ORANGE, Ca. – All in all, it was quite the memorable Memorial Weekend for the Dante Exum Elite basketball program.
DEE (formerly – and still – known as the Utah Prospects, captured the 17U and 15U “Battle Zone” divisional titles within a minute of one another Monday afternoon at Orange Lutheran High to cap the three-day Compton Magic/adidas Magic Memorial Tournament.
Taking the 16U Battle Zone crown, about an hour later, was the Urban DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) Elite.
Trevin Knell, a 6-foot-5 jump-shooting specialist who will be a senior at Wood Cross High in the Utah town of the same name in the fall, scored 19 points in the 49-48 victory over San Diego’s Gamepoint in the 17U game.
Knell’s two free throws in the closing seconds rendered moot a buzzer-beating 50-footer by Justin McCall (a senior at Bakersfield Ridgeview High in 2016-17).
Six-five Samuta Avea (2017/South Jordan Bingham) was the only other DEE player to score in double figures (10) but the team also got solid play throughout the weekend from its trio of “bigs” in the 6-10 duo of Hunter Thompson (2017/Pine Bluff, WY) and Branden Carlson (Bingham), and 6-7 junior-to-be Emmanuel Akot (Mt. Pleasant, UT, Wasatch Academy; he’s originally from Winnipeg in Canada).
Gamepoint got 12 points from McCall who led the way with 23 in the semifinal victory against Dream Vision, an Orange County-based program with players from all over Southern California.
The win over Gamepoint wrapped up a five-hour stretch of play for DXE in which it opened with a 37-26 win over Los Angeles Rockfish and followed with a 63-51 victory against the Las Vegas Knicks.
In a quarterfinal that tipped at 9 o’clock Sunday morning, Dream Vision stunned host and top-seeded Compton Magic, 66-46, behind 19 points from forward Sebastian Much (2017/San Juan Capistrano JSerra).
In that 15U finale that tipped off at the same time as did the 17U tilt (and on an adjacent floor in OLu’s main gym), DEX edged Dream Vision in overtime, 59-53, in what was probably as well-played game as was played over three days at Orange Lutheran.
One of the very best 2019 point guards in the West, Rylan Jones (Logan), scored 32 points with four assists for DXE, which had to hold its figurative breath as another 2019 PG of note, Ethan Anderson (L.A. Fairfax) missed a short attempt with a second to go in regulation that would have won the game for Dream Vision.
Urban DFW knocked off Team Eleate (based in Riverside, CA), 68-58, in its Sunday morning 16 U semifinal before toppling Gamepoint for the championship, 66-56.
Here are my very unofficial all-tournament and Most Outstanding Player selections in the aforementioned divisions, with a maximum of two players per squad to keep this list from running into the start of the fall semester:
17-Under
MOP – Trevin Knell (2017/6-5/Wood Cross, UT/Dante Exum Elite).
The others: Hunter Thompson (2017/6-10/Pine Bluff, WY/DEE); Justin McCall (2017/6-4/Bakersfield Ridgeview/Gamepoint); Gio Nelson (2017/6-3/Corona Centennial/Gamepoint); Sebastian Much (2017/6-7/San Juan Capistrano, CA, JSerra/Dream Vision); Evan Battey (2017/6-7/Villa Park, CA/Dream Vision); Tyler Bay (2017 – fifth year/6-6/L.A. Cathedral Academy/Las Vegas Knicks); Kennedy Koehler (2017/6-7/Las Vegas Coronado/L.V. Knicks); Kihei Clark (2018/5-9/Woodland Hills, CA, Taft/L.A. Rockfish); Miles Oliver (2017/6-1/Etiwanda, CA/ICAN All-Stars); LaMelo Ball (2019/5-11/Chino Hills, CA/Big Ballerz); LiAngelo Ball (2017/6-5/Chino Hills, CA/Big Ballerz); Jaylen Hands (2017/6-3/San Diego Balboa/Compton Magic); Onyeka Okongwu (2019/6-8/Chino Hills, CA/Compton Magic); David Singleton (2018/6-3/Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery/Belmont Shore); Braxton Bertolette (2017/6-3/Ft. Collins, CO, Fossil Ridge/Colorado Hawks); Souley Boum (2017/6-3/Oakland Tech/Team Lillard); T.J. Starks (2017/6-1/Lancaster, TX/Urban DFW Elite).
16-Under
MOP – Matt Bradley (2018/6-4/San Bernardino, CA/Team Eleate).
The others: Chris Mullins (2018/6-3/Mansfield, TX Timberview/Urban DFW Elite; Larry Wise (2018/6-3/Waxahachie, TX/Urban DFW Elite); Robert Young (2018/6-2/San Diego Morse/Gamepoint); Max Guinn (2019/6-4/La Jolla Country Day/Gamepoint); Isaiah Mobley (2019/6-7/Temecula, CA, Rancho Christian).
15-Under
MOP – Rylan Jones (2019/6-0/Logan, UT/Dante Exum Elite).
The others: Ethan Anderson (2019/6-0/L.A. Fairfax/Dream Vision); Jake Kyman (2019/6-7/Santa Margarita, CA; Dream Vision); Isaac Johnson (2019/6-8/American Fork, UT/Dante Exum Elite); Matt Bender (2019/6-6/La Jolla, CA, Country Day School/Earl Watson Elite UAA).
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