LAS VEGAS – The Las Vegas Fab 48 Tip-Off Challenge commenced at 5 o’clock sharp Wednesday evening in Bishop Gorman High gymnasium and didn’t wrap up until nearly six hours later.
A lot of quality travel/club teams and high school players from across the U.S. of A trotted out onto the three courts in the facility with at least 200 or so coaches from colleges and universities spread over the same territory watching on the first day of the NCAA’s third and final “evaluation” week of the summer.
But it was a team with seven of its eight players – four of those from one New Jersey high school – that are members of the Class of 2019 that was the most impressive squad on display in the building.
New Jersey-based and Under Armour-fronted Team Rio, led 6-foot-5 sophomores-to-be Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine, topped the Nike Team Texas 16-Under squad, 67-52,
Antoine and Lewis, joined on the team by Tinton Falls, NJ, Ranney teammates Ahmadu Sarnor and Alex Klatsky, scored 22 and 10 points, respectively.
Even more impressive than their point production, however, was their ball handling and passing, as well as their efforts at both ends of the floor and near-stunning quickness and vertical explosiveness.
Six-foot-10 Charles Bassey (San Antonio St. Anthony; he’s a member of the Nike Team Texas squad but sidelined with a fractured left hand) and 6-5 R.J Barrett (Montverde, FL, Academy) are the “two best” prospects from the Class of 2019, than Antoine and Lewis are certainly worthy candidates for “Top five in the class”, along with D.J. Jefferies (Olive Branch, MS) on a coast-to-coast basis.
Team Rio, coached by former Rutgers Coach Mike Rice, technically should have been playing in “15-Under” divisions in spring and summer competition but has played “up” (16-Under) and are doing so for the Fab 48 Tournament that gets underway at Bishop Gorman Thursday morning.
In one of the final two games of the evening, Delaware-based WE R 1 topped Belmont Shore (CA), 76-64, as 6-1 senior-to-be Trevon Duval (expected to transfer to IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, for his senior year) scored 24 points while 6-2 Talek Williams (Allentown, PA, William Allen) added 14.
Duval, one of the three best point guard prospects (with Trae Young of Norman, OK, North and Quade Green of Philadelphia Neumann-Goretti) in the Class of 2017, was especially impressive in the second half – without attempting, much less making, a jump shot – on both ends of the floor, pushing the ball at breakneck speed into the lane for layups or assists and helping force 6-9 Billy Preston (Mouth of Wilson, VA, Oak Hill Academy) into bad shots or turnovers.
Preston, who mostly played with Houston Hoops on the EYBL circuit in the spring and early summer, finished with a team-high 20 points.
Guard David Singleton (Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery) hit four 3s in the first half for Belmont Shore but scored just four points the rest of the way against defense from the likes of Williams and Juwan Collins (Sharon Hill, PA, Academy Park).
In some of the other games:
*Los Angeles Rockfish fell behind, 13-2, but dominated the rest of the way in near-methodical fashion via its half-court offense and defense to knock off Splash City (made up players from NorCal and Central California), 53-39.
Splash City, which lost in the Under Armour championship game (to WE R 1) in Atlanta last week, mostly settled for jump shots or drives into heavy congestion in the lane while Rockfish got impressive efforts from 5-7 point guard Kihei Clark (Woodland Hills Taft), 6-6 wing Fletcher Tynen (Torrance Bishop Montgomery) and 7-foot Majur Majak (Sun Valley Village Christian) – all members of the Class of 2018.
*Big Red Elite (aka, Santa Ana, CA, Mater Dei) found little resistance from Texas-based Team Beastmode while cruising by a margin of 15 points or so (full disclosure: I forgot to write the final score down).
Mater Dei – uh, I mean “Big Red Elite” – will be one of the three or four best teams in California next season and it was easy to see why Wednesday night via the team defensive effort and the full- and half-court offensive execution by way of 2018 playmaker Spencer Freedman and the scoring of senior-to-be forward Justice Sueing and play of three other juniors-to-be in Michael Wang (15 points), Harrison Butler and Reagan Lundeen.
Beastmode was without its best player, 2018 guard Javonte Smart (he’s with a USA team in Chile) but guard C.J. Roberts (North Richland Hills, TX, Richland) did his best to carry the team, especially after intermission, while finishing with 32 points including six buckets from behind the arc.
*Senior-to-be guard Jemarl Baker – who is committed to Cal – hit a team-high 19 points (at least three 3s) while junior-to-be Miles Norris added 14, with at least two jump shots and one spectacular And 1 dunk in the second half for SoCal-based Earl Watson Elite in its 67-48 victory against Wisconsin United.
Norris played with the EWE 16s during the spring and early summer but is playing with the top EWE club this week, which helps make EWE a contender to win the Fab 48 17s Open crown.
Point guard Virshon Cotton (Milwaukee Rufus King) led Wisconsin United with 16 points.
*File this under: Things that happen in Las Vegas on the final week of the NCAA’s Division I July evaluation period.
Teams from Georgia (Georgia Stars and Georgia Tornado) and New York (New Heights and the New York Rens) had inter-state battles in Las Vegas.
The Rens were down much of the first half then dominated after intermission to knock off New Heights, 79-64, via the three-man tag-team scoring effort of 6-8 Jordan Nwora (Vermont Academy by way of NYC), 6-6 Jordan Tucker (White Plains Stepinac) and 6-2 Marco Morency (Mount Vernon), who combined for 56 points.
And the Georgia Stars (like the Rens, part of the Nike/EYBL spring and summer circuit) spotted the Tornado a double-digit first-half lead before cruising after intermission, 78-63.
Forward Deaundrae Ballard (Southwest Atlanta Christian), who committed to the University of Florida in April, scored 27 points for the Stars.
*DC Premier (Under Armour-fronted) had too much inside-outside strength and balance for Florida-based Each 1 Teach 1 (part of the Nike/EYBL circuit), 84-74.
Kevin Knox (Tampa Catholic), who helped the USA 17-U squad when a FIBA gold medal in Spain last month, was limited to nine points for E1 T1 while Naji Marshall (Hargrave Military in Virginia) powered through the E1 T1 defenders for 17 points and 6-8 Jamarko Pickett (Washington, DC, Eastern) chipped in with 16.
*Forward Raiquan Gray (Ft. Lauderdale Dillard), who played so well for his high school team in the same gym during the Tarkanian Classic last December, scored 16 points to help the Florida Vipers handle the Northern Kings (from Canada), 84-50.
*And, lastly but not leastly, Expressions Elite (based in Massachusetts) had little difficulty while dominating another Nike/EYBL squad, Nike Pro Skills Texas, 87-56.
Seven-footer Nicholas Richards (Elizabeth, NJ, The Patrick School), one of the very best center prospects in the Class of 2017, scored a game-high 16 points – six of those by way of elbows-at-the-rim slams.
Forward Kimani Lawrence (New Hampton Prep in New Hampshire) added 14 points and Tremont Waters (South Kent Prep in Connecticut), one of the multitude of quality point guards on display Wednesday night, added 12 points and a heavy dose of pin-point passing.
There would have been much more intrigue – and the game would have been much more competitive, no doubt – if 7-footer Mitchell Robinson (Chalemette, LA) had not elected to leave Pro Skills and play instead with the New Orleans Elite squad during this weeks’ adidas Summer Championships at the Cashman Center in North Las Vegas.
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