58 Freeway Shootout: Central Cali Hidden Gems

This past Friday, I attended the 3rd day of the 58 Freeway Shootout, which was the semifinal play of the event. This event was won by back-to-back D3 Section champs North Bakersfield on Saturday evening over Burroughs of Ridgecrest, led by tournament MVP, and standout junior, Ethan Saenz and first team all-tournament selection, and younger brother, sophomore Cam Saenz. I did not include these two players in this article, as I have evaluated their play over the last few months in several other write-ups. The purpose of this article is to highlight players that I have never evaluated in person or that are under-covered players from the Central Section. The players in this article vary in graduation class and position, and, given that I was only in attendance for one day of this 4-day tournament, I included all 9 hidden gems in this article. The players are listed in alphabetical order, not ranked order, and provides a brief description of their skill sets, as well as relevant stats I kept on my own in watching the four afternoon/evening games. We begin this article with sophomore guard Owen Carte, who is a prime example of hidden gems that reside in this Section.    The 6-foot-1 combo guard is a crafty and physical player that keeps relentless pressure on defense, gets paint touches routinely, and can space the floor with accuracy from beyond the arc. Carte has solid handles, uses the crossover to get by his defender, has the strength to score through contact at the basket, and has touch on shots around the basket with use of the reverse and up-and-under lay-ups to evade shot blockers in the paint. Carte moves well off the ball, gets to his shot spots, and is effective with the 3-ball off the dribble or the catch. Carte finished with a game-high 22 points in the Warriors semifinal loss to Burroughs of Ridgecrest. The sophomore guard plays with good pace and control with the ball in his hands, showed he can score the ball from 3-levels, and is a player to keep an eye on in the South Yosemite Mountain League over the next few seasons.     The 6-foot combo guard uses his length and court awareness to impact both ends of the court, can score the ball in volume, and is a good positional rebounder and perimeter defender. Croney has active hands and good footwork to stay in front of his opponent, uses his length and timing to deflect passes and jump passing lanes to create turnovers, is solid on the boards to push the ball up the court, and has the court vision to find open teammates in the half-court setting or finding teammates up the court in transition. Croney has solid handles, uses the crossover and hesitation to get his defender off balance, has good body control and footwork on the mid-range jumper with the pull-up or the up-and-under shot, moves fluidly off the ball to get to his shot spots, and is accurate with the 3-ball off the catch. Croney had a game-high 17 points, connecting on a pair of threes, in a tough loss to Golden Valley of Bakersfield. Croney will be relied upon to be one of the Scots leading scorers, as his game and skill set was the most consistent from what I saw at Friday night's game.     The 6-foot wing/guard has improved as a reliable scorer, is a good positional rebounder, and is a tough on-ball defender. Ellingsworth has a tight handle, uses the hesitation and crossover to create space from his defender, has good body control on the stop and pop mid-range jumper, has the strength to score through contact at the basket, as well as touch on the floater down the lane, and can space the floor with the 3-ball off the catch. Ellingsworth has active hands to disrupt his opponent's dribbling space, plays with a great motor on both ends of the court, does a solid job on the glass with the handle to push the ball up the court, and runs the floor well in transition to get ahead of the defense for easy buckets in the open court. Ellingsworth had 10 points and 7 rebounds in the Stars semifinal win over Garces Memorial of Bakersfield.     The 6-foot-3 wing/guard has emerged as a top 3 or 4 scorer for the Stars, is confident with the jumper, is a versatile defender, and can space the floor from beyond the arc. Gomez has had a solid start to his sophomore season, as was evident in the Stars semifinal win over Garces Memorial of Bakersfield, going for 14 points and 7 rebounds and scoring the rock from 3-levels. Gomez has good handles, makes good use of the between cross, wide crossover, and hesitation to get his defender of balance, has the length to shoot over most perimeter defenders, is accurate with the jumper from the mid-range to the 3-point line, and has touch on shots around the basket with the reverse lay-up and the floater to evade length and height in the paint. Gomez crashes the boards, gets putback opportunities with good timing on second chance points off the glass, makes good reads from the high post to cutting teammates, and uses his length and agility to alter shots in the paint, as well as on perimeter close outs. Gomez will be relied upon to provide consistent scoring for North Bakersfield, as it is a young but talented roster, and he has been up to the task this far, bringing the mental toughness that is necessary to take the next step.     