Top-Heavy North Division Stands Out In SCC Men's Basketball

SCC Men's Basketball Standings

SCC Men's Basketball Stat Leaders

The only three South Coast Conference men's basketball teams ranked in this week's State Top 30 Poll all are residents of the North Division.

Thus far, Mt. San Antonio has excelled to take the #6 position, followed by a surging #15 East Los Angeles, and #20 Pasadena City. 

The defending SCC North champion Mounties are 9-1 overall with a 95-91 overtime win over #9 Santiago Canyon, an 18-point victory over #26 Riverside City, a 10-point triumph over #17 Chaffey, and an 8-point win over #29 Irvine Valley to their credit. The team's only defeat was by an 18-point margin v. #26 Riverside City. Mt. SAC guard Jaidyn Simpson is averaging 19.8 points a game. Kenneth Brown has been a key player as well at 11.9 points and 7.9 rebounds a contest.

ELAC (7-2 overall) is on a 5-game win streak after falling to South Division's Cerritos, 77-76. The Huskies scored a big win over #5 Citrus, 90-87, an 8-point victory over #8 San Bernardino Valley, and a 12-point trumph over Riverside. Donjae Lindsey is averaging a team-best 13.9 points while second in the state in free throw shooting (27-for-29, 93.1 percent) behind his teammate Kamren Williams (20-for-21, 95.2)

PCC is 7-3, but two of their losses were close games v. Santiago Canyon (2-point margin) and San Bernardino Valley (eight points). The Lancers have two dynamic players in double-double leader Dylan Swillis, averaging 21.5 points and 10.1 rebounds (both second in the entire 12-team SCC), and the state's assists leader in point guard Jalen Vazquez, who averages 8.5 helpers, 13.1 points and 8.2 boards. 

Also in the North, LA Trade-Tech (5-5) has been paced by its leading scorer Enzo Kwamegne (15 points average), Los Angeles City (4-6) has a talented guard in AJ Robinson, averaging 19.6 points and five assists, and winless Rio Hondo (0-11) has one highlight in wing Dorian Tate, who is at 20-point, and conference-leading 11.9 rebound pace.

In the SCC South, Cerritos is 7-4 and winning the close games with its 1-point edge over East LA, and 2-point victories over both Cypress and Santa Monica, although it also has close losses v. Chaffey (five points) and a 6-point OT defeat v. Allan Hancock. Darron Henry is one of the Falcons best players at 15.2 points and 5.5 assists averages.

Compton is off to a strong 7-4 start with Zoe Holman averaging 14.7 points. Compton has played the likes of #7 Sequoias (81-79 loss), SBVC (11-point defeat), ELAC (lost by 17), and #30 West LA (83-80 loss). 

Rounding out the South are El Camino (4-8) with top scorer Kai Johnson (12.4 points avg.), LA Harbor (3-7) and led by Ijezie Anopueme (16.2 points, 7.9 rebounds), Long Beach City (3-9) with a solid perfomer in Lawrence Brown (15.8 points), and LA Southwest (2-10) featuring SCC-leading scorer in Kenneth Tyree, at a 23.9 points a game clip. 

On January 22 of the new year, the 10-game, SCC division schedules begin that determine the conference champions.

Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID