Prep Rally: There’s a lot of intrigue around the best team in City Section basketball

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. The toughest problem of the high school basketball season has been trying to figure out the City Section. There is no top team. But last week has helped clarify a little bit about what teams to watch.

City Secion intrigue

King/Drew coach Lloyd Webster with his son, Josahn, a sophomore guard who scored 18 points in win over Crenshaw.

(Nick Koza)

There never has been a basketball season quite like this one in the City Section. Predicting which teams might become the top ones for the playoffs is futile. Parity has arrived for the Open, Division I and II. It’s pure speculation at this point, but there are signs of teams beginning to separate.

Here’s the latest look of which teams are getting better:

1. King/Drew. An 18-point win over Crenshaw on Friday puts the Golden Eagles in position to be a high seed in the Open Division. The problem is King/Drew still has two league games left against Washington Prep, starting Wednesday, and the General might have the best talent in the City.

2. Birmingham. An overtime win over Chatsworth puts the Patriots in contention to win the West Valley League.

3. Cleveland. The biggest move of the season could be the clearance of Souljah Niles to play for the Cavaliers. They’ve won seven consecutive games. He played for Taft on last season’s City title team, transferred to Palisades, then ended up at Cleveland.

4. Washington Prep. The Generals lost in four overtimes to Crenshaw, but they are the team to watch to see if they can improve enough this month to become a title contender.

5. Chatsworth. The Chancellors have the best player in Alijah Arenas, but they are in Division II and probably must finish in the top two in the West Valley League to get promoted to the Open Division.

6. Crenshaw. The Cougars have an excellent point guard in King Peterson and own wins over Chatsworth and Washington Prep.

7. Grant. The Lancers are headed to an East Valley League championship behind Will Overton.

8. Gardena. Having a 6-11 center makes Gardena a dangerous team. Gardena is 4-0 in the Marine League.

9. Garfield. The Bulldogs have an outstanding point guard in Jayden Barnes and own the only win over 16-1 Manual Arts.

10. LACES. Losses to Westchester and Palisades have hurt LACES, but a win Monday over Manual Arts would help. The team struggled because of injuries but is back healthy.

Basketball rewind

Corona Centennial’s Carter Bryant had a 39-point game this past week.

(Nick Koza)

Carter Bryant of Corona Centennial turned in one of the best individual performances of the season by scoring 39 points to take down Eastvale Roosevelt. Here’s the report.

Jason Crowe Jr. of Lynwood scored 42 points Friday night, sending his career scoring total past 2,000 points in less than two season. He’s only a sophomore.

Birmingham pulled out an overtime win over Chatsworth and Alijah Arenas. Here’s the report.

King/Drew took over first place in the Coliseum League. Here’s the report.

Windward and Campbell Hall engaged in their usual dramatic rivalry game. Here’s the report.

Etiwanda’s girls basketball team traveled back east to play in the Hoophall Classic and came away with an impressive 71-56 win over national power Sidwell Friends. USC-bound Kennedy Smith made six threes and finished with 29 points.

Mathis Dritz of Westlake scored 40 points in a win over Rolling Hills Prep. The Warriors play Newbury Park this week to decide first place in the Marmonte League. Newbury Park is 20-1.

Here’s this week’s top 25 boys’ basketball rankings by The Times.

Here’s last week’s Southern California’s girls’ basketball rankings.

Next UCLA player

Eric Freeny, a UCLA commit, is averaging 20 points and seven rebounds for Corona Centennial.

(Nick Koza)

With UCLA struggling, coach Mick Cronin will be counting on Corona Centennial guard Eric Freeny to provide a lift next season.

Here’s a profile on Freeny and why he might be the perfect player for Cronin.

Transfer portal

Birmingham junior quarterback Kingston Tisdell has gone through 14 games without throwing an interception.

(Craig Weston)

It was a busy week for football transfers because of the start of the spring semester for many schools. The biggest transfer was quarterback Kingston Tisdell leaving City Section champion Birmingham to transfer to Inglewood. He had one interception last season.

Santa Margarita has been the big winner so far with five transfers, including defensive lineman Max Amasio, who had 14 sacks at St. John Bosco.

Here’s the link to the transfer portal for high schools in Southern California.

Girls water polo

Orange Lutheran’s girls’ water polo team is 15-0.

(Orange Lutheran)

Orange Lutheran continues to be the dominant team in girls’ water polo.

The Lancers won the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions with a 13-4 win over Foothill in the championship game. Mater Dei took third place.