The 5-foot-10 lead guard has good control of the pace of play, looks to attack the paint routinely, and has active hands on the defensive end to disrupt the flow of opposing guards. Herrera stepped up big after fellow sophomore Jamarr Tyler went down early in the second quarter with an ankle injury and did not return, as Herrera would lead the Bulldogs with 16 points and a win over Highland of Bakersfield. Herrera has solid handles, keeps the dribble alive to survey the floor, has the court vision to find open teammates off the drive and kick pass, uses the hesitation to get by his defender, the Euro-step to score at the basket over height in the paint, and has a good burst of speed to get to the basket routinely. Herrera is a scrappy on-ball defender that gets under his opponents skin and forces them into bad passes and turnovers that lead to easy buckets in the open court.     The 5-foot-11 lead guard plays with good pace and control of the flow of the game, has elite court vision to make plays, and displayed the ability to score the ball from 3-levels. Johnson was in his bag early and often, as he would lead all scorers with 25 points, connecting on 4 threes, and helped the Titans to a big win over event host Mira Monte of Bakersfield. Johnson keeps the ball on a string, has dynamic handles and shift with the moves off the dribble, uses the crossover, behind cross, toss-cross, and hesitation moves to create space from his defender, has great court vision to find open teammates off the dribble drive, in particular finding teammates in the dunker spot once the defense over commits on him in the paint, and is accurate with the 3-ball off the dribble or the catch. Johnson has improved footwork and use of the pivot once in the paint, is crafty with finishes around the basket, as well as the strength to score through contact down the lane, and is effective with the stop-and-pop middy with good body control in the air. Johnson is a welcomed relief for the new coaching staff that is taking over a program that graduated its all-time leading scoring in Zach Garnett, and fellow 6-foot-7 Dalin Crawford, and from what I saw last Friday night, Johnson has the game and skill set to shoulder that responsibility, alongside senior guard Peyton Beltran and freshman Bryson West, also in this article.     The 5-foot-11 combo guard can score the ball in volume, can space the floor from beyond the arc, and attacks the rack frequently drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line. Moorehead left his imprint on the defensive end in the low scoring first half semifinal game between Burroughs or Ridgecrest and Tehachapi, but he stepped up big time after intermission, as he would score all 12 in the second half and 10 of those in the final frame as the Burros pulled away for the 46 to 35 win over the Warriors. Moorehead has solid handles, uses the crossover to get downhill, has a good burst of speed to get into the paint, and has the touch to score through contact at the basket. Moorehead moves well off the ball to get open looks off the catch, is accurate with the 3-ball to open up the court, and is a good positional rebounder to push the ball up the court. Plays with good pace, control, and a great motor on both ends of the court.     The 6-foot-1 wing/guard uses his physical style of play to score within fifteen feet of the basket often, plays with good pace and control, and likes to get downhill from the top of the key. Morales was the lone bright spot in the Lions Friday night loss to Frontier of Bakersfield on their home floor. Morales has good handles, uses the crossover, hesitation, and spin move to evade his defender, has touch on shots around the basket, is effective with the mid-range jumper, and uses his strong build to score through contact at the rim. Morales does a good job on the boards, can push the ball off the glass, and gets putbacks off the offensive boards. Morales scored a team high 15 points in the loss and looks to be the primary scorer for the Lions this season.     The 5-foot-7 lead guard has shifty moves, handles to break down his defender, and can light it up from beyond the arc. The freshman guard was impressive in the Titans win on Friday night, connecting on 3 threes for 9 points and will be a welcomed scoring punch alongside guards Beltran and Johnson. West was one of the top performers at this past Summer's 5th Annual Next Up Showcase, and he is adjusting nicely to the high school level of play at the varsity level. West has tight handles, shifty moves to get his defender off balance, good court vision to find open teammates on the drive and kick pass, and moves fluidly off the ball to get open looks for the 3-ball off the catch, with the ability to connect on the jumper off the bounce as well. West is one of the top freshmen in the South Valley portion of the Central Section and will likely be an impact guy all season for the Titans.

This past Friday, I attended the 3rd day of the 58 Freeway Shootout, which was the semifinal play of the event. This event was won by back-to-back D3 Section champs North Bakersfield on Saturday evening over Burroughs of Ridgecrest, led by tournament MVP, and standout junior, Ethan Saenz and first team all-tournament selection, and younger brother, sophomore Cam Saenz. I did not include these two players in this article, as I have evaluated their play over the last few months in several other write-ups. The purpose of this article is to highlight players that I have never evaluated in person or that are under-covered players from the Central Section. The players in this article vary in graduation class and position, and, given that I was only in attendance for one day of this 4-day tournament, I included all 9 hidden gems in this article. The players are listed in alphabetical order, not ranked order, and provides a brief description of their skill sets, as well as relevant stats I kept on my own in watching the four afternoon/evening games. We begin this article with sophomore guard Owen Carte, who is a prime example of hidden gems that reside in this Section.