Sports Shorts

December 14, 2009

LaPierre, No. 11, will be missed by her teammates.

Bonita High School senior Allie LaPierre was named to the Under Armour All-American Second Team. The award, akin to the McDonald’s All American Teams for basketball, honored LaPierre as one of the top 48 volleyball-playing seniors in the country. In the fall 2009 season, the UCLA-bound LaPierre registered 426 kills while leading the Bearcats to the 3-AA CIF Finals against eventual winner Los Altos.

 

Dec. 1, 2009

La Verne Lutheran won a nail-biter, 65-64, over the Dorsey Dons in the tip-off round of the Pasadena City Rose Classic hosted by Pasadena High School, with standout guard C.J. Cooper pouring in 25 points to lead the Trojans (1-0). All filling the nets were Grant Jerrett 12, Bruce English 11, Eric Cooper 9, Kevin Payne,, 5, Jay Miller 2 and Xavier Jones 1.

Spring baseball isn’t that far off, and Bonita High has already served notice its program will be strong again as the Bearcats beat South Hills in the semi-finals and Chino Hills in the finals to win the Cory Lidle Tournament over the Thanksgiving weekend. Our correspondent also informs us that Bonita’s Brian Tuttle was awarded a Cory Lidle scholarship for his outstanding play in the fourth annual tournament played in honor of Lidle, a South Hills High School graduate and a member of the New Yankees when he was killed in an October 2006 small plane crash.

Dec. 2, 2009

Jordan Salley, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound senior power forward for La Verne Lutheran High School, has committed to Montana State.

Salley is currently in rehab after sustaining an ACL injury this pastJune, which sidelined him for the July 2009 recruiting period. Jordan, however, is expected to make a full recovery and be back on the court with the Trojans in January or February of 2010.

“Salley is a strong and athletic post man that has a soft scoring touch around the basket and is also a solid rebounder,” said Trojans Head Coach Eric Cooper.

Prior to his injury, Salley was invited to the Reebok All-American Camp in Philadelphia, Pa., and was scheduled to play in tourneys in Long Beach and Las Vegas, Nev., with his Belmont Shore club team. Jordan had participated in the Pangos All-American Camp in June in Long Beach, earning a spot in the Top 50 cream of the crop game there.

Salley had received interest from school such as Creighton, Tulsa, New Mexico, Santa Clara and Pepperdine before deciding to become a Bobcat.

Damien Wins Opener, 49-38

December 1, 2009, GLENDORA, CA — Getting 27 points from sophomore center Chris Reyes, Damien High School made its 2009-10 basketball debut a success by defeating Chatsworth High 49-38 in the first round of the Glendora Tournament. Reyes also had six blocks for the Spartans.

After taking an early 12-8 first-quarter lead, the Spartans pushed their advantage to 29-16 at half, at one point enjoying a 25-10 before the half-time buzzer. After two periods, Reyes had 12 of his 27 points and senior shooting guard Chris Adams pumped in 11 points.

In the third quarter, however, Damien turned stone cold, collecting only a pair of points on single free throws from Adams and Reyes. The dry spell allowed Chatsworth to tie the game at the end of the period, 31-31.

In the fourth, Damien settled down, getting some early buckets to lead 37-31, before closing out the contest 49-38.

“I thought it was a typical first game,” Damien head coach Matt Dunn said. “We got off to a good start, and then we were so excited I think we ran out of energy there for a little while. You get such a good adrenaline flowing, and then it’s hard to get it to go back on again. I could almost tell at half-time, I was a little worried, I wasn’t sure whether we’d be able to get our attention back up there, but we did.

“We made enough plays down the stretch. Your first game, any win’s a good one. We’ll take it.”

Dunn expected more offense from his players.

“I thought a lot of our shots were short, which I think means we were a little fatigued,  just from the excitement of playing the first game. It’s good to have that one over because it wasn’t very pretty.”

Dunn’s squad has learned its first early-season lesson: winning ugly is better than losing.