Odia Still Injured But Montrose Wins

Montrose Christian came into the West Virginia Showcase at Shepherd College's Butcher Center with four losses. Mission Prep, their day one opponent, traveled from San Luis Obispo, Calif. for this two-day event.

Montrose has been playing the whole season with an injured Churchill Odia, who is headed to Xavier next season. Montrose is 'only' 12th in the Washington Post poll. So, some wondered, "Maybe the left coast team will have a chance to get away with a win in their first game in W.V."

The answer is a resounding "no" as Montrose beat Mission Prep, 71-36. Quite an impressive win for a team still learning to play without Odia.

Impressive this season has been 6-foot-11 senior center Tsuji Sorye, who is headed to Virginia. And amazing freshman, Herb Pope, who at 14 years old, is already 6-feet-9 and 215 pounds. Pope has also had a solid season.

The final game of day one started out as an apparent blowout with the Mustangs running to 16-2 lead that Mission Prep's 6-foot-7 senior Garrett Wood narrowed to 16-5 with 1:57 to go in the opening period. Montrose had a 19-7 lead heading into the second quarter but was unable to shake the Royals.

Montrose, with a minute left in the half, held for the last shot. MP, stayed in their zone and watched 5-foot-10 sophomore guard Taishi Ito standing at mid-court. When Ito started to move the offense, Mission Prep responded with a trap that resulted in a turnover. That ended the half with Montrose up 29-15.

Montrose kicked it up a notch in the second half, matching there first half 29 points in the third quarter for a 58-26 lead with eight minutes left. Both teams started substituting freely with five minutes left to play.

Montrose was led by 6-foot-1 senior guard Antwan Hardy with three players chipping in 13 points each, 6-foot-4 senior swingman Tom Hammonds, 6-foot-8 junior forward Uche Echefu and 6-foot-2 shooting guard K.J. Matsui. Echefu had a game-best five rebounds.

Mission Prep's Michael Rohr-Robinson, a 6-foot-2 junior guard, led all scorers with 18 points and tied Echefu with five rebounds. The Mustangs shot 55.1 percent; the Royals, 31.0%.

Montrose has three intriguing freshmen: Pope, 6-foot-7 Julian Vaughn and 5-foot-11 B.J Blake. A nucleus that should mean good things in the future for the Rockville, Md. school.

"We upped the defense in the second half," Montrose Coach Stu Vetter said. "And our zone press worked really well," he added.