A slew of school participated in the St. Monica Tournament. The Mariners didn’t place in the top three of the tournament, but nonetheless came through on the final day with a 64-54 win against Hamilton.
St. Monica was led by Kavin Dotson with 17 points and Spencer Gorman with 13. Hamilton was led by Jordan Baldridge with 18 points and Jared Rogers with 11.
An early lead enabled St. Monica to go into halftime clinging to a 26-16 lead. St. Monica led after the first quarter, 15-9 with Kavin Dotson scoring seven points in the period. St. Monica extended its lead to 26-16 at intermission.
St. Monica threatened to blow it open midway through the third quarter but made a few costly turnovers that led to Hamilton getting hot with a bunch of 3-pointers, allowing them to close the gap to eight points at the end of the period, making the score 50-42.
The Mariners and Hamilton pretty much traded baskets in the fourth quarter, leading to a final outcome.
Dennis Ashley, a first team all-Camino Real League player last year, finally started to hit some shots after a tough start to the season. He finished with 11 points, including connecting on three 3-pointers in the second half. 7’2 Center Xiang Yu Meng contributed 9 points and six rebounds.
Oak Park wound up winning the tournament, defeating Newbury Park 59-56 in the finale. Oak Park was led by Michael Alvarez with 22 points. Newbury Park was led by Tyler Cartaino, who finished the game with 28 points. Oak Park led 28-25 at halftime of the championship game. The Oak Park-Newbury Park championship game was a tight, well-played contest throughout.
The day’s high scorers belonged to University’s CJ Sinada, Verbum Dei’s Nick Spates and Newbury Park’s Tyler Cartaino. Each player lit up the scoreboard with 28 points in their respective games.
As far as all-tournament selection goes, St. Monica was represented on the first team by Kavin Dotson. Spencer Gorman made the all-tourney honorable mention team.
Michael Alvarez and Cole Micek of Oak Park shared the tournament’s co-MVP honors. Darnell Bettis (University), Kevin Russell (Newbury Park) and Tyler Cartaino (Newbury Park), were also selected to the all-tournament team.
