Prep Rally: Big news in high school basketball

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. There’s two weeks left in the high school basketball season before the playoffs begin. It was a week of clarifying who’s on the rise.

Here comes Notre Dame

Lino Mark of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame shows off his athleticism against Harvard-Westlake.

(Nick Koza)

The biggest news of the week was unbeaten Sherman Oaks Notre Dame coming into the Harvard-Westlake gym and surprising the Wolverines 59-54 to improve to 23-0 and become the new No. 1 team in The Times’ top 25 rankings. The second biggest news was Sierra Canyon rallying from eight points down in the fourth quarter to also beat Harvard-Westlake.

Mercy Miller had a brilliant game with 29 points for Notre Dame. Here’s the report. There were some doubts about just how good the Knights were because their schedule wasn’t considered strong but there are no doubts any longer. They took an early punch and were strong in the fourth quarter, getting key baskets from sophomores Zachary White and Caleb Ogbu.

The most impressive part of the game was the way Miller started finding open players when Harvard-Westlake had enough of him scoring over defenders and started to double team him. His ability to recognize the open man and get him the ball really was key to Notre Dame hanging on in the fourth quarter. The Knights play a big Mission League game against host Sierra Canyon on Friday and a nonleague game against Bishop Gorman at the Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei on Saturday before the Mission League tournament next week.

Dodgers star Mookie Betts was courtside at Sierra Canyon for game against Harvard-Westlake.

(Nick Koza)

Sierra Canyon received a massive performance from Justin Pippen (24 points, 21 in the second half) to stun the Wolverines. Here’s the report. Mookie Betts had a courtside seat. Imagine how hard it will be to get a ticket to Friday’s Notre Dame at Sierra Canyon game. No problem. It will be televised at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

Windward (21-3) is making a late-season run to be an Open Division playoff team. The Wildcats have four games left and if they sweep Viewpoint, Crossroads, Campbell Hall and Brentwood, they should be in.

King/Drew and Birmingham have provided some clarity in the City Section, taking charge in the Coliseum and West Valley leagues with unbeaten records and probably rank No. 1 and No. 2 if Open Division seedings were done tomorrow. King/Drew had a home win over Washington Prep and Birmingham ended Cleveland’s nine-game winning streak. But both teams face tough road games in the last two weeks at Chatsworth, at Cleveland, at Crenshaw, at Washington Prep.

Basketball rewind

Ontario Christian freshman basketball star Kaleena Smith has already set the school scoring record and has her sights set on the career mark.

(Steve Galluzzo / Los Angeles Times)

Freshman girls’ basketball sensation, Kaleena Smith, keeps delivering game after game for Ontario Christian. She’s averaging 35.3 points.

As Eric-Paul Johnson of the Riverside Press Enterprise points out, she’s averaging 40.1 points in her last eight games while making 48 threes. She has 104 made threes this season.

Brentwood came through with a rare road victory over Windward in the Gold Coast League to take over first place.

Burroughs is having another successful season at 20-2 under coach Vicky Oganyan.

Mater Dei assumed command of the Trinity League girls’ race with a rout of Orange Lutheran.

Palisades defeated Westchester in a Western League boys game, giving the Dolphins hope of making a stunning comeback after starting the season with 11 losses in their first 12 games. There is only one game between first-place Westchester and Venice. Here’s a report.

Star in the making

Harvard-Westlake Nikolas Khamenia is 6-8 and a rising junior prospect.

(Nick Koza)

Nikolas Khamenia changes before your eyes. Maybe it’s the haircut he got during the season that provides the illusion. More likely is that he’s a growing 17-year-old becoming stronger, feistier and more confident every time he steps onto the basketball court.

He’s the Man of Steel for Harvard-Westlake, a 6-foot-8 junior whose physicality, versatility and adaptability is so distinctive that it singles him out as a star in the making.

Here’s a profile of a very good player now and in the future.

Gray line in sports

Soccer players going down trying to convince officials to call a penalty is an art in the sport.

