Williams Slams the Door for West

James Williams of Stoneridge Prep scored 12 of his 22 points on dunks to lead the West to a 111-102 victory over the East in the inaugural Small Schools Senior All-Star basketball game Friday night at Taft High.

Williams, who averaged 30 points per game and led his team to the Southern Section Division V-A quarterfinals, played only 10 minutes for the Southern Section in the Battle of the Valley All-Star game.

“I love to dunk the ball, that’s just my game,” said Williams, who played 30 of the 40 minutes. “This game was a lot better because everybody got equal time. The coaches did a good job of rotating everybody in.”

Coach Remy McCarthy of Moorpark College, who was in attendance to scout the game, was impressed with Williams’ performance and gave him his business card after the game. Williams has not decided on where he will attend college, but is considering a junior college.

Kingsley Anyanwu of Crespi, who will walk on at Cal State Northridge, had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the West.

Charlie Shiebler of Crespi and Albert Soria of Santa Clara each added 16.

The West opened 14-point leads twice in the first half, but the East used a 24-6 run to take a 40-36 lead with 1:55 left in the half. The West answered with a 13-6 run to take a 49-46 halftime lead.

John Stark of First Lutheran had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the East. Sidney Melvin of Desert added 20 points, Derek Jones of Providence had 15 and Casey Markovic of Bell-Jeff scored 13.