SoCal team reigns supreme at Double Pump event

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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – NCAA Summer Evaluation Week II, Southern California-style, did a nice job of showcasing what kind of point guard prospects exist in the California Class of 2018.

The Asics Double Pump Best of the Summer Tournament (Anaheim’s American Sports Centers), The Big One Tournament (Irvine’s Misty May Treanor Sports Center) and the Fullcourt Press Cream of the Crop Challenge (Garden Grove’s MAP) were the major events that ran over the NCAA’s five-day period – Wednesday 5 p.m. to Sunday at the same time – in which coaches from NCAA-affiliated Division I programs were allowed to attend and evaluate participating players.

Some of those aforementioned exceptional point guard prospects in those events included Spencer Freedman (Santa Ana Mater Dei High/Southern California All-Stars Elite), Elijah Hardy (Oakland Bishop O’Dowd/Team Arsenal 16s), Payton Moore (L.A. Windward/California Supreme 15s), Taurus Samuels (Oceanside Vista/Gamepoint 15 Elite) and Kihei Clark (Woodland Hills Taft/L.A. Rockfish Navy).

Freedman held the SoCal All-Stars squad to an 8-0 record in the first-ever “The Big One”, with the left hander transfer from Santa Monica High dropping in 33 points Saturday night against the City of Sacramento squad that proved to be his team’s final game.

Another left hander, Hardy, played extensively as a freshman for O’Dowd’s State Open Division I champion last season and could be the top prospect in the Northern portion of California’s Class of 2018. He helped his Team Arsenal16s teammates get to the semifinals of the Double Pump event Saturday evening, were they were beaten by Pump-N-Run Elite, 68-64.

*Two of the state’s better backcourt players from the Class of 2016, Jonah Mathews (Santa Monica) and De’Anthony Melton (Encino Crespi), were the ringleaders behind the California Supreme EYBL (Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League) 66-54 victory over Seattle’s Friends of Hoop/(Zach) LaVine in the 17U Open Best of Summer title game Sunday afternoon.

Mathews’ jump shot was potent from the 3-point arc-and-in over the five days of the event (in which his team went 9-zip) while Melton hit a couple of 3s in the second half to go with his usual assortment of assists, steals and blocked shots.

Seniors-to-be in 6-7 Mike Henn and 6-1 Sharif Khan (both of Bellevue), 6-4 Curtis Walker (Seattle Franklin) and 6-1 Michael Carter (Seattle O’Dea) were very good for FOH during the program’s near-week in Orange County.

In the 17U Gold title game, the Utah Basketball Club held off Tiger Basketball (made up of players from Lewis and Clark High in Spokane, WA), 55-53.

Guard Landon Swartz (who will be a senior at Kaysville Davis High in Utah in the fall) shot well throughout the event for UBC.

In the 16U division final, Arizona Power Black prevailed over Maeko (from the Oregon-based Other Side of Basketball organization) in the final Sunday, 60-53.

Arizona Power Black got strong player from a couple of exceptional juniors-to-be in 6-6 Caleb Simmons (Phoenix Desert Vista) and 6-0 Colton Kresl (Scottsdale Chaparral).

And, in the 15U finale, the Oakland Soldiers pulled away in the second half to topple Team Access (from Washington), 67-50.

The Soldiers were deep in talent from the Class of 2018, including 6-6 Khalil Chatman (Portland, OR, Franklin).

And they had another Sunday standout that is still more than a year removed from his first high school class – 6-3 left hander Shamar Morrow (Sacramento Country Day MS), who is a member of the Class of 2020!

Among the other standouts over the event’s five days were point guards in 6-5 Lonzo Ball (Chino Hills in California/The Big Ballers) and 6-3 JaQuori McLaughlin (Gig Harbor, WA, Peninsula/Team Access White); guards Colin Slater (Reedley, CA, Immanuel) and Eyassu Worku (Los Alamitos), both of Double Pump Elite 17; 6-8 post Mitchell Lightfoot and 6-3 guard Cameron Satterwhite (both of Gilbert, AZ, Christian/Arizona Power Black 17); 6-3 guard Bryce Peters (La Verne, CA, Damien/Prodigy); and 6-4 guard Justin Moore (San Diego Mission Bay/San Diego All-Stars).

*The two-day event (Friday and Saturday) in Garden Grove was a vehicle for four games in pre-determined matchups for each team.

Among the “non-Western” participants were the Boston Area Basketball Club (BABC) and Indiana Elite 17s, led by two of the better guards in the national Class of 2017 in Bruce Brown (Vermont Academy) and Kyle Guy (Indianapolis Lawrence Central). They were probably the two most impressive performers on hand.