(Craig Weston)

There’s a gray line in sports. It straddles right from wrong. Some don’t like it when people are on the gray line, but it’s perfectly legal and even expected if you’re ambitious and seeking to exploit every possible advantage.

In basketball, there’s the player falling down and faking a charge. In baseball, there’s the player holding up his glove like he caught the ball when he didn’t. In football, there’s the lineman using his hands to hold a rusher until he’s caught. In soccer, there’s players acting when tripped to fake injury to convince the official to issue a yellow card.

The gray line is a way of using the system without hurting anyone. Anger, though, sometimes sends you over the gray line. That’s when people need to stop and think.

In high school sports, let’s look at gray line examples.

Transfer portal

Birmingham quarterback Kingston Tisdell takes off on a scramble. He completed nine of 11 passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns.

(Craig Weston)

Here’s your weekly look at who’s coming and who’s going among top high school football players.

Soccer

Mimi Dominguez of Bishop Amat has been having a great season. She had three goals against La Salle, including the game-winner, giving her 34 goals this season.

San Clemente’s boys’ team has won 10 consecutive games and is 10-0-2 overall. Jonah Levandofsky had two goals in a 4-0 win over San Juan Hills.

Tyler Cash of Oak Park has 15 goals and 10 assists in 12 games for the 10-1-1 Eagles.

This week’s Southern Section boys’ soccer rankings. This week’s Southern Section girls’ soccer rankings.

Baseball

Mater Dei top pitchers (left) Kai Bratton, Wylan Moss, Ryan Iveson and Landon Gordon with pitching coach Duane Page.

(Johnny Elliott)

The always tough Trinity League will have plenty of quality pitchers, including at Mater Dei, where UCLA-bound Wylan Moss is hoping for a big season.

A new pitcher to watch is at Santa Margarita, Cade Townsend, who has looked good this winter after not pitching in high school baseball.

Bishop Alemany picked up the top pitcher from Burroughs in Lucas Beltran.

Calabasas pitcher Lee Atkinson has been impressive this winter with 15 scoreless innings.

Notes

The Southern Section Open Division championship games will be played at Cal Baptist. Azusa Pacific, Edison and Colony will be also used as championship sites. . . .

Newbury Park sophomore quarterback Brady Smigiel has picked up a scholarship offer from UCLA. . . .

The boys’ basketball coach at Monrovia, Samuel-Scheeck Morris, has resigned. . . .

Mike Zangl, a former JV coach at Tesoro, has been named the school’s football coach. . . .

Senior receiver Marcus Brown of Mater Dei is headed to Stanford, joining his quarterback, Elijah Brown (no relation). . . .

Maranatha baseball player Thomas Lieb has committed to Oklahoma State. . . .

Anthony Figueroa is the new track coach at Bishop Amat. . . .

Gov. Gavin Newsom says he would not sign a proposed law that would ban youth football players from playing tackle football. . . .

Basketball coach Steve Moore has resigned at Mayfair. Sinnamon Garrett Monroy will be the interim coach. . . .

Matt Burns is the new football coach at Newport Harbor. He was previously defensive coordinator. . . .

Nick Karavedas is the new football coach at Sonora. He has been director of admission at Aquinas after previously being head coach from 2012-2018. He was an assistant coach at Sunny Hills, where his son, Peter, is head coach. . . .

Ryan Jacobson has resigned as football coach at Rowland. . . .

From the archives: Benny Gealer

Benny Gealer was a top point guard at Rolling Hills Prep.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Benny Gealer was a top point guard at Rolling Hills Prep and is in his second year playing for Stanford starting to contribute. He’s a former walk-on who earned a scholarship last season.

He has played in all 17 games for Stanford and made 18 threes while averaging 4.6 points. He made five of six shots Thursday against Washington State.

Here’s a 2021 story on Gealer becoming a standout at Rolling Hills Prep.

Recommendations

From the Pasadena Star, a story on a high school girls’ soccer goalie headed to Stanford.

From Facebook, a look at a high school football player using sign language during the national anthem.

From Footballscoop.com, a story on body cams being used by high school officials as a pilot program.

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