Burlison on Basketball

Frank Burlison | High School Basketball | College Basketball

Isaiah Wong leads team to UAA semifinals

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HENDERSON, Nev. – The West Coast Elite 17U squad was led by one of the nation’s best – and, perhaps, the best – point guards and one of the region’s most underrated prospects from the Class of 2019.

But those elements were quite enough to enable the Southern California-based squad to overcome WeR1 Thursday night at Coronado High in a key pool-play matchup in the Under Armour Association Finals.

The 63-58 victory moved WeR1 (made up of players from in and around Philadelphia) into a Friday afternoon (2:45) championship semifinal game against an opponent to be determined by final pool-