CARTERSVILLE, Ga. – Some highlights from Friday night’s action in the Lakepoint Sporting Community Champions Center, on Day 1 of session No. 3 of the Nike/Elite Youth Basketball League:
JAY WRIGHT’S next elite jump shooter was on display during the first session (6:30) of games Friday night.
Six-foot-four Justin Moore (Hyattsville, MD, DeMatha), a recent commitment for Villanova from the Class of 2019, nailed four consecutive 3s in the first half to help Team Takeover (Washington, DC-area) cruise to a double-figure lead and eventually knock off the PSA Cardinals (New York), 81-69.
Moore finished with 26 points (and was credited with hitting 10 of 11 shots, five of six of those from behind the arc) while his DeMatha teammate, 7-foot left hander Hunter Dickinson (2020), got three early buckets and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
And Class of 2020 point guard Jeremy Roach (Pius VI Catholic in Virginia) scored 11 points – hitting three 3s – to go with seven assists.
One of the very best guard prospects in the Class of 2019, Cole Anthony (Archbishop Molloy in New York), helped keep PSA reasonably close in the second half and finished with 29 points despite not jump shooting particularly well while missing 11 of 18 shots from the floor.
Another of the better point guard-types in the class, quick-and-slick Joe Toussaint (Brooklyn Cardinal Hayes), scored only five points but was credited with nine assists and four steals for PSA.
Athletes of Tomorrow (Georgia) trailed “Why Not?” (the Russell Westbrook-fronted group from SoCal; the 2017 NBA MVP was sitting on his team’s bench Friday night) by 17 points early in the second half before methodically chipping away at its deficit and pulling out a 73-66 victory.
A key element in that comeback was the defensive play of 6-10 Babatunde Akingbola (one of eight players from Powder Springs in McEachern on the AOT roster).
Akingbola was credited with six blocked shots but it seemed as if he swatted (or, at least, significantly altered) twice that many.
Class of 2020 guard Sharife Cooper (also from Powder Springs) was too for the Why Not guards to stay in front of during that second-half stretch and he was credited with 23 points and seven assists.
But the best player on the floor, for AOT or Why Not, was 6-6 Isaac Okoro (yes, another Powder Springs student) who demonstrated why he’s one of the better “wings” in the Class of 2019 while scoring 22 points to go with four assists and four rebounds.
Cassius Stanley (one of four players from California State Open Division Champion Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth in Southern California on the EYBL circuit this spring) led Why Not with 16 points.
THE LAS VEGAS Prospects trailed Team Melo (MD) by 21 points late in the first half but held several leads late in the second half.
And that lead stood at three points with 12.4 seconds to go before 5-10 Jalen Rucker (Gilman School) was fouled by the Prospects’ Jaelen House (Phoenix Shadow Mountain) while missing an attempt from behind the arc.
Rucker knocked in each of the three free throws and Josh Christopher (Lakewood, CA, Mayfair), who played for The Truth during the first two EYBL sessions, missed a shot that would have won it for The Prospects.
And Team Melo scored the first bucket in the four-minute OT and went on to prevail, 96-90, as Rucker (27) and backcourt mate Jay Heath (22) combined for 49 points.
ISAAC STEWART (La Lumiere in LaPorte, IN) is among the very best of the low-post players in the Class of 2019.
And that was quite evident to those who watched him lead The Albany City Rocks (New York) past Seattle Rotary in another OT clash, 76-73.
Stewart crushed it under the backboards while grabbing 14 rebounds and muscling his way to 16 points.
ON THE TOPIC of “muscling”, that’s what Vernon Carey (Ft. Lauderdale University) did with a bit more than a second to go while helping Nike Team Florida head the Oakland Soldiers, 63-62.
With his team trailing by a point, DeAntoni Gordon missed on drive from the left side for Team Florida but Carey (who goes, oh, about 6-9 and 270 or so pounds) ripped the ball away from The Soldiers Kenyon Martin Jr. and powered in the follow for the tying and go-ahead points.
The Soldiers were awarded a timeout with .6 tics to go but weren’t able to get off a makeable attempt before the buzzer sounded.
Carey went for 27 points and 10 rebounds while guard Boogie Ellis (San Diego Mission Bay) led The Soldiers with 17 points.
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