Tournament of Champions Basketball : Capo Valley’s Waikle Scores 20 in Victory

Only a year ago, Capistrano Valley High School center John Waikle was termed a “project.” by most basketball coaches and scouts. It’s a nice way of describing a tall player who isn’t very good.

Waikle had transfered to Capistrano Valley from Villa Park and spent countless hours with Cougar Coach Mark Thornton working to improve his game. It appears the hard work is paying dividends.

Waikle, a 6-foot 9-inch senior, scored 20 points and had 13 rebounds to lead the Cougars to a 55-45 victory Monday night over Verbum Dei in the opening round of the Tournament of Champions in Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg Gymnasium.

It was the first appearance for the Cougars in the prestigious tournament, and they scored an impressive victory against the only team that has participated in the event for all 14 years.

Capistrano Valley rolled to its sixth victory without a loss by combining an aggressive defense with a strong, inside game. The Cougars’ 2-3 zone was instrumental in Verbum Dei’s poor shooting night as the Eagles made 19 of 52 field-goal attempts.

Waikle was a force inside, hitting 7 of 14 shots from the field and adding 6 of 7 from the free-throw line. The senior, and teammate Jason Trask, have signed national letters of intent to attend Weber State.

“That was by far John’s best game of the season,” Thornton said. “We’ve worked very hard on his offensive game. He’s taking the right step to the basket and powering up his shots. He has always run the floor well and now he’s an offensive threat.

“If we can get John to play consistently for four quarters like he did tonight, we’ll be awfully tough to beat.”

The Cougars took a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter when guard Nathan Call hit an outside jump shot and maintained a lead throughout the first half until Verbum Dei tied the score, 27-27, just before halftime.

The Cougars opened a nine-point lead, 40-31, after Call made a layup midway through the third quarter and were never threatened again. It was Verbum Dei’s first loss of the season after three victories.

“I’m looking forward to playing in the second round against Ocean View,” Thornton said. “We needed to get the first game out of the way. I think we can play with any team in this tournament.

“I don’t think either team had one of their stellar efforts tonight. But we’ll take the win, even if it wasn’t pretty.

“This was our first game in the Tournament of Champions, and you would think we would have been up for the game. I don’t know if we were tired or if our emotions were down after winning the Sonora Tournament. But I can guarantee you we’ll be up for Ocean View.”

Ocean View 69, Compton 50--The Seahawks rolled to their seventh straight victory of the season with a balanced attack.

Center Ricky Butler and forward Tony Panzica each scored 14 points and guard Blaine DeBrouwer added 13 points in the lopsided win. Ocean View opened a 41-29 lead with 6:32 left to play in the third quarter after Butler made a three-point play.

Reserve Mike Vogtmann extended the Seahawks’ lead to 55-35 with two seconds remaining in the quarter, scoring on a layup after receiving a fine pass from Butler. Ocean View will meet Capistrano Valley in the second round at 8:30 on Wednesday night.