Mark DeLuca’s second year at Valley Christian has started off with a series of bangs, most coming on emphatic dunks by 6’9 junior Jay-Allen Tovar, who has led the Warriors to an 8-0 start. Saturday’s win over Palma at the Hunt Memorial Classic, in which the Warriors overcame a sluggish start to win by 16, showcased Valley Christian’s tremendous length. While size is usually prevalent all over the WCAL, this year’s league seems to be on the smaller side.
There are very few bodies like Bellarmine’s Kendall Stubblefield, meaning there’ll be an even bigger window for Valley Christian’s big men to make some noise. While Tovar leads that group, 6’7 senior Cameron Fini makes for double trouble in the post and 6’6 Arya Balaji is an impact player on the wing. That size will have a chance to prove itself in Valley Christian’s WCAL opener on January 2 against an extremely undersized Serra team, a rare role reversal for the two programs.
While Valley Christian’s size and Tovar’s playmaking ability caught a lot of the attention at the Hunt Memorial Classic, the entire day’s events made for one of the best showcases Northern California has seen in years. Until Valley Christian pulled away from Palma with a series of Tovar dunks, every game had been decided by single-digits. Pinole Valley beat Gunderson 51-42, Evergreen Valley beat Albany 47-46 in overtime, Brookside Christian nearly overcame an 18-point halftime deficit in a 57-53 loss to Kennedy-Richmond, and St. Joseph Notre Dame beat Sacred Heart Cathedral 63-58.
The Hunt Memorial Classic is timed perfectly, with El Cerrito’s Gaucho Holiday Hoops Classic as the only major tournament in the area during the week as most teams only play one or two games due to finals. DeLuca has said he has plans to bring bigger and bigger teams to Valley Christian for the event in coming years. It would be no surprise at all if it’s featured among the region’s top showcases in the coming years.
Down year for Division II?
Those December nonleague games play a big part in determining the Open Division field, and at the moment, it looks like this may be the first year in which Division II does not send the maximum three teams to the Open Division. No Division II team outside of the WCAL currently looks like an Open contender, and both Serra and Mitty are off to slow starts. St. Francis does look like an Open team, but Serra and Mitty will both need to show signs of improvement. However, it’s hard to find two programs that have a better history of doing so as the season goes on. Last year’s Mitty team and countless Serra teams under Chuck Rapp have made enormous progress as the season goes on.
However, the biggest impediment to those teams reaching the Open Division is the logjam coming from Division I. Division I had never sent three teams to the Open until last year, when Bellarmine, Sequoia and Menlo-Atherton were all selected. Los Gatos and Palo Alto were left out, with Palo Alto beating the Wildcats in the CCS Division I Championship on Spencer Rojahn’s buzzer beater. With three Open teams coming from Division I, that game also served as a winner-take-all affair for a trip to the State Tournament. Palo Alto made good on that bid, reaching the Northern California Championship and pushing Logan to overtime.
Once again, Division I is packed with worthy teams. Bellarmine is one of the strongest teams in the section thus far, Sequoia has a win over Serra, Palo Alto looks just as good as last year and Los Gatos has one of the best players in all of Northern California in Dylan Belquist. Piedmont Hills, an Open Division team in the inaugural field in 2013, is making a strong case so far, having only lost to Sequoia in overtime. The Pirates also have the benefit of the committee’s history of trying to get a BVAL team into the field.
At the moment, Bellarmine would likely hold the top seed of the entire Open Division field, Sequoia would have a spot by virtue of wins over Serra and Piedmont Hills, and the last spot would go to either Piedmont Hills or Palo Alto. Los Gatos’ loss to Saratoga may loom large at season’s end.
While most of these teams are barely a third of the way through their schedules, it’s important to understand the value of these December games and the weight they’ll carry when the league representatives convene in February.
Wild week for Riordan
Riordan’s back-to-back games against BCL West opponents turned out to be a doozy. The Crusaders held off Lick-Wilmerding on Wednesday despite a heroic performance from Walter Lum, who scored 34 for the Tigers in a 67-62 loss. On Thursday, Riordan took to the road to battle with a rebuilding Stuart Hall team and overcame a 23-point deficit behind 22 points from Je’Lani Clark and 31 from James Chun, who tied his own school record with nine 3-pointers. After Wednesday’s game, in which he shot 6-for-18, Chun promised he’d never shoot like that again, and he made good on his word come Thursday.
