Hemsley and Briscoe impress on Night 1 of Pangos

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LONG BEACH, Ca. – Day I of the Pangos All-American, Version XII, was like the other 11 first days:

It’s a time for scrambling to peruse the numerical roster and makeup of each camp “team”, determining which players on the rosters were actually in the building and in uniform and then deciding where to plop one’s butt in order to have the best viewing vantage point for a few hours’ worth of games.

For yours truly Friday night in the Cabrillo High gymnasium it was “check, check and check and then was I seated against the south wall, facing Court 3 for the 8:30 “ACC Division” clash between “Miami” and “North Carolina State”, and the 9:30 “Pac-12” contest between “USC” and “Washington”.

There were a plethora of the better guards in the west region in the west in the first game, most notably Lonzo Ball (Chino Hills, CA), Paris Austin (Oakland Bishop O’Dowd) and Jeremy Hemsley (La Verne, CA, Damien) for NCSU, and Derryck Thornton (Henderson, NV, Findlay Prep), Stephen Thompson Jr. (Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery) and Noah Blackwell (Roseville, CA, Woodcreek) for Miami.

NCSU dominated, 67-46. But that score isn’t what you’re interested in, right?
OK.

Ball (who is already committed to UCLA) and Thornton are two of the better point guards in the national 2016 class and were matched up in the early going.

And Thornton wasted little time in driving by the much taller (6-foot-5 and some change) Ball for baskets.

But Thornton never seemed to be in real sync the rest of the way and didn’t hit another of his field goal attempts (although he didn’t make a couple of nice passes for buckets).

Ball took only three shots – missing a turn-around jumper from the left side early – and the final two of them were of the spectacular variety.

He caught a 40-foot pass as he appeared to be sailing out of bounds, snuggly secured the ball and laid it in all in a nice fluid motion.

And he ripped a defensive rebounder in the lane and scored a reverse layup between two defenders who seemed to have him hemmed in on the baseline under the bucket.

He also had three of four passes that were eye-catching if you hadn’t watched him play before but status quo if you have.

Thompson and Blackwell – two of the better jump shooters in California – struggled in that regard Friday night.

Austin – a starter for the Dragons’ club lost to Santa Ana Mater Dei in the California State Open Division title game in March – looks like he may have put on about 10 pounds or so of solid muscle.

And it appears to have helped his game as he penetrated well against any contact or pressure, hit a couple of 3s and generally got the ball where it needed to go, although he committed four turnovers – pretty much all of them the result of getting caught in the air while attempting to pass.

The most productive and impressive guard in the game, though, was Hemsley, a 6-3 combo who announced his commitment to San Diego State Wednesday afternoon.

Hemsley (a teammate of Thompson and Lakewood Mayfair’s Kendall Small in the Superior Athletes program) scored a team-high 18 points (going seven of eight from the field and four of four from the free-throw line), had two or three impressive assists with no turnover and played better defense than anyone in the game – twice blocking Thornton shots.

Vance Jackson (Bellflower, CA, St. John Bosco), with four 3s as part of his game-high 20 points, and 6-4 Shake Milton (Oswasso, OK), with15 points via a couple of deep 3s and impressive drives, were the most impressive of the Miami players Friday night.

It was East (Isaiah Briscoe of Roselle Catholic in New Jersey) vs. West (Tyler Dorsey of Bellflower, CA, St. John Bosco), of sorts, in the second game on Court 3.

And, although Dorsey did a nice job of drawing fouls on Briscoe in the second and scored the bulk of his game-high 15 points after intermission, it was Briscoe who clearly got the “better” of any perceived 1-on-1 showdown Friday night. And his Washington team prevailed, 72-65.

Briscoe, who goes about 6-3 and 210ish, is the proverbial “gets the ball from Point A to any point he wants to get on the court, via dribble or pass”-PG.

He was the best 2015 PG I saw on the Nike EYBL circuit (I watched the games in played in Sacramento and Dallas) – and anywhere else, for that matter – and nothing I saw changed that opinion Friday night.

Briscoe’s club won, 72-65, and he got plenty of help from 6-7, 250ish junior-to-be Joe Hampton (Hyattsville, MD, DeMatha), who scored 12 points – six of those on a two-for-two effort behind the arc.

One of the better power forward-types in the Class of 2015, Horace Spencer III (a teammate of Thornton’s at Findlay Prep), rivaled Marquese Chriss (Elk Grove, CA, Pleasant Grove of North Carolina State) as the most stunning vertical athlete I saw.

Spencer added 14 points and five rebounds. Once he grasps he’s a flat-out power forward and not be seduced by the idea that that he might be a wing, he’ll have a dominant senior season for new Findlay Prep Head Coach Andy Johnson.

Other impressive performances (at least statistically, since I was glued to my Court 3 seat):

*Stephen Zimmerman (Las Vegas Bishop Gorman), while often matched against Lawndale, CA, big fellas Chemezie Metu (who recently committed to USC) and Brodricks Jones, scored 12 points with nine rebounds and two blocked shots in Arizona’s 55-35 win over UCLA.

*Rex Pflueger (Santa Ana Mater Dei) hit a night-high 21 points, with four 3s, five rebounds and two assists in North Carolina’s 57-50 victory over Maryland.

*Point guard Kendall Small (Lakewood, CA, Mayfair) had 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals in Cal’s 66-53 win against Stanford.

Small is likely to be matched against Briscoe when their teams hook up in a 4 o’clock Saturday game on Court 2.

Games resume Saturday at 3 o’clock.

The camp wraps up Sunday afternoon with the Top 25 All-Star Game at about 1:15.

No-shows among those who were expected to attend the camp include Tres Tinkle (Missoula, MT, Hellgate/wisdom teeth pulled, according to Ryan Silver of Earl Watson Elite), Chase Jeter ( Las Vegas Bishop Gorman/chin splits and fatigue, according to BG Coach Grant Rice), Ray Smith (Las Vegas High/Camp Director Dinos Trigonis expects him to play Saturday) and Bennie Boatwright (Sun Valley, CA, Village Christian/ankle?).