HAMPTON, Va. – The Minnesota-based Howard Pulley team improved to 10-0 during the third weekend of Nike Elite Youth Basketball League play on Saturday in the Boo Williams Athletic Complex.
The squad could have just as easily come out of the day at 8-2, though.
Howard Pulley needed four-minute overtimes to knock off Georgia’s Southern Stampede, 85-82, Saturday morning, and then another extra period – and a fortuitous foul call with ninth-tenths of a second to go in OT – to overcome Southern California’s Cal Supreme, 92-91, some eight or so hours later.
The first of those games nearly ended before the overtime, with Southern Stampede in possession of the basketball and with its best player, 6-foot-2 Colin Sexton (/Mableton, GA, Pebblebrook) being checked by his counterpart, 6-5 Gary Trent Jr. (Apple Valley, MN, High)
The contest proved to be quite the nifty platform for each to demonstrate why he is among the best scorers in the Class of 2017, with Sexton eventually finishing with 33 points (via 10 of 18 attempts from the field, including three of five behind the arc, and 10 of 12 free throws) and Trent with 46 (courtesy 15 of 31 from the field, including six of 14 attempts from beyond 3-point range, and 10 of 12 free throws).
On that final Southern Stampede passion of regulation, his four teammates spread the floor (following a timeout with 20.6 seconds to go) allowing Sexton as much room as possible to maneuver against the coverage of Trent.
But Trent provided a near-textbook example of sound man-to-man defense, creating enough of a gap between he and Sexton but closing out with right hand high and feet on the floor to contest a Sexton attempt from 3 from the right wing that missed a second or two before the buzzer.
With junior-to-be point guard Tre Jones (an Apple Valley teammate of Trent’s) inactive while on the bench with an ice pack on the broken right thumb suffered in the clash against the Cal Supreme, the lads from sunny – most of the time, at least – Southern California did a much better job of making scoring come tough for Trent that most EYBL defenses have done in two seasons.
The Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery seniors-to-be Jordan Schakel and Ethan Thompson and terrific freshman Cassius Stanley (Studio City, CA, Harvard-Westlake) did a fine job of navigating the multitude of screens Howard Pulley sets for Trent, while overplaying his strong (right) hand and holding him to seven of 21 shooting from the field and only 20 points.
And Howard Pulley had to cope while facing the best set of post players on any team part of any high school-aged spring and summer travel squad in the U.S. of A (and, I’m guessing, beyond) with San Diego Cathedral Catholic’s Brandon McCoy and Phoenix Hillcrest’s DeAndre Ayton combing for 47 points, 19 rebounds, seven assists and four blocked shots.
But 6-2 Brad Davison (Maple Grove, MN, High) elevated his Howard Pulley contributions with Jones anchored to the bench and with Trent being held in relative check so well by Cal Supreme’s collection of determined defenders.
And that’s the biggest understatement I will have uttered or written during my weekend in Virginia.
Howard Pulley trailed by, or near, double-figure margins through most of the first half and by as many as four points in the final minute of regulation.
Davison, however, used the situation as a nifty opportunity to make a figurative statement on why he is among the most underrated of standouts on the EYBL circuit.
After Saturday evening, though, that’s probably no longer the case.
Davison, often beating Cal Supreme in transition and finishing in spectacular fashion when he wasn’t banging in deep jumpers (he was five of seven from behind the arc), finished with 37 points, eight rebounds, nine assists and two steals.
This is a guard who can play, and successfully, somewhere in the Big Ten Conference and in a whole lot of other “power” (as nebulous as that description can be at times) conferences, as well.
It was his final three points that capped the remarkable – and, no doubt, exhausting – Saturday for Howard Pulley.
With his team trailing by two points in overtime and about seven seconds remaining coming out of a timeout, Davison worked himself free on the deep right wing but missed a 3-point attempt.
But, after falling to the floor on the attempt, Davison was awarded three free throws when an official whistled Thompson for a foul with the aforementioned nine-tenths of a tic to go.
Swish . . . swish . . . and swish and Howard Pulley was 10-zip going into its Sunday morning (9:30) scheduled game with King James of Ohio.
Another Midwest-based squad, the Spiece Indy (Indianapolis) Heat, was also 2-0 on Saturday by way of decisions against Expressions of Massachusetts (78-75) and the Phoenix Phamily (87-78).
Rugged post Xavier Tillman (Grand Rapids, MI, Christian) went for 21 points and 11 rebounds in the first game while guard Justin Roberts (Indianapolis Pike) added 21 points and five assists.
Roberts rounded out his Saturday nicely with 22 points against the Arizona-based Phoenix Phamily (which includes four players from Southern California’s Chatsworth Sierra Canyon).
But a significant factor in the win over the Phamily (I wonder if the late David Bowie’s classic “Fame” will one day be reincarnated as “Phame”?) was the performance of 6-10 Jaren Jackson (Indianapolis Park Tudor).
He out-played the Phamily (and Sierra Canyon) post duo of Marvin Bagley III (the consensus No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2018 had 12 points and eight rebounds before fouling out with about four or so minutes to go) and Cody Riley (a left-handed senior-to-be who scored 19 points but was credited with only two rebounds).
Jackson scored 23 points (hitting three of five attempts from behind the arc) with six rebounds and a couple of blocked shots.
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