Prep basketball: Capital Christian boys top El Camino to improve on team’s strong start
Capital Christian basketball coach Mike Lorente’s team improved to 11-3 with a 71-62 victory over El Camino on Friday night in a game that wasn’t quite as close as the final score indicated.
Senior swingman Jayden Teat scored 20 points, big man Micah Hobson added 15, sophomore Gavin Sykes continued to show his promise and point guard Kanye Clark controlled the tempo.
Still, Lorente knows what his team showed Friday isn’t the finished product — it has high expectations in the Capital Athletic League. The Cougars improved to 2-0 in league play with the win over the Eagles.
“I learned we got a lot to work on,” Lorente said. “I learned I think we got a lot of potential.”
The Cougars are coming off a first-place finish in league last season that was sullied by a first-round postseason exit following a 19-point loss to Turlock in a home playoff game.
This year’s group features a good balance of size and athleticism with scoring to boot. Teat, a transfer from nearby Jesuit, made five 3-pointers while leading his team in scoring.
The team can also play with ferocity on the defensive end, but it came in spurts Friday while Lorente was getting Capital Christian prepared for a big nonleague game against Folsom on Saturday in the Battle of NorCal Showcase.
Sykes headlines a strong group of underclassmen Lorente appears to be developing behind his senior leaders. Sykes entered Friday as the team’s leading scorer, averaging 14.9 points per game, while athletic freshmen Mohammed Kamara and Myles Wiggins, who are both listed at 6-foot-5, continue to work into the rotation.
Early in the season — even while beating notable programs like Serra of San Mateo 45-52 last month, dropping a game to De La Salle, 56-37, and playing out-of-town schools like Bellarmine Prep (Tacoma, Washington), Lee (Huntsville, Alabama) and Bullard (Fresno) — Lorente maintained his team had to hone fundamentals before it could find its footing and make another playoff run.
All while emphasizing and utilizing his team’s size and athleticism.
“Our focus has been running the floor, finding guys in transition, making sure that we’re sharing the ball, finding guys in the right positions,” he said. “On defense, to sit down and know our personnel, understanding who we’re guarding, where they want their shots, what are we trying to take away? Just teaching these guys how to play the game.”
Sykes, the sophomore, may have the most tantalizing skillset of the group. He’s listed at 6-foot-4 and has the bounce that made Friday night’s crowd expect a ferocious dunk when he opted for a layup on a fastbreak during the fourth quarter. Sykes finished with 10 points and looks the part of a player that could establish himself as one of the most explosive scorers in the area down the line.
“Gavin is a tremendous kid,” Lorente said. “Tremendous player, better human being. Just has the world of potential, understanding just how to be an elite rebounder, an elite defensive player. Because (with) his scoring, he can do it all. So I’m really challenging him to grow in other areas of his game.”
