North Orange County Championships: Ten Best

LA HABRA — Sonora high school plays host to one of Orange County’s best high school basketball tournaments. The 2019 North OC Championships featured another strong field of high school teams, which included the host Raiders, JSerra, Mayfair, Capistrano Valley, Fairmont Prep and more. Here are the Ten Best Performers from Saturday’s closing day games: Best Overall Performance: Ian Martinez, JSerra Martinez finished with 35 points and nine rebounds, helping JSerra repeat as NOCC champions. The 6-foot-3 Utah-bound shooting guard drained seven 3-pointers and scored 20 points over the final two periods. Martinez knocked down big shots down the stretch and went toe-to-toe with Top 10 recruit Josh Christopher. Best Scoring Performance: Josh Christopher, Mayfair Even though Mayfair fell short to JSerra by an 85-75 decision, Christopher was unstoppable. The 6-foot-4 senior finished with a game-high 42 points, and, as usual, did so with plenty of flair. Christopher had a couple of his patented powerful dunks, plenty of tough fade-aways and went 13-for-16 from the free throw line. Best Supporting Performance: Max Bowman, JSerra Bowman was a key component to the Lions’ championship run as he went off in the second half, scoring all 19 of his points in the final two periods, including five triples, to give JSerra the cushion it needed to hold off Mayfair. We put Bowman in this category because if his impact on the outcome of the title game, but he’s more than qualified to by in the Best Shooter category, as well. Best Underrated Scoring Performance: Atin Wright, Fairmont Prep The only reason Atin Wright’s performance is considered underrated is because of what Ian Martinez and Josh Christopher did in the title game. The CSUN-bound guard dropped a smooth 30 points in basically three quarters in a big win over Los Alamitos. The 6-foot scoring guard has a green light on just about every possession and he takes plenty of advantage of that, launching ten triples and burying six of them. Best Passer(s): Justin Williams, JSerra and Langston Redfield, Capo Valley Williams has the uncanny ability to sense the flow of a game and mold his own approach to what his team needs. The 6-foot-2 senior made it a point to set up his two scorching hot teammates, Ian Martinez and Max Bowman, with pinpoint passes with timing and placement. Redfield doesn’t look to score a lot and is more prone to trying to set up his teammates with offensive opportunities. The 6-foot-3 junior advances the ball in transition, finds open shooters on drive and kicks and throws accurate drop off and shovel passes to his big man in the paint. Best Shooter(s): Daniel Esparza, Sonora and Brody Sumner, Capo Valley Esparza canned five 3-pointers in Sonora’s close loss to Capistrano Valley and showed that he’s improving as a shooter off the catch. Last year, and over the summer, 6-foot-2 combo guard was more of a guy who liked to get a few rhythm dribbles behind his jump shot, and while that’s good in spurts, his ability to rise and launch off the catch has opened driving lanes. Sumner is the absolute definition of a pure shooter. The 5-foot-10 shooting guard has as fundamental of mechanics as you’ll find, doesn’t need much time or space to get his shot off because of his quick release and understands when to drop or rise to the level of the passer to give the best target. Sumner scored 14 points with four triples in Capo’s win over Sonora. Best Rebounder, Josh Christopher, Mayfair Christopher finished with a game-high ten rebounds to go along with his 42 points. The fact that he's so relentless on the glass only goes to show how high of a motor he has and that he's willing to do whatever it takes to help the Monsoons be in the best position to win. Best Clutch Performance: Garrett Bell, Sonora Bell, along with Esparza, led a furious Sonora rally at the end of the third-place game. The Raiders trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter and were stagnant offensively outside of Esparza until the 6-foot-6 Bell began to knock in some face-up triples. Bell hit two tightly-contested three's with under 30 seconds to play to bring Sonora to within three of Capo, but the Cougars held on to the three-point victory. Best Defensive Performance: Justin Williams, JSerra For the first three quarters of action, Josh Christopher was defended by handful of JSerra players, but none of them were named Justin Williams. Until the fourth quarter. Lions' coach Keith Wilkinson tasked his senior point guard with guarding the all-world scorer and Williams did a stellar job, holding Christopher to six fourth quarter points and only one trip to the free throw line. Best Underclass Performance: Chol Deng, Fairmont Prep Deng is an intriguing long-term prospect because of his length, fluid transition athleticism and explosiveness when finishing around the basket. The sophomore guard has good size and length at 6-5 and has the ball skills and shooting ability to operate on the perimeter. Deng scored 16 points in Fairmont's win over Los Alamitos.