LAGUNA NIGUEL, Ca. – There were cool happenings, Southern California-wise, in Orange County on Sunday – the final day of the second July NCAA “live evaluation week” – for college coaching staffs and assorted other high school hoops aficionados.
Over at American Sports Centers – located in Anaheim, home to Disneyland, which, in a way, could be considered by many as “the most American of cities – the finals of the Double Pump Best of Summer Tournament were played.
In the top (17-Under Open) division, Riverside County-based Team ELEATE knocked off the Oakland area’s Team Lillard (formerly known as the Oakland Rebels), 75-65.
Six-foot-four Matt Bradley (San Bernardino High/Class of 2018), the unofficial “Most Outstanding Player” in the division, scored 17 points in the finale while recent high school graduate (JSerra in San Juan Capistrano Valley/he’s expected to attend a prep school in the coming academic year) Alec Hickman added 16.
Six-two Souley Boum (Oakland Tech), who played as well as anyone during the four-day event, led Team Lillard with 18 points against Team ELEATE.
Bradley scored 23 points during his team’s 60-49 semifinal victory against the Utah Basketball Club.
In the 16-Under division, the Inland Empire Basketball Club toppled Cal Supreme, 72-64, as Class of 18 guard Iysaiah Rojas (Los Osos in Rancho Cucamonga) scored 29 points and 6-5 junior-to-be forward Jeremiah Martin (Cajon) – who has received football scholarship offers from the likes of USC and Michigan – chipped in with 12 points for IEBP.
Junior-to-be forwards Kobe Smith (Gardena Serra) and Cyrus Johnson (Torrance Bishop Montgomery) led Cal Supreme with 16 and 12 points, respectively.
The Cal Supreme EYBL squad won the 15-Under division by knocking off the UBC team, 59-42.
Over at Westminster High (southwest of Anaheim), the Pangos Stars of the Future (Classes of 2020, 2019 and ’18; no seniors-to-be) was fronted by Etop Udo-Ema and his Compton Magic organization and the event was a showcase for many of the program’s top-flight prospects.
Among those included 2018 standouts Timmy Allen (Mesa, AZ, Desert Ridge), Harrison Butler (Santa Ana Mater Dei) and Jordan Starr (Northridge Heritage Christian); Onyeka Okongwu (Chino Hills), Isaiah Mobley (Temecula Rancho Christian) and Jarod Lucas (Hacienda Heights Los Altos) from the Class of 2019; and Johnny Juzang (Studio City Harvard-Westlake) and Evan Mobley (the brother of Isaiah Mobley/Temecula Rancho Christian), who will have significant impacts on their high school programs as freshmen in the coming season.
Okongwu, who shared national Freshman of the Year honors (via MaxPreps.com) with teammate Melo Ball while helping Chino Hills go 35-zip, was part of the event’s most compelling 1-on-1 (in a fashion) matchup when he and 2018’s Warren Washington (Escondido in San Diego County) hooked up much of the way in their respective second games of the day.
Okongwu scored in isolations against Washington the first three times the ball was in his possession. And that wasn’t all that surprising because Okongwu is pretty much too quick and too vertically explosive for Washington – or any other 6-8 and taller players in the 2019 or ’18 classes in the west, or beyond, to contain in those situations.
But Washington hung in there – even among the flurry of Okongwu dunks, layups, jump shots (including a 3) and blocked shots – and hit a 3 himself as well as a couple of other jumpers. He also had an impressive three-quarter-court outlet pass than led to a layup.
Butler (his jump shot is really improving, in both range and accuracy), Lucas and Juzang scored with borderline-absurd ease – largely because of their offensive skills but also, of course, because there wasn’t much in the way of collective or individual defense to prevent them from scoring so handily.
Here are some of the other kids who impressed me on Sunday (and this isn’t an all-inclusive list): 2018 – Taurus Samuels (6-0/Vista in San Diego County; one of the better point guards in the class in California), Rylan O’Brien (6-1/Tucson Salpointe; as good a jump shooter as was at the event), Treshon Smoots-Jones (6-0/Sacramento Grant; one of NorCal’s best in the class) and Jalen Washington (6-0/Torrance Bishop Montgomery; a bit under the radar on the likely preseason No. 1 team in the West). 2019 – Elijah Scranton (Sun Valley, CA, Village Christian; high-energy effort at both ends of the floor), Derrick Carter-Hollins (El Cajon, CA, Foothills Christian; sleeper!) and Ryan Langborg (San Diego County’s La Jolla Country; another one of the better shooters I saw Sunday).
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