The Ninth Annual Cream of the County was arguably the best edition ever of the one-day event showcasing San Diego County’s finest players. The Creme De La Creme Game came for the event’s best came down to the wire and many other prospects turned heads throughout the day’s 11 games.
Cream of the County, an annual showcase put on by San Diego-based scout Aaron Burgin to promote and highlight San Diego County’s best high school basketball talent, keeps getting better and the 2024 edition was its best yet. While the range of talent varies year to year, the top showcase games are traditionally competitive and close.
Once again, Burgin did a more than solid job of separating the talent to create competitive games. At least five of the 11 games during the one-day event traditionally held over Labor Day weekend came down to the wire. In recent years, the Cream De La Creme game designed for San Diego’s finest has come down to the wire. As the event approaches its tenth edition, it will be forever hard to top the ending Mikey Williams (now at Central Florida university after after a well publicized prep career) gave fans at the seventh edition in 2022 when he hit two consecutive 3-pointers, including one from the left corner in the closing seconds, to lift his team to a 118-116 victory.
The ninth edition came close, as the Creme De La Creme contest was an exciting 111-107 come-from-behind victory for the white jersey-wearing club over the black jersey-wearing club. For a while, it looked like the game would be ho-hum, as the Black jerseys jumped out to a 58-44 halftime lead and held a lead as big as 22 points. With the lead hovering around 16 points in the second half, Burgin challenged the White club to get after it and they responded with spirited play.
In particular two players responded well and they are teammates at Montgomery (San Diego), a team that will challenge Carlsbad (Calif.) for San Diego Section supremacy in 2024-25. Xair Mendez, a 6-foot-3 2025 and one of the most underrated point guards in California, and J.J. Sanchez, a 6-foot-5 do-it-all 2025 wing guard who is a matchup nightmare, got cooking and got the White team back in the game with an array of defensive plays, shot-making and timely 3-pointers.
The White team eventually took the lead at 96-95 with 5:55 remaining and the game went down to the wire from that point. With 41.6 seconds remaining, 6-foot-8 2025 Brayden Kyman of Santa Margarita (Rancho SM, Calif.)was fouled on a 3-point attempt with his team leading 107-106 and the free throw could have iced the game since it was worth three points. He missed the free throw. That gave the White club an opening and Louis Bond, a 6-foot-5 2025 small forward from Windward (Los Angeles), nailed a go-ahead 3-pointer with twenty-five seconds remaining to give his team a 109-107 lead. Bond then iced the game in the closing seconds by making two free throws to account for the final margin.
