CARLSBAD — Before Jake Hall slipped on a Carlsbad High School jersey, dribbled a ball or took his first fadeaway shot, Lancers boys basketball coach Clark Allard knew what he had.
“I’ve got a kid,” Allard said then, “who’s going to be special.”
Allard couldn’t have been more on the mark.
Hall has become one of the great players in San Diego high school basketball history. A McDonald’s All-American nominee, Hall is a three-time All-CIF player and the reigning CIF San Diego Section Player of the Year. Last week, the 6-foot-4 senior became just the third player in section history to crack the 3,000-point mark for his career, hitting a 9-foot bank shot against El Camino to give him 3,001.
“I never heard of a player scoring 3,000 points,” Jake said. “Honestly, I thought 1,000 was a big deal. I thought I might be able to do that. The whole 3,000 thing kind of snuck up on me.”
Hall and second-seeded Carlsbad open postseason play on Friday with a home game against No. 7 Santa Fe Christian. The visitors are led by Dax Hall, Jake’s younger brother and a fine player in his own right. Dax, a junior, averages 20.2 points per game for SFC.
Jake averages 29.6 at Carlsbad.
“Jake is a natural scorer,” Allard said.
Scoring, climbing
The only other players in San Diego history to score more career points than Hall share a last name: Leaf.
Troy Leaf scored a section-record 3,318 points for Foothills Christian from 2007 to 2010. He played collegiately at UC Santa Barbara and Azusa Pacific before becoming a coach. He’s now an assistant at The Masters College in Santa Clarita.
TJ Leaf, Troy’s younger brother, put up 3,020 points from 2012 to 2016, also at Foothills Christian. A McDonald’s All-American as a senior, TJ Leaf played one year at UCLA, was taken by the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2017 NBA draft and spent four years in the NBA. He now plays for the Nanjing Tongi Monkey Kings of the Chinese Basketball Association.
Allard said Hall could have been No. 1 scorer in San Diego history had he not been such an unselfish teammate. Hall averaged 18.9 points per game last season on a team that included Tony Duckett (17.3 ppg) and Jael Martin (12.8 ppg). Duckett is starting as a true freshman at USD, while Martin is redshirting at Loyola Marymount.
“Jake gave himself up for the good of the team last season,” Allard said. “We had a very strong team with multiple scorers, so Jake became a facilitator, ran the offense, ed the ball.”
Said Hall: “I was playing with Division I college guys last season, so I was going to do whatever the team needed me to do. Tony was a scorer. Jael was a rim protector. I gave up some of my game for the good of the team. And it was well worth it.”
Last year’s Lancers beat Montgomery 56-47 in the Open Division championship game and outlasted Downey St. Pius X-St. Matthias 75-72 in overtime in the Southern California Regionals before losing 73-72 to Harvard-Westlake. The team finished 30-3.
“Winning a championship, beating a really good Montgomery team was a thrill,” Hall said. “Then winning a SoCal game in our gym before a crazed crowd was so special. We have a chance at a second championship ring, but nothing can replace the feeling of getting that first one.”
Nice shot
Hall is a strong player, a good rebounder, and a fine perimeter shooter. What sets him apart is a deadly step-back jumper from the 3-point line and in.
Hall estimates he attempts between 250 and 300 shots a day. He cuts that down to 150 to 200 on game days.
“I like to stay consistent,” Hall said. “I have a routine, and I stick to it. With a ball-return machine, you can get up a lot of shots.”
Mike Haupt, coach of St. Augustine — the No. 2 seed in Division 1 — says Hall’s shooting is what will make him successful at the next level. Hall has committed to play at UCSD.
“He has a great fall-away jumper,” Haupt said. “People say he’ll have trouble getting that shot off against college defenders who are 6-7 or so. I believe he can get that shot off in college. Plus, he has a great shooting range. He can score inside, but he can take it outside, too.”
Mongtomery’s JJ Sanchez, another of the city’s top players, said this of Hall: “He knows his spots. He uses his body really well. He plays fast. He plays physical.”
Teams gameplan to stop Hall, who says he has faced nearly every junk defense invented.
“You name it, I’ve seen it … box-and-one, triangle-and-two, 1-3 zone with a chaser, two guys coming at me as soon as I catch the ball,” he said. “But I’m used to it by now.”
On to UCSD
Hall chose his hometown Tritons over offers from Cornell and Yale of the Ivy League as well as Montana State, Cal Baptist, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, Eastern Washington and USD.
UC San Diego entered Thursday tied for first in the Big West and is pushing to make its first NCAA Tournament as a Division I program.
“I love the coaching staff at UCSD,” said Hall, who carries a 4.0 GPA and would like to get into real estate development when his playing career is over. “They did a great job recruiting me. Coach (Eric) Olen builds relationships. And I love shooting at LionTree Arena. I’m super comfortable there.”
The Tritons already have a strong local roster with Hayden Gray (Santa Fe Christian), Chris Howell (Torrey Pines) and Camden McCormick (Francis Parker).
“Jake is going to help us right away with his shooting and scoring,” Olen said. “But he’s also a phenomenal er. He has great anticipation. He has a high basketball IQ, processes things quickly. He’s wise beyond his years. He’s an ideal fit for our program because we allow our players a lot of freedom in our offense.
“We lose Hayden Gray to graduation, but Chris Howell returns. I don’t think there is a better player for Jake to break into college ball with than Chris Howell.”
How many more games?
Open Division teams are assured a spot in the Southern California Regionals, which means Hall has a minimum of two more games to climb San Diego’s all-time scoring charts. He’s 19 points away from catching TJ Leaf. That could happen Friday, assuming Hall posts anything close to his season average.
Catching Troy Leaf is out of reach.
Regardless, becoming the section’s all-time leading scorer isn’t Hall’s main focus.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to get another championship,” he said. “It’s really hard to win the last game of the season.”
