On Tuesday, November 27th, I went to the Mesa Mountain View vs Marcos De Niza game at Marcos, and watched 2 very good teams slug it out for 4 quarters.
Besides the quick 13 to 4 start for Mountain View, the game was a close 2-possession game the entire night. Both teams were playing man-to-man defense and looking to try and stop or contain the other teams star. Mesa Mountain View HS 6-foot-10 junior Payton Dastrup shot a desperation 3-point shot, but missed the shot at the buzzer - losing 78 to 75 with Marcos pulling off the upset at home.
Payton Dastrup of Mesa Mountain View is one of those special prospects that don’t come around very often. Payton had 20 points and over 10 rebounds, but his impact on the game was bigger then that. Payton was doubled teamed throughout the game and made many “hockey assists,” where he would pass the ball out of a double-team and that player would pass the ball one more time for a wide-open shooter to score. Payton is capable of scoring left or right jump hooks, once he gets in position to score. Sometimes he shot the ball out of his comfort zone and should of re-posted for better position, but he did just as well as he could possibly do.
Most of Mountain View’s baskets came off of back-picks and moving with out the basketball for lay-ups, or they made 3-pointers. As a team, Mountain View made 10 3-pointers and 6-foot-4 senior forward Brian Butler made five 5 3-pointers - finishing with a total of 19 points on the night. The Toros obviously needed 1 more 3-point shot to tie the game, but had trouble running their last play and forced a poor shot.
The other star on the evening was 6-foot-4 senior guard Richaud Gittens (Weber State signee) of Marcos. Richaud had 21 points, 5 assists and 5 steals on the night. His last steal and assist was the most important on the night, as he stole the ball with 9 seconds left and ran down the court and passed to 6-foot-4 senior guard Devin White for a lay-up to go up by 3 points late.
Devin White is also a very good prospect. White had the tall task of guarding Dastrup down the stretch, and also during the game White guarded basically everyone on the floor for Mountain View. He is a very unselfish player and does whatever his team needs to get the win. He also was posting players up and scoring on offense and just always seemed to do the right thing.
Marcos also have some other great pieces to their puzzle who will help these 2 great players out this season. They basically have a strong 7-man rotation they rotate in-and-out during the game. The biggest help of the night came from 5-foot-11 senior combo-guard Stefan Tellis who scored 18 points with five 3-point shots made in the game. The other players who contributed to the game were 6-foot-3 senior forward Luke Lamb, 6-foot-4 sophomore forward Sean Wood, 6-foot-2 senior forward Dominic Krane and 6-foot-2 junior PG Tyler Lazenby.
This core group of 7 might surprise people and make the playoffs. They already surprised Mesa Mountain View.
Some Quick Hitters: After watching the freshman and JV games on the night, I noticed some prospects that you will need to know about really soon. The first player is 6-foot-2 freshman forward Nkeal Harry of Marcos, who scored 28 points in the JV game. Nkeal looks to be one of the 10 best freshman in the state. Another solid player was 6-foot freshman Bryan Battle of Marcos, who scored 16 points in the freshman game.
Some other solid freshman for Mesa Mountain View were 6-foot-6 freshman post John Trendler, 6-foot-4 freshman forward Tava Ta’ase and 6-foot-1 PG Greyson Rogers.
