourney, they went 1-3.
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