HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL : El Camino Rolls Past Monte Vista

This year’s El Camino High boys’ basketball team will probably never be held in the esteem of some of the best teams in county history. The problem: It lacks a dominating center.

But despite that, the Wildcats are forcing questions whether they have the best team in the county this season. A one-point loss in the first game of the season is the only thing separating them from a perfect season.

In Thursday’s first round of the eight-team, single-elimination Mt. Carmel Invitational, No. 2 El Camino dismantled a young Monte Vista team, 74-53, to improve to 6-1.

El Camino’s only loss came against Ontario’s Chaffey High, 74-73, in the Elsinore Tournament when El Camino was missing a number of players because of the football playoffs.

“I don’t know if we’re the best team in the county,” El Camino Coach Roy Johnson said. “Certainly, we’re a top-five team, and we’re getting better now that we have the football players back.”

Johnson added that this may be his best team in 11 years at El Camino, perhaps even better than last year when he had 6-foot-9 Dee Boyer, 6-5 Glenn Ankton and shooting sensation Travis Gilley. “Potentially, it can be,” Johnson said, “if we can get somebody to step up and play that center position.”

While El Camino’s centers--starter Russell White (zero points, three rebounds) and backup Brian Beck (two points, one rebound)--did not produce much against Monte Vista, the Wildcats’ guards and forwards did.

Senior guard Jeff Reeves, averaging 26 points, scored 26, despite playing with nagging back spasms. Senior point guard Heath McCoy added nine points. Forwards Shuan Scurry, a 6-5 senior, and Bryant Westbrooks, a 6-1 sophomore, had 16 and 14 points respectively.

Reeves and Westbrooks had five steals apiece as El Camino turned a close game into a rout in the third quarter with a menacing full-court press that forced Monte Vista into 21 turnovers.

Monte Vista Coach Zack Peck summarized the Monarchs’ problem in one simple sentence. “We just don’t handle the ball well,” he said.

Behind Aaron Elliott (14 points) and Jabari Williams (12), Monte Vista (7-4) took a 30-29 lead with 2:30 left in the first half, but it was all El Camino from there. The Wildcats scored the last six points of the half, 17 of 18 and 32 of 37 to go up 61-35 with 1:16 left in the third quarter.

“I don’t know what it is, but lately, we haven’t been waking up until the third quarter,” said Reeves, who added that the Wildcats’ quickness and aggressive defense more than make up for their lack of height.

Terrific free-throw shooting also aided the cause. El Camino made its first 16 and 18 of 20 (90%) for the game, missing the tournament record of 94% set by Mt. Carmel in 1988.