Life Christian 60, North Clackamas Christian 35: Five Takeaways

<p>After suffering their first loss of the season on Friday, Life Christian wanted to bounce back. The Lions did that and more as they got back to their winning ways with a key Valley 10 victory at home over fellow Top Ten team North Clackamas Christian in a 60-35 runaway on Monday night.</p> <p><a href="https://prephoops.com/player/max-morelli/">Max Morelli</a> led the way for the Lions with 19 points on 9-for-11 shooting while <a href="https://prephoops.com/player/kobe-jenson/">Kobe Jenson</a> posted a double-double of 14 points and 16 rebounds. Point guard <a href="https://prephoops.com/player/blake-lambert/">Blake Lambert</a> added 10 points as Life Christian dominated on both ends all night, a nice return home after a tough loss to Damascus Christian late last week.</p> <p>"Damascus was a good test for us as we hadn't played a tough road game yet, and tt was one of those games where you had to fight, compete and be tough and we didn't do it consistently enough," said Life Christian head coach JS Nash. "So in this game I thought we did a much better job of just coming out and taking the fight to them instead of getting knocked on our heels."</p> <p><strong>Life Christian a Well-Rounded Threat</strong></p> <p>While they did lose a tough one to rival Damascus Christian, there's no question that Life Christian is a major player in the 1A title race. They have unrivaled size in the classification in junior big man <a href="https://prephoops.com/player/kobe-jenson/">Kobe Jenson</a>, athleticism in senior wing/forward <a href="https://prephoops.com/player/max-morelli/">Max Morelli</a>, an experienced point guard in senior <a href="https://prephoops.com/player/blake-lambert/">Blake Lambert</a>, solid shooting on the wings and the ability to play tough pressure defense both in the half and full court. North Clackamas Christian simply had no answers on either side of the floor against the Lions pretty much all night long.</p> <p><strong>Jenson a Monster Inside</strong></p> <p>At approximately 6-foot-5, 250 or so pounds, Jenson is definitely a load in the paint. North Clackamas Christian went to a zone to help neutralize his size but when he did get the ball down low, he couldn't be stopped near the hoop. The junior spent more time in the high post though and flashed off some nice passing skills finding teammates cutting to the hoop for layups. While he missed both three-point attempts, he has a pretty nice shooting touch and was all swish on his free throw attempts. He sucked up rebounds like a vacuum (he ended up with 16) and he patrolled the paint on defense (5 blocks).</p> <p><strong>Lambert Leads the Way</strong></p> <p>When we watched Lambert last season, the senior point guard was more of a scorer as that's what the Lions needed him to do. Now with Jenson emerging more as an offensive threat and the additions of guys who can score such as Morelli and sophomore wing <a href="https://prephoops.com/player/forrest-reyes/">Forrest Reyes</a>, the senior point guard can focus more on facilitating and creating. That's what he did in the first half as Life Christian built their lead but was able to showcase some of his hard dribble pull-ups in the second half, ending up with 10 points.</p> <p><strong>North Clackamas has Scorers</strong></p> <p>The Saints have some guys who can put the ball in the hole. In particular, senior guard Braden Young (13 points) and junior Caleb Matias (11 points) weren't shy about putting the ball up and both can either shoot it with range or create off of the dribble. It wasn't a great shooting night for either player (shooting a combined 9-for-29 from the field) but both hit double digits in scoring and their shooting strokes looked pretty solid.</p> <p><strong>Don't Knock the Talent in 1A</strong></p> <p>As Nash and Morelli noted after the game, the depth of talent isn't very high for most teams at the 1A level. But in terms of the top players, there are definitely some guys who could play - and contribute - at the highest levels of boys basketball in the state. For Life, Morelli, Lambert, and Jenson are all guys who are getting some attention from college programs and the Lions have some younger players who could develop into college players as well. And North Clackamas has some solid high school guys as well. </p>