Prep b BB: Separation by MB

Mission Bay's Boogie Ellis (right front)
at the pregame captains' meeting
before the Bucs' loss to Country Day
Dec. 26 on Tipoff Night at
Torrey Pines High. (Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

Mission Bay, with a big win over Lincoln Jan. 5, has separated itself from the rest of the pack in Western League boys basketball following its earlier six-point win over St. Augustine.

The Buccaneers, with a new coach and new players last year following the long coaching career of Dennis Kane, known for his screaming on the sidelines, have matured into the cream of the Division 1 league.

The Saints would have been up there, but long-time coach Mike Haupt's crew is still adapting after losing CIF Player of the Year Taeshon Cherry to Foothills Christian two weeks before the start of practice.

St. Augustine, coming up on La Jolla's schedule Fri., Jan. 12, sports a brand new playing complex, three stories high, topped by outside basketball courts on its roof. I haven't seen the inside, but the mere shape of it from the outside, which I viewed at the end of last spring, was impressive enough.

With a zoning height limit for the surrounding neighborhood, I am told there was a maximum level to which the administration could erect the building. So, the solution was digging a deep hole, which the construction company did in the middle of campus, then assembling quite an impressive structure.

Haupt, last school year, laughed when I said, "You're losing your home court advantage" by leaving the tiny band box the Saints played in for decades. (It is so small, my wife got a case of the nerves during one Vikings-Saints game several years ago, and had to leave the unfriendly confines to get some fresh air and calm her nerves.)

Said Haupt: "No, the new building is going to give us even more of a home court advantage. There are (x) number of student seats behind the opposing basket, and (x) number of home spectator seats on the side." He had it all planned out, to further terrorize opposing teams with the vocal, screaming "Pit" of male students who raise heck and razz opposing players.

Back to Mission Bay: The four juniors who started as sophomores seem to be playing especially well. Ryan Meier, coach of Country Day, had their number in a decisive win on Tipoff Night prior to the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic. "We knew they didn't shoot well outside, so we defended them that way," said one of his team leaders the morning after the game at the team shoot-around. No one else since then has been able to slow Boogie Ellis and company down.

Country Day just beat the Saints Sat., Jan. 6, in a non-league matchup of highly-ranked teams. It seems St. Augustine, which seemed in a good place during the Torrey Pines tourney, is struggling right now. It looks like growing pains. They'll get better, though.



At this early moment in the seven-week Western League schedule, after the first week, the pick of the litter assembles like this:
1. Mission Bay - on top fairly decisively
2. St. Augustine - not playing up to Mission Bay's level
3. Cathedral Catholic - a somewhat unknown factor
4. Lincoln - The Hornets were defeated by Mission Bay by 23 points.
5. Patrick Henry - The Patriots lost to Cathedral by 20, beat La Jolla by 10.
6. La Jolla - losers of six of their last seven
7. Kearny - roundly beaten by Henry (by 19) and Cathedral (by 33)