La Verne High Schools show why they are the best in the area, winning weekend tournament finals

The City of La Verne can boast to have the best in High School hoops (this week anyways) as two of its top basketball programs (Bonita girls and Damien boys basketball) won its respective tournaments this past weekend:  Bonita defeating Bishop Amat 49-41 in the Covina girls’ basketball tournament and Damien easily dispatching Burbank 77-44 in the Glendora Pride of the Foothills Tournament.

Bonita (8-0) won its second tournament in as many weeks, making it to the championship game by virtue of its 59-51 victory of Cantwell-Sacred Heart.  Bishop Amat (4-1) almost did not make it to the final, trailing El Rancho in its semifinal match trailing the entire game 27-26 heading into the final quarter.  The Lancers however used a 13-3 run in the fourth to pull away and escape with a 42-33 win.

Against Cantwell, Nikki Wheatley picked up two early fouls in the first quarter and had to sit out the rest of the quarter and watch her teammates struggle, as Bonita trailed 9-8 going into the second quarter.

“Nikki has got to work on staying out of foul trouble,” said Bonita coach Darren Baumunk. “She’s an aggressive player ... but I think she got frustrated (early). We need her on the floor. With her on the floor, we’re a lot different than without. ... She has to be a leader on the floor.”

When she returned, her impact was felt immediately as she and teammate Kandyce Smith combined for 12 points to take a 29-25 lead into halftime.  The two UNLV bound teammates also combined on four free throws in the final seconds to seal the victory for the Bearcats.

Wheatley finished with 22 points and six rebounds, while smith recorded a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) along with three assists and two blocks.  She was named the tournament MVP with her 20 point, seven assist performance in the final.  Smith led all scorers with 21 points including four 3-pointers.

Cantwell had a chance to play spoiler as they brought the game to as close as five points on a Justine Manjarrez 3-pointer to close the gap to 54-49 with 1:18 to go, but that is as close as the Cardinals would get.

Sylvia Garcia led the way for the Cardinals with 14 points and six rebounds who defeated El Rancho 61-50 in the third-place game.  Stephanie Guerra added 12 points and four rebounds while Manjarrez recorded all nine of her points from behind the arc.

Jeremy Hemsley led the way for the Damien Spartan in its 77-44 win over Burbank in the final of Glendora’s Pride of the Foothills tournament. 

Malik Fitts added 14 points while Isaiah McCollugh pitched in 11 points in a game where the Spartans controlled using runs of 12-2 and 11-4 in the first half to easily cruise to victory.

“It feels real good,” Hemsley said. “I think we play real hard. We have better chemistry than a lot of teams, so it feels good to be 5-0. We just want to continue to play hard, and if we do that I think we can win a lot more games.”

The Bearcats next head to Las Vegas participate in the Las Vegas Invitational beginning December 27.  Tipoff is at 5pm against Liberty High of Henderson, NV.

Damien (5-0) heads to the North Orange County tournament beginning Tuesday, December 17.  Tipoff is at 4:30 against El Modena High School.