2015-16, Week 5: Foothills Goes to Massachusetts
Foothills Christian lost its rematch with Chino Hills but continued as a team of statewide import, still not yet gone “national,” in the eyes of major U.S. ratings entities.
The Adidas-influenced Knights will travel again this week, to Springfield, Massachusetts, for the Hoophall Classic and take on Connecticut’s No. 1, 8-0 Waterbury Sacred Heart, averaging 89 points a game.
After losing to Chino Hills by 20 in December, the Knights did a better job against the Huskies’ press in the Sierra Canyon event in the San Fernando Valley last week and took the USA Today No. 1 squad to the wire before bowing, 85-83.
T.J. Leaf put Foothills ahead, 83-82 with a basket with 13.3 seconds remaining in the game, but coach Troy Leaf’s scrappers from El Cajon couldn’t hold on.
Foothills Christian’s regular-season, intersectional tour won’t be complete until Feb. 6, when it heads up the I-5 Freeway for a game against Santa Ana Mater Dei, ranked No. 4 in California this week by Cal-Hi Sports.
Foothills is No. 1 in the Union-Tribune weekly poll and No. 5 in Cal-Hi‘s Top 20. St. Augustine and Army-Navy earned on-the-bubble status.
The U-T No. 2 Saints have a rivalry game with Eastern League title implications against No. 7 Cathedral Saturday night at Point Loma Nazarene University.
Get there early. Parking is brutal.
LEAF AND WALTON?
After converting 20 of 24 shots from the floor, scoring 43 points, and knocking down 21 rebounds against the team from Chino, Leaf was described as the best prospect out of San Diego since Bill Walton in 1970.
Writer Frank Burlison, who made that observation, has virtually seen them all from his base in the Long Beach area for the last 40 or so years.
I was able to place Walton in Sports Illustrated‘s “Faces in the Crowd” when Walton hit the national landscape.
Walton scored 50 points and had 34 rebounds in a 110-68 victory over Pasadena in the Covina Tournament and led Helix to a 33-0 record. The Highlanders’ greatness wouldn’t be tested, because there were no Southern California or state playoffs in the Walton era.
Walton, a 6-foot, 11-inch center, was an enthusiastic, game-changing defender and unselfish, facilitating offensive player who still averaged 29.1 points a game.
The 6-10 Leaf, averaging 30.6 points, is a power forward and may have a more wide-ranging offensive game but not had Walton’s impact on defense.
ON THE GIRLS’ FRONT
The Bishop’s (15-1), Mission Hills (11-3), and La Jolla Country Day (11-3) rank 10, 11, and 12, respectively, in the latest Cal-Hi Sports poll.
Junior Destiny Littleton of The Bishop’s has scored 605 points and is averaging 37.8 points.
U-T BOYS’ POLL
First-place votes in parenthesis. Won-loss records through Monday.
| Rank | Team | Record | Points | Last Week |
| 1 | Foothills Christian (11) | 9-3 | 110 | 1 |
| 2 | St. Augustine | 11-4 | 97 | 2 |
| 3 | Torrey Pines | 12-3 | 72 | 5 |
| 4 | La Jolla Country Day | 16-0 | 66 | 5 |
| 5 | El Camino | 12-4 | 63 | 4 |
| 6 | Cathedral | 8-4 | 62 | 7 |
| 7 | Army-Navy | 12-5 | 58 | 6 |
| 8 | Kearny | 14-2 | 34 | 8 |
| 9 | Poway | 15-2 | 24 | 10 |
| 10 | San Marcos | 9-5 | 11 | 9 |
Points awarded on basis of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.
NR—Not ranked.
Others receiving votes, including record: Grossmont (14-3, 8), Mission Bay (11-4, 3), San Ysidro (14-2, 1), Vista (10-5, 1).
11 media representatives vote, including John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Steve Brand (San Diego Hall of Champions), Terry Monahan, Jim Lindgren, Union-Tribune correspondents; Bill Dickens, Adam Paul, EastCountySports.com; Rick Willis, KUSI-TV; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Lisa Lane, San Diego Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, fulltimehoops.com.