Torrey Pines Holiday Classic Recap: Irish Take Home Consolation Championship

SAN DIEGO – If there was ever a time for adventure and total chaos, it would be the events during and leading up to the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic. As anyone could see on the news during the holiday season, flights all around the country were getting cancelled left and right because of the treacherous weather. The Irish’s flight was supposed to leave on the day after Christmas in the morning, but on Christmas Day that plan was shot down.

At around 5:30 PM, the flight was cancelled, and sent the possibility of the Torrey Pines tournament in serious jeopardy. This sent everyone playing the waiting game on wondering if the Irish would be able to play in the tournament at all. A few hours later, a decision was made.

O’Dea head coach Jason Kerr made the decision at 10 PM on Christmas Day that the team was going to take a bus down from Seattle to San Diego. He stated that it would take over 20 hours with no stops. Hearing this would obviously be a lot to process considering it would be taking place in less than 12 hours, but there was a purpose for this. It would be a fantastic test for the players’ mental toughness and determination, and it sure did its job.

“The bus ride was exhausting and very uncomfortable. I think in the end, it was definitely worth it to be able to play in Torrey Pines tournament,” senior Miles Clark said.

The bus ride aside, the Irish finally arrived in San Diego 10:55 AM, less than 2 hours until their first game against Dougherty Valley. Dougherty Valley was led by senior point guard Ryan Beasley who is currently a D1 commit to the University of San Francisco, and he certainly proved his D1 status. Beasley scored 37 points, almost all inside the 3 point line with one of the few he made outside, was a half court shot just before halftime.

“He was very fast and strong, especially for his size. Early in the game he ran into me, and it felt like I got hit by a truck” Clark said.

It wasn’t just Beasley that gave the Irish a lot of problems in this game, a lot of it was their own mistakes. The Irish finished the game with 23 total turnovers which really prevented them from getting back into the game. Later that evening, the players held a players-only meeting, trying to resolve the problems that had been going on the last two games.

“I feel like the players only meeting impacted us only in a positive way. As a team, we knew that to get even better we had to take the games we lost and won and analyze them as a team, with no “me” or “I” involved, whether that was watching film or just having a conversation on how we all feel,” junior guard Noel Davis said.

No one knows but them what was said in that meeting other than the players, but on the court a huge impact was made. Going into the next day the Irish took on Monterey Trail High School, just outside of Sacramento. They were led by 3-star prospect and Long Beach State commit, Varick Lewis. While Lewis was dominant in the game by putting up 26 points, Monterey Trail had no answer for the Irish’s offense in an astounding 102-65 victory for O’Dea. Nearly every player on the team for the Irish scored with the two leading scorers being senior guard Mason Williams and junior center Miles Goodman with 21 and 25 points respectively.

Now that the Irish had gained their confidence back in a dominant win, their sights were set on getting two more victories and getting themselves better for the long run. The next matchup was against Centennial High School from Peoria, Arizona. Centennial was in the same position as O’Dea, losing their first game, but getting a dominant bounce back win in their second. In the first half, the Irish jumped out to a 18 point lead. Things were looking good as the game appeared to be resembling the previous game vs. Monterey Trail, but Centennial had other plans. They came in the third quarter blazing, with guard Keyan Murphy knocking down 5 threes in the third quarter and seven total in the game. In just a couple of minutes, the Irish’s 18 point lead at half, diminished to 1. Luckily, Williams and Goodman took charge to get back the strong lead in the fourth quarter, leading to a 72-58 Irish win.

Entering the final game of the tournament, the Irish had a lot to prove. For one, they wanted to bring home the Consolation championship, but also wanted to go out on a high note and bring some momentum back to Seattle, going into league play. In order to do this, they would need to get past Coronado High School out of Las Vegas. This game would be Goodman’s first big test of the season, with him having to go against 6’9, 240lb center Tee Bartlett. To say the least, Goodman did fantastic guarding Bartlett, holding him to 9 points total in a dominant 73-55 victory.

If anything can be taken away from this tournament it’s that this team is tough, mentally and physically. They went down 23 hours on a bus, on very short notice, got hit in the mouth during game 1, then rebounded in the next three games taking home a trophy. These are the type of moments that make teams special and help teams down the road later in the season.