Orange Lutheran is 15-0 this season. Sophomore Allison Cohen was named tourney MVP.

Jewish athletes of the year

Shane Rosenthal of Newbury Park comes up with interception against Thousand Oaks with Jaden Mack looking on.

(Craig Weston)

The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame has selected Shane Rosenthal from Newbury Park and Yalee Schwartz from Shalhevet as its boys and girls high school athletes of the year for 2023. Both will be honored during an induction ceremony in June 29 at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Rosenthal, a junior defensive back and receiver, had 12 interceptions and caught 122 passes for nearly 2,000 yards and 21 touchdowns.

Schwartz led Shalhevet to a state championship in girls’ basketball in 2023, averaging 20 points.

Also being honored is Harvard-Westlake senior Jake Lancer as the winner of the Allan Malamud Memorial Scholarship for journalism.

Baseball

Duncan Marsten has been clocked throwing 99 mph.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

It’s less than a month before the high school baseball season, and big news this winter is the rise of Duncan Marsten of Harvard-Westlake. He has been clocked several times throwing his fastball at 99 mph. That puts him in first-round draft choice territory. The Wolverines have another likely first-rounder in Bryce Rainer. The last time the school had two first-round picks was Lucas Giolito and Max Fried in 2012 going No. 16 and No. 7, respectively.

Corona’s highly regarded baseball team won’t have the Ebel brothers, Brady and Trey, for the first eight games. Both must sit out after transferring from Etiwanda. Coach Andy Wise is probably the only coach in Southern California who has three closers in his bullpen with Billy Carlson, Jake Skelskey and Brady Ebel. It means his outstanding starting pitchers made up of Ethan Schiefelbein (UCLA commit), Sam Burgess (TCU) and Seth Hernandez (Vanderbilt) only need to throw five innings.

When it comes to senior catchers, Corona’s Josh Springer and JSerra’s Charlie Caruso come to mind as terrific defensively and ready to make impact with their bats.

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame senior Levi Sterling has grown to 6 feet 5 and could be the best two-way player in Southern California. When he’s not pitching, he’ll be playing shortstop. He’s a Texas commit who gave up just three earned run in 38 innings last season.

Soccer

San Clemente remains unbeaten in boys soccer with an 8-0-2 record and 2-0 mark in league play.

Here’s the latest Southern Section soccer rankings.

In the City Section, Birmingham 9-1-1 and 4-0 in the West Valley League. The Patriots have a showdown game with Granada Hills on Wednesday.

In girls’ soccer, Santa Margarita is 8-1-1 and 2-0-1 in the Trinity League.

Here’s the latest Southern Section girls’ soccer rankings.

Notes . . .

Charlie Fuerbringer of Mira Costa was selected the Gatorade girls’ volleyball state player of the year. She’s a setter headed to Wisconsin. . . .

Chuck Chastain has resigned as football coach at Eastvale Roosevelt. . . .

Rob Thompson is the new football coach at Saddleback. . . .

Fred Emmerson is out as football coach at Taft. . . .

Lanny Booher has resigned after 20 seasons as football coach at Anaheim. . . .

Pitcher Jacob Badillo of Highland has committed to Cal State Los Angeles. . . .

South Hills basketball coach Rocky Moore has resigned. . . .

Peyton Waters of Birmingham has been selected the City Section football player of the year for the second straight season. Here’s the link to All-City team. . . .

Newport Harbor football coach Peter Lofthouse is expected to be officially hired as the new coach at El Toro this week. . . .

The Southern Section Executive Committee voted 17-0 to endorse a new playoff divisional format for all team sports similar to football. It will now be up to member schools to approve the new bylaw later this month. It would mean no more teams placed in divisions before the season. Schools would be put in divisions based on competitive equity during their season helped by computer rankings.

From the archives: Cassius Stanley

Former Sierra Canyon guard Cassius Stanley (2), seen here in 2020 playing for Indiana Pacers, is now playing in Israel.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Former Sierra Canyon guard Cassius Stanley is playing in Israel this season. He was a second-round draft pick of the Indiana Pacers in 2020 out of Duke.

Also on his Hapoel Afula in Israel is former Damien and Loyola Marymount guard Cameron Shelton.

Here’s a story from 2019 on Stanley leading Sierra Canyon to the Southern Section Open Division championship.

Recommendations

From the Washington Post, a story on how basketball coaches in Virginia deal with playing games without a shot clock.

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on a bill that would ban tackle football for youth players under 12 in California.

From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, a story on the passing of longtime girls’ basketball coach Mark Nakamura.

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