FULLERTON, Ca. – Five years ago the first-ever Pangos Junior All-American Camp, for middle school and elementary school players, produced eventual McDonald’s All-Americans in DeAndre Ayton, Billy Preston (2017) and Jordan Brown (2018), as well as 2017 California State Player of the Year Ethan Thompson.
It’s much too early to be making projections on which of the kids who attended the sixth version of the camp Saturday and Sunday at Fullerton Community College will be 2022 or ’23 McDonald’s AA selections.
But there is no hesitation in suggesting that a whole lot of guys who were on hand will be terrific high school players eventually – some a lot sooner than later.
Along with California, Las Vegas, Washington, Nebraska, Arkansas, New York and Pennsylvania were also represented on the camp’s “Best of the Best” all-star game that wrapped up even Sunday afternoon.
So were Cameroon and the Dominican Republic, by way of eighth-graders Henri Adiassa and Randi Ovalle (PICTURED), who are middle school students at St. Monica and San Gabriel Academy, respectively.
The six-foot-six Ovalle was the Best of Best game’s most impressive performer before going to the sidelines with a sprain to his left ankle in the second half.
Six-nine and 240-pound (give or take) Adiassa nearly ripped the rip out of the backboard glass on a few of his dunks Sunday. But, as a relative newcomer to competitive basketball (he’s supposedly been playing for less than a year), he isn’t quite as polished, fundamentally, as many of the other standouts in the camp.
Among the other eighth-graders in attendance, frontcourt players who impressed included 6-5 Ramel Lloyd Jr. (Sierra Canyon) and fellow SoCal resident Jorge Ochoa along with Kalief Crawley (Philadelphia), Massia Graham (Buffalo), Tyler Linhardt (Shoreline, WA) and Anthony Scott (San Diego).
Lloyd’s dad, former Long Beach State-standout Rock Lloyd, is an assistant to Andre Chevalier for the Sierra Canyon high school program.
Among the better “point guard-types” in the Class of 2022 at the camp were Richard Isaacs Jr. (Las Vegas), Skyy Clark and Ben Shtolzberg (each of which attends middle school at Heritage Christian Northridge), Joseph Hunter (Madera, near Fresno), Isaac Peralta (Laguna Niguel), Deshawn Stevens (Los Angeles) and Jahmed Brown (Philadelphia).
Eighth-grade guards who also shot quite well Sunday (when I watched) included Quinten Hupp (Lincoln in Nebraska), Benny Gaeler (Palos Verdes), Alex Bossinakis (Colleyville, TX), Niko Jones (Clovis), Trajon Cong (San Diego), Brandon Perez (Heritage Christian), along with Arkansas products Nick Smith Jr. and Derrien Ford.
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