LAS VEGAS – The Wednesday night basketball game in the Bishop Gorman High gymnasium did more than just “live up to” the hyperbole that had been building since the Team Takeover and Compton Magic squads proved themselves the best on the respective Nike/EYBL and adidas circuits:
It smoked that sucker.
Trailing by five points midway through the second half, the Magic got a gut-crunching 3 from out top by guard Isaiah Hill (Bakersfield Liberty) with 43 seconds to go to help send things into a five-minute overtime.
And the Southern California-based players hung on for an 81-79 decision in the Fab 48 Tip-Off Challenge, played in front of a reasonably stuffed gym and BallerTV streaming audience.
Truth be told, the game – with as many as eight or more of its participants strong candidates to be McDonald’s All-Americans in 2019 or ’20 – rendered the next four days of national grassroots events throughout the city nearly anti-climactic.
A combined three free throws by Temecula Rancho Christian High brothers Isaiah and Evan Mobley – sandwiched by a follow shot by Justin Moore (DeMatha High in Hyattsville, MD) proved the final points of the contest, Evan Mobley hitting one of two attempts with a second to go in OT.
It was the most eagerly anticipated “grassroots” basketball game to be played in many a July – the month in which current NCAA rules permit its Division I membership coaches to evaluate high school players in person in events like these over three five-day stretches.
This was a showdown that moved atop many a hoops junkie’s “wish list” shortly after Team Takeover (with its players coming from the Metro DC and surrounding areas) and Compton Magic captured the respective Peach Jam (South Carolina) and adidas Gauntlet (New York) event championship games on July 15.
Any logistics and/or political issues potentially preventing the Wednesday night matchup were apparently dispensed with, without any fuss or fanfare, behind the scenes by Fab 48 tri-directors Dinos Trigonis, Gary Charles and Grant Rice and the respective Compton Magic and Team Takeover decision makers, and the game was announced as “It’s On!” on Monday.
Fourteen other games were played prior to the Compton Magic-Team Takeover showdown and, on any other night and in any other July, the Each1Teach1 vs. Team Rio (Vernon Carey Jr and Scottie Barnes vs. Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine) clash would have been the headliner, as might have games involving the likes of lock 2019 McDonald’s All-Americans Cole Anthony (PSA Cardinals) and Kahlil Whitney (Mac Irvin).
Wednesday night, though, they were just the warm-up acts . . . appetizers, if you will, for the 5-Star hoops dining experience that was to conclude the evening.
The Magic never led by more than seven points (in the first half) and Takeover never by more than five (late in the first half and the aforementioned midway point of the second half).
And all of the programs’ stars were in alignment Wednesday night.
For Team Takeover, Jeremy Roach (Fairfax, VA, Paul VI) looked every bit the part of, perhaps, the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2020, directing his team’s half-court offense precisely while scoring a team high-20 points.
Future Villanova guard Justin Moore scored 12 points with nine of those coming in the first half before he was “reasonably contained” by Evan Mobley (more on him to come) after intermission.
Peach Jam Most Outstanding Player Armando Bacot (6-10, Richmond, VA, Trinity Episcopal) used his strength and deft footwork to scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while mostly being pitted against 2018 California Player of the Year Onyeka Okongwu.
And Anthony Harris (Roach’s Pius VI backcourt partner) scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half while often going right at – or around – the Mobley Brothers and Okongwu.
For the Compton Magic, Okongwu (Chino Hills; he was a freshman standout on the 2015-16, Lonzo Ball-led Chino Hills squad that went 35-0), gained about 20 pounds after being sidelined with an left ankle/Achilles issue from mid-March until a little more than two weeks ago.
Even his relative lack of stamina and timing couldn’t prevent him from scoring 16 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and collecting five blocked shots – while “altering” just as many Team Takeover attempts – Wednesday night.
The future USC Trojan forced Roach into a rushed, left-handed attempt over his outstretched right hand that missed at the buzzer in regulation.
Isaiah Mobley, another future Trojan (his dad, Eric Mobley, joined USC Head Coach Andy Enfield’s staff early in the spring), scored 10 points with eight rebounds, and hit an 18-footer that put his club up by five points in overtime.
Six-six Johnny Juzang (Studio City Harvard-Westlake) solidified his status as one over the best shooting guards/wings in the national Class of 2020, scoring 20 points while hitting eight of 11 shots from the floor – four of those from behind the arc.
And, finally, there was 6-11 Evan Mobley (PICTURED) who, throughout a night when so many future McD’s AAs and likely soon-to-be NBA lottery selections were on the Bishop Gorman floor, played and looked like the best player and long-term prospect in the building.
His ability to score, with either hand, over the top of Bacot and 7-foot Hunter Dickinson (DeMatha) via his remarkable quickness and bounce, with moves set up by stunning ball-handling skill, was uncanny.
He went for a game-high 22 points to go with four rebounds and two assists and had every set of eyes, court-side, focused on him whenever the ball was in his hands.
So that Wednesday night showdown is now the game to be measured against whenever a “Game of the Summer” is touted.
And, after coming out on top in the “it-was-every-bit-what-we-hoped-for” game, this Compton Magic squad can lay claim to being the Grassroots Team of 2018 – regardless of region or shoe company affiliation.
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