This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Bay League Notebook: A Fresh Start for the Panthers

The boys basketball team works with new players to prepare for the upcoming season.

Though they are months from tipping off the regular season, Peninsula coach Jim Quick and his Panthers basketball team have been laying the groundwork.

“We’re starting over, but it’s gone good for us,” Quick said of summer league play. “We’ve had a lot of growing pains, but we’ve played well. I like what I see.”

With talented shooting guard Reese Morgan, one of the best players in the state last season, and steady point guard Andrew Menard being the top players lost to graduation, Quick is grooming new players to replace them and pair them with returnees such as Sam Borst-Smith and center Stanley Roberts Jr. Two of the newest additions are freshman point guards Matt Oh and Rory Hubbard, who will try to fill the void left by Menard.

“We kind of opened the door for the competition to replace Andrew,” Quick said. “You don’t replace him, but these kids will step in to that spot. Matt Oh has done a really good job for an incoming freshman. He’s made some mistakes, but he gets better all the time. So does Rory. Matt and Rory have improved by leaps and bounds since we started this summer. They’re going to be good players when it’s all said and done.”

No pressure.

Quick said the 5-foot-10 Oh is the leading candidate to run the point this fall and the 5-foot-11 Hubbard is scheduled to serve as backup.

Borst-Smith, who averaged almost 12 points per game as a junior and delivered several times with clutch performances, is the top returnee and the Panthers’ most consistent threat offensively. But Roberts, a 6-foot-6 sophomore-to-be and the son of former NBA player Stanley Roberts Sr., has the potential and upside to become one of the area’s top big men. And he’s still growing.

“Stanley is going through a growth spurt. He’s had great days, when he’s played well, and some days haven’t been so good because his knees hurt,” Quick said. “He’s still only going to be 15 in October.

“Sammy is doing great. He’s going to be our guy. He’s going to ease the loss of Morgan and Menard though we all know that’s a huge void. But we are young. Sammy and Matt McFarland have the most experience of the players we have coming back. But everyone else is pretty much new.”

The 6-foot-3 McFarland and the 6-foot-5 Alex Crawford, both of whom will be juniors this fall, have shown promise in summer league play, Quick said. Bo Prock, a 6-foot-2 sophomore who played on the junior varsity last season, also could emerge as a key player.

Peninsula, which rolled unbeaten through the Bay League last season and deep into the CIF playoffs, has played some stiff competition this summer. They recently completed a weekly league summer run at Sierra High. They’ve faced teams such as Westchester, Loyola, St. Bernard, Beverly Hills and Lawndale. Peninsula also competed recently in the Best of the West Tournament at Artesia, where it was matched up with some of the top clubs from Orange County.

This weekend, Peninsula travels to Palm Springs for a tournament to cap summer league play.

Though it will be a challenge for Quick to duplicate last season’s run—and that’s the furthest thing from the coach’s mind—he is enjoying rebuilding his club.

“I’ve got 13 kids on the varsity roster and five are seniors,” Quick said. “Everyone else is either a freshman and sophomore. It’s fun because for the last four years, I’ve had talent and all I had to do was plug holes. But we can’t play like we have before. Before, we could put those kids out there and let them free flow on offense and they would produce. They knew how to play off each other.

“But now we’re starting over. We’re starting to bang inside, and I like that. We’ve got Sam and two true centers (Roberts and Crawford) and they’re developing some skills. It’s different and fun. I’m enjoying it.”

Redondo Beach player makes impression

Several South Bay athletes made their mark in last weekend’s USA Beach Volleyball High Performance Championships at the Hermosa Beach Pier, but one player made as big an impression as any.

Thirteen-year-old Madeleine Flentie, who will be an eighth-grader at Adams Middle School in Redondo Beach, didn’t win any medals, but she beamed with pride about competing—and playing well—in her first USA Volleyball event.

The 5-foot-4½, 100-pound Flentie and her partner Alyssa Rifalto of Brea came close to advancing to the final round of play in the under-15 division, but were eliminated by the division’s eventual champs, Tiyanna Cooper of Peoria, Ariz., and Mia Merino of Tustin, in the third round last Saturday.

Despite the loss, Flentie was excited about competing in the event.

“This is my first big beach tournament, so it’s been a great experience,” said Flentie, who earned a trip after a recent tryout for an invitational-only volleyball camp at the U.S Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista next week. “I love playing volleyball. I switched from softball to volleyball because I love it so much. This was fun. It wasn’t like we were here trying to beat everyone. I came here to have fun. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

Flentie wasn’t the only South Bay player making the most of her opportunity. Susannah Muno of Hermosa Beach and London Chow, who transferred recently to Redondo Union from Palm Springs, were the best of the bunch, finishing higher than any of the South Bay teams by capturing a bronze medal in the girls under-17 division. Another girls under-17 division duo, Skylar Caputo and Lan Nguyen, both of Manhattan Beach, advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to a Florida pair.

Hermosa Beach’s Skyler Morgan and Manhattan Beach’s Samantha Snyder, who will be students at Mira Costa High this fall, advanced to a bronze medal game in the girls under-15 division before falling to a pair of Orange County players.

And, Redondo’s Tiffany Morales and former Mira Costa star Jace Pardon, who will play next season at Florida State, performed at a high level before being upended in the final round of play last Sunday by an Orange County team.

Also, Mira Costa’s Chris Orenic played well, advancing to the quarterfinals in the boys under-19 division before he and his partner Austin Kingi were eliminated.

Mustangs drop first game, but remain in first place

Mira Costa lost for the first time in the South Bay Summer Baseball League, dropping a 3-2 contest to L.A. Harbor last week. The setback ended a 10-game winning streak for the Mustangs.

Palos Verdes remained two games back of Mira Costa in the West Division of the league. The Sea Kings recorded a 9-3 win over Gardena to improve to 8-3.

The league playoffs will be held July 28-30. The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. July 30.

Find out what's happening in Palos Verdeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?