Granite Hills Out on Two Strikes

To Granite Hills High, last week’s Valhalla Tournament must have seemed like a blur.

Within a span of five hours on Thursday, the Eagles played and lost their first two games and were eliminated.

Thanks for coming. See ya next year.

“It was strange,” Granite Hills Coach Lon Underwood said. “We were there, and then we were out.”

Because of a scheduling conflict, the Valhalla Tournament field was reduced to five teams. Granite Hills was given the option of opening with Valhalla on Dec. 30 or Grossmont on Thursday. Underwood chose Grossmont and Granite Hills lost in the morning, 80-66, then followed with a loss to Mt. Miguel, 69-61, a few hours later in a consolation game.

“We went to (lunch) after the first game, came back and it was time to warm up,” Underwood said. “We had to switch uniforms, though. The ones we were wearing were still wet from the first game.”

Underwood added: “It ended up being real productive. We hadn’t been playing well, and we learned something from those two games. I hate to say it, but you learn something from losing. In the end, it didn’t bother me.”

You again?: Valhalla, which won the championship, wound up playing Mt. Miguel twice in its tournament. Guess who it plays again this afternoon? Right.

One at a time, please: The girls’ teams at Lincoln, Patrick Henry and La Jolla and the boys’ team at Morse pulled out of holiday basketball tournaments because of scheduling conflicts.

Additionally, a number of girls’ soccer games in the Baron Optimist Tournament at Bonita Vista had to be rescheduled because of a conflict with another tournament at San Pasqual.

New thorn: Carlsbad’s victory over Mt. Carmel in the girls’ championship of the Mt. Carmel Christmas Classic marked the first career loss to a team other than Poway for Coach Tracey Johnson.

Before losing to the Lancers, Johnson was 67-9 (26-4 on varsity, 41-5 on junior varsity) with all nine losses to Poway.

Still, Johnson said, “Poway’s not all that bad of a place. I did graduate from there, and I still have some fond memories of the place.”

What’s a Wallaroo?: After starting 0-7, the Santana boys’ basketball team finally found its secret to success: Find a weary out-of-town team and beat them in overtime.

Santana defeated Melbourne, Australia, on Friday, 78-69, by outscoring the Wallaroos in overtime, 11-0. The Sultans then downed Brawley, 71-67, the next day, again in overtime.

Classic success: The Above the Rim Hoopwear boys’ basketball tournament provided Torrey Pines coach and tournament director John Farrell with the kind of big-time atmosphere he had hoped for when nationally ranked Oak Hill Academy from Mouth of Wilson, Va., met Santa Ana Mater Dei in the finals on Dec. 31 before 2,500 at Peterson Gym.

Despite losing by 19 points to Oak Hill, Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight was favorably impressed.

“I haven’t seen a tournament in Southern California the past 10 years that ranked with this one,” he said. “This is a real national-type tournament.”

Mater Dei was ranked 21st in the nation by USA Today, Oak Hill No. 9.

The most frustrated team in the tournament was Cleveland St. Joseph. It came in ranked 23rd in the nation, but was upset in its first two games and lost three overall.

El Camino, ranked No. 1 in the county at the time and 19th in the state, had a brutal schedule. The Wildcats lost to perennial power Oakland Bishop O’Dowd, eventual consolation champion Charlotte Christian Academy and Cleveland St. Joseph.

The most overheard line at the tournament, other than “Oooh” and “Aaah” when Oak Hill played, came from the various coaches: “It’s John Farrell’s tournament, he can do what he wants.”

Torrey Pines, ranked No. 2 in the county, reached the quarterfinals but raised some eyebrows because of its relatively easy schedule.

If there was a disciplinarian award, it had to go to Ray Nash of Brooklyn Bishop Ford. After his team lost in the semifinals to Mater Dei, seven players missed the team’s curfew. That was enough for Nash, who forfeited the next day’s third-place game.

Staff writer Martin Henderson contributed to this notebook.