LAS VEGAS – My Saturday, Day 4, stop on the final NCAA evaluation week for this month was the Cashman Center, home to the adidas Super 64.
It was fitting, I supposed, that the last complete game I watched Saturday night was one of the best I saw all week in town.
Dream Vision seemingly had things well in hand, with a 14-point advantage, in the second half against the Atlanta Celtics in the last of the quarterfinals in the 17s division.
But a rash of turnovers and a few ill-advised shots attempts twisted the momentum and, following one of those turnovers, Braxton Blackwell was fouled and hit both free throws with 38 seconds to go in regulation to put the Celtics, 63-62, with 38 seconds to go.
But the advantage didn’t last long as, following a timeout, Arizona-bound Justin Simon and (likely) Duke-bound Chase Jeter hooked up for a lob and dunk to put Dream Vision up by a point.
An Atlanta player bounced the ball off his foot and out of bounds as the Celtics tried to attack quickly and, after Dream Vision inbounded, guard Paris Austin was eventually fouled and converted two free throws with seven seconds remaining.
A 3 attempt to tie the score by junior-to-be guard Kobi Simmons was off with two seconds to go and Dream Vision’s semifinal date with Team Loaded of Virginia was set for 8:40 on Sunday morning.
Bennie Boatwright (a senior-to-be at Village Christian High in Sun Valley, CA), who just joined Dream Vision – along with Simon (Temecula Valley High in Southern California) – for this event led all scorers with 27 points, continuing to look like as good as deep jumper as there has been in the building all five of his attempts from behind the arc.
A few hours earlier he hit three of five on 3s while scoring 11 points in the team’s 61-45 victory over Massachusetts Rivals.
While touted junior-to-be point guard Kobi Simmons was missing 18 of his 24 shots from the floor, the guy who really kept the Atlanta Celtics within striking distance in the second half was 6-10 Abulhakim Ado (from Heights Christian Academy in Chattanooga, TN).
Ado, who played for the Nike-front Georgia Stars 16s team all spring and into the Peach Jam two weeks ago, might have blocked something close to ten Dream Vision shots, including multiple point-blank attempts by Jeter.
The competition, by way of Team Loaded, could prove even tougher from Dream Vision Sunday morning.
That team is by the player who had been the dominant big – really big – man in the city during the three major events being held.
Thon Maker, from the Class of 2016 and standing something on the north side of seven-foot, helped Team Loaded chew up the Milwaukee Rebels (103-72) and the Indiana-based EG10 squad (79-58) Saturday.
Maker averaged 21.0 points and 9.0 rebounds on Saturday while teammate Curtis Jones (a 2016 guard from Paul VI in Fairfax, VA) scored a game-high 27 against Milwaukee and added 14 against EG10. It borders on the feudal to try to keep him from getting into the lane at will.
The other semifinal on Sunday morning, Florida Elite vs. Indianapolis Elite, could prove to be one of the better games plays during this third and final evaluation period of the month.
The Florida squad was taken to the wire by a surprising team from Quebec City in Canada (Brookwood) in the quarterfinals before prevailing in thrilling fashion by way of a floating jumper by junior-to-be point guard Loren Jackson at the buzzer, 62-60.
Just one of several standouts for Indiana Elite during its Saturday wins over Stackhouse Elite and the Ohio Basketball Club was 6-2 Kyle Guy (Indianapolis Central).
Guy, who belongs high up on anyone’s pecking order of the best guards in the Class of 2016, scored team highs of 16 and 15 points, respectively, over OBC and Stackhouse Elite.
Here are the schedules in the top divisions in each of the three major tournaments Sunday:
FAB 4
17s INVITATIONAL
At Bishop Gorman High
Court 1: 8 a.m., Illinois Stars vs. Louisiana Dynasty; 9:20, Big Red (Santa Ana, CA, Mater Dei) vs. Atlanta Xpress.
Court 2: 8 a.m., Upward Stars (SC) vs. The City (NY; 9:20, DC Premier vs. Team Philly.
Semifinals: 11:30, Courts 1&2.
Championship: 3 p.m., Court 1.
ADIDAS SUPER 64
17s
At The Cashman Center
Semifinals
Court 5: 8:40 a.m., Indiana Elite vs. Florida Elite.
Court 7: 8:40 a.m., Dream Vision (CA) vs. Team Loaded (VA).
Championship
Court 5: 3 p.m.
BIG LAS VEGAS CLASSIC
17s
Platinum Elite
At Spring Valley High
Court 1: 9:05 a.m., Oakland Soldiers vs. Mid-Kansas; 10:10, Houston Hoops vs. California Supreme.
Court 2: 9:05 a.m., M33M vs. Mac Irvin Fir IL); 10:10, Utah Basketball Club vs. Seattle Rotary.
Semifinals: Noon, Courts 1&2.
Championship: 2:30 p.m., Court 1.
Frank, thanks for the reports. I was at the opposite sites from you. Wednesday nite, LV Classic where I saw a great battle of big men, Okland Sholdiers vs Earl Watson Elite. The refs really let them go at it. Superior guard play won it for EWE. Comache, J Johnson played Zimmerman, Rabb even. Thurs at Fab 48 where I got to see the majority of players I wanted to see. It was back to LV Classic to see more players my school is recruiting. I had to leave Sat so wasn’t able to get to more games. I did see the final from the Super 64 on ESPNU on Sunday. I saw 9 players my team is recruiting so it was a good 3 days of hoops.