\u00a0 ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/peterson-tim1.bmp\")
I finally got out to see some high school basketball this week. The annual Temple City \u2013 La Salle Holiday Classic is always a good place to start. There were some good players, solid teams and competitive games. I\u2019m not sure why but the transition from football seemed tougher this year.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 In my defense every time I thought about doing a game over the last couple of weeks Corey \u201cCorn Dog\u201d Kwok would send me roundups and recaps of nearly every game from the current tournament in progress. Say you want about the \u201cDawg\u201d but I can\u2019t remember anyone since I\u2019ve been at the Mid Valley that covers as many basketball games and digs out as many scores as he does. When Corey tells me he wants to cover basketball my response is \u201cHey that\u2019s all you got to say!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0 And for Corey it\u2019s clearly and simply the love of the game. Believe me he\u2019s not getting rich sitting courtside scouring all those stat sheets.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Anyway back to the TC-La Salle Tourney. Nothing ever changes when it comes to Temple City basketball. The names might be different but the style remains the same. From Kevin Sweeney years ago to James Chen the last couple of years to Zach Aqunio and company this year it\u2019s the same MO – run, gun and never stop until the final buzzer sounds.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Under Coach Rich Hollinger, walking is not an option. You run after a made basket or a rebound. You run up the floor, you run to the bench and you run in warm ups. There is no such thing as walking the ball up the floor. If you\u2019re up by ten you keep running and shooting. If you\u2019re down by ten you keep running and shooting. And as a result the Rams are in every game.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 It seems there\u2019s never a player over six feet tall- just a bunch of kids that run around, harass and shoot the ball. At times it seems like they have six players on the court.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Monday night, against a St. Francis team that had rolled over everybody it had played in the tournament, Temple City was down by only two points in the fourth quarter before finally falling short by seven points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Zach Aquino and Matt Valazza combined to hit seven three pointers to keep the pressure on St. Franks. Sophomore Jordan Hill looks like he could be special.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Speaking of Valazza has it really been six years since the head line \u201cVALAZZA!\u201d graced the front page of the Mid Valley News for his Little League heroics? Valazza is currently in his senior year.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Anna Valazza, a sophomore and Matt\u2019s sister, is playing varsity basketball as well for the Lady Rams.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 If you get a chance to see St. Francis keep an eye on guard Tommy Jordan. He wears number 20 and can usually be found ten feet beyond the top of the key launching threes. Unfortunately for opponents he consistently knocks them down. If he\u2018s in the building he\u2019s in his range.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Ian Hamilton is posting up down on the block for the Golden Knights these days. You might remember Hamilton playing football for St. Francis this past season. He transferred to St. Franks from Arroyo in the summer.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Dietrich Riley, a star on the football field, is listed on St. Francis basketball roster but he\u2019s not playing. Although he hasn\u2019t announced it yet, sources have said Riley will sign with USC in February. Riley showed up at the tournament wearing a USC hat. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Why does Keppel struggle year in and year out in football but the basketball team consistently hangs league banners? After a 63-45 win over Maranatha on Saturday at the Temple City-La Salle Tournament the Aztecs are 10-1 heading into a Monday night match up with Arcadia.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Led by 6\u20194\u201d junior center Justin Young and senior guard Timmy Wong Keppel again appears to be the favorites in the Almont.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Maybe Coach Hung Duong can help out with the football team.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 That\u2019s my principle.<\/p>\n
Tim can be reached at tspeterson32@yahoo.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 I finally got out to see some high school basketball this week. The annual Temple City \u2013 La Salle Holiday Classic is always a good place to start. There were some good players, solid teams and competitive games. I\u2019m not sure why but the transition from football seemed tougher this year. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12817],"tags":[1768,1722,1106,1769,1113,1767,1755,1608,1765,1750,1751,1607,1731,1749],"class_list":["post-5074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fanview","category-petersonprince","tag-anna-valazza","tag-corey-corn-dog-kwok","tag-dietrich-riley","tag-hung-duong","tag-ian-hamilton","tag-james-chen","tag-jordan-hill","tag-justin-young","tag-kevin-sweeney","tag-matt-valazza","tag-rich-hollinger","tag-timmy-wong","tag-tommy-jordan","tag-zach-aquino"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5074"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5077,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions\/5077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}