Thursday marked the start of the 16th Valley Christian West Coast Classic Basketball Tournament, an 8-team invitational held at VCHS. The home Warriors beat Hercules High School 98-65 in the 8 o’clock game to cap off an exciting evening of basketball. This year, the West Coast Classic brings together its strongest field ever, with 5 of the top 20 teams in Northern California, and fans were treated to some major talent on display.

The Hercules Titans kept the game close early with timely 3-pointers by four different players, and the Warriors were not able to shake the feisty squad. As was the case against Gilroy in the season opener, however, the boys wore down their opponents as the game went on. Just before halftime, the team forced 3 turnovers in succession, scoring on each one and opening up an 11-point lead at the break. To begin the second half, Hercules turned the ball over on every one of their possessions for the first 4 minutes, and the Warriors’ lead ballooned to almost 30. At that point, fatigue appeared to take control of the Titans, and they struggled the rest of the evening. “We did a lot better not fouling as much in our press tonight,” said senior Justin Walker, “and you can see that the other teams just can’t run at our pace as the game goes on.”

True, indeed. VC forced Hercules into 45 turnovers for the game, many of them coming in the second half. The Titans also began to foul more often, leading to 40 free-throw attempts for the Warriors. Pacing the team were 4 different double-digit scorers: Andrew Daou (sr.-17 points), Justin Walker (sr.-15 points), Austin Simon (jr.-15 points), and Tim Harris (so.-24 points). Sophomore point guard Kyle Freeman-Bailey and freshman guard Kyle Travis contributed 9 and 8 points respectively. “It’s hard for teams to know who to stop when we’re out there because any one of us could get hot and score a lot of points,” said Daou.

The Warriors take on the Mt. Eden Monarchs Friday night at 8pm in the semifinals.

 Box Score

In other tournament action:

Foothill of Pleasanton defeated highly-regarded McClymonds of Oakland in the first game of the tournament 57-38, thanks to some great 3-point shooting by guard Scott Clark who hit 6 from long range. The Falcons started the game red hot from behind the arc, outscoring McClymonds 20-4 in the first 4 minutes of the game. McClymonds made a few runs at Foothill, but the Warriors could never get closer than 8 points as the game went on.

Berkeley High School defeated Gilroy in the most exciting game of the evening, a contest that saw 3 different 6’10” players on the court at the same time. Guard Kameron Handy, a former Valley Christian student, led Gilroy with 21 points in the losing effort, but in the end, the Mustang big men were not able to contain Berkeley’s 6’10” Matt Simpkins, regarded by many to be the best player in Northern California. Simpkins finished with 31 points on the night, including an assortment of dunks and alley oops.

In the 6:30 game, Mt. Eden of Hayward used team play and solid efforts from their post players (Mecca Ezekwesili – 13 pts., Mitchell Webb – 10 pts., and Jurrell Turner – 10 pts.) to defeat Woodside 53-46. The Monarchs built double digit leads on a couple of occasions, but Woodside kept fighting back, only to fall short in the end. The Wildcats were led by Matt Pelesasa's 11 points.

Friday’s Tournament Schedule:

Consolation Bracket Play:

3:30pm - McClymonds vs. Gilroy
5:00pm - Woodside vs. Hercules

Championship Semifinals:

6:30pm - Foothill vs. Berkeley
8:00pm - Mt. Eden vs. Valley Christian