LJ b BB: Foothills preview

By Ed Piper

La Jolla's 5-1 basketball team enters play in the Grossmont Invitational Fri., Dec. 15, with a new advantage: Coach Paul Baranowski and his squad will host games at La Jolla High as an "alternate" site for the annual tournament, in addition to the home site at Grossmont High. That means the Vikings get to play in their own gym, and in the evening feature games, at least for part of the tourney.

A big test, and one sporting some known names in the basketball world, will come the second night of the tournament in the Big Gym against top-ranked Foothills Christian, which features 6'10" CIF Player of the Year Taeshon Cherry.

Cherry, in a controversial move, transferred to the East County school--which has a flex schedule that includes "independent study" off-site on Tuesdays and Thursdays, meaning students can stay at home those days and, theoretically, do homework on their own--only two weeks before the start of practice at his former school, St. Augustine.

The mobile tower averaged 20.3 points and 10.4 rebounds a game last year in garnering the top player award.

Playing alongside him is another transfer, Yassine Gharram, a 6'2" sophomore from Point Loma High. Gharram is called "a flashy guard" in preseason reports, on the merits of his stats for the Pointers as a freshman: 15.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 2.3 steals.

Both Cherry and Gharram did not have to sit out for 30 days at the beginning of the season, despite their school transfers, because the CIF office established that they each had completed a "valid change of residence" prior to the season. This is a new rule this year, where in previous school years, if a student athlete was found to have transferred for athletic reasons, he or she would have to sit out the required days.

Returning for the Knights are Derrick Carter-Hollinger, a 6'5" junior forward said to be "a big, athletic wing", and Jaren Nafarrete, a 5'7" junior called "a jet-quick guard", according to reports.

While the Vikings sailed through the Hilltop Invitational last week to win the tournament title, only stumbling against a physical Helix team, Foothills has been playing some tough teams and carries a 2-3 win-loss record at this early point in the season. The Knights open the Grossmont tournament Friday night, Dec. 15, against a good Canyon Crest Academy team that played well in the Hilltop tourney.