Las Vegas Pangos Easter Classic: SoCal standouts Part I

<p>LAS VEGAS – The April 18-20 Pangos Elite Easter Classic, held at Bishop Gorman High, had a nice group of Southern California-based players from the Class of 2020 on hand.</p> <p>   A big portion of those came via Belmont Shore and Veritas International (a prep school program under the guidance of former Cantwell-Sacred Heart and WCE 17s coach <strong>George Zedan)</strong>.</p> <p>   Those squads met in a semifinal of the 17s division, with Veritas prevailing in a tight affair, 81-72.</p> <p>  It proved to be the final game in the division as the management of the Vegas Elite EYBL, the first semifinal winner Saturday (86-54 Over MBIII), elected to bypass playing in the finale.</p> <p>   Vegas Elite – which opens EYBL play in Georgia this weekend – has a talent-laden roster that includes <strong>Josh Christopher</strong> of Lakewood Mayfair, one of the elite guards in the country.</p> <p>   Both Veritas and Belmont had terrific guard play.</p> <p>   Veritas was led by 6-foot-3 “combo” <strong>Luis Riascos</strong> (San Gabriel Academy; he’s from Ecuador) and 6-1 point <strong>Malvin Payero</strong> (from the Dominican Republic, by way of Valley Christian in Cerritos).</p> <p>   Riascos and Payero haven’t cracked the recruiting landscape in a big way as of yet but that figures to change by July.</p> <p>   <strong>Dinos Trigonis’</strong> squad got strong efforts over the weekend from one of Southern California’s better “pure scorers” in 6-3 <strong>Keith Dinwiddie</strong> (pictured) of Fairfax, whose jump shot with two seconds to go gave the squad a one-point win over the Utah Mountain Stars Gold club in a Saturday morning quarterfinal.</p> <p>   He’s got a chance to be the front-runner for L.A. City Player of the Year going into the 2019-20 season.</p> <p>   Another senior-to-be who was exceptional throughout for Belmont Shore was 6-8 <strong>Bradley Ezewiro</strong> of Bishop Montgomery (who will be playing for the Oakland Soldiers on the EYBL circuit this spring).</p> <p>   He was one of the better rebounders and low-post scorers in the entire event.</p> <p>   The Los Angeles-based ICAN All-Stars, who gave Vegas Elite the only serious run in the 17s division before falling, 101-98.</p> <p>   Six-eight <strong>Jabari Steward</strong> (Compton High) continued to show improvement since February, hitting several deep jumpers and rebounding forcefully, while JSerra point guard <strong>Justin Williams</strong> (who normally plays with the Southern California All-Stars with his high school backcourt-mate, <strong>Ian Martinez</strong>) impressed as both a playmaker and scorer for <strong>Rock Johnson’s</strong> crew in Las Vegas.</p> <p>  <strong>Demetrius Calip</strong> – all-L.A. City this past season at Taft in Woodland Hills – was a standout scorer for Cal Supreme, by way of deep, left-handed jumpers and drives.</p> <p>  One of the most surprising players at the event – from my perspective, at least – was 6-1 point-guard <strong>Stacey Johnson</strong>, who attends Oxnard High and was playing for the Team Build Up 17s in Las Vegas.</p> <p>   He was especially impressive Thursday night when he led his team to a bit of an upset over the ICAN All-Stars.</p>