SUWANEE, Ga. – Backcourt play proved to be the difference for the winners during the four games I watched Friday night during the Atlanta session of the 2016 adidas Uprising Gauntlet in the seven-court Suwanee Sports Academy.
The Southern California-based 17s Compton Magic squad went 4-0 during weekend one on the circuit in Dallas.
But North Carolina’s Stackhouse Elite had too much balance and too much Lyndell Wigginton for the Magic and its UCLA-bound guard to overcome.
Stackhouse pulled away down the stretch for a tougher-than-the-final score-indicates, 76-61, victory.
Wigginton, who had a strong junior season at Mouth of Wilson (VA) Oak Hill Academy, demonstrated succinctly why he is among the top point guard prospects in the Class of 2017 as one of four Stackhouse Elite players to score in double figures with 21 points and six assists while getting pretty much anywhere he wanted to go on the dribble.
Stackhouse Elite, which split its four games in Dallas last weekend, also got 16 points from Class of 2016 guard Jalen Jordan and 15 more from a strong, 6-foot-4 left hander, Tajah Fraley (Snellville, GA, Shiloh).
Six-eight, junior-to-be Augustine Ominu (Durham, NC, Mt. Zion Christian Academy) had 10 points, 13 rebounds and two blocked shots for Stackhouse Elite.
The aforementioned guard who plans to sign with UCLA in November, 6-3 Jaylen Hands (San Diego Balboa School), scored 19 points with two assists and three steals for Compton Magic while 6-4 junior-to-be Timmy Allen (Mesa, AZ, Desert Ridge) added 15 points, five rebounds, four steals and a heaping helping of “hustle plays”.
Six-nine Onyeka Okongwu, who helped lead Chino Hills to a 35-0 record and consensus No. 1 national ranking as a freshman, scored only two points for Compton Magic (via a spectacular follow) but grabbed five rebounds and swatted four Stackhouse Elite shot attempts.
In a clash between two other California programs, Oakland-based Team Lillard (which was called the Oakland Rebels when NBA standout Damian Lillard played for it) held off Orange County-based Dream Vision, 70-65.
Six-three Souley Boum (a senior-to-be at Oakland Tech) went “boom” on Dream Vision via an explosive 33-point effort while hitting 10 of 19 from the field – including five shots behind the arc – and all eight of his free throws.
I didn’t see a faster player with the ball in his possession Friday night. And he wasn’t credited with a turnover despite going at warp speed most of the evening.
While Boum was going off on Court 2, Nick Weatherspoon of Mississippi Basketball Academy (MBA) was going off on the adjacent Court 3.
Weatherspoon (Camden, MS, Velma Jackson) showed why he is among the handful of best point guards in the Class of 2017 anywhere while scoring 22 points (via 10 of 15 shooting) with four assists and a single turnover in his team’s eased-up, 80-57 decision against Team YGC36 (fronted by Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics).
Six-ten Kenneth Nwuba (a teammate of Lyndell Wigginton at Oak Hill Academy and one of the best post prospects in the Class of 2018) hit all five shots from the field for MBA for 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds and blocked four shots.
And there wasn’t a better player from the Class of 2019 on display Friday night than 6-1 Grant Sherfield (Arlington, TX, Mansfield Summit) of YGC36, who lit MBA for 33 points while hitting 11 of 20 from the field, including seven of 13 from behind the arc.
He’s got three more seasons of high school basketball, people. Yikes!
And, in the final game I watched Friday night before venturing into a lightning storm, Massachusetts Rivals improved to 5-zip with a much-easier-than-anticipated (at least from my perspective), 65-42 decision over Exum Elite Utah Prospects.
Six Mass Rivals players scored at least seven points with 6-7 Jarrod Simmons (currently a junior at Ashburnham, MA, Cushing Academy) and 6-5 A.J. Reeves (a sophomore at Chestnut Hill, MA, Brimmer & May) scoring a dozen apiece.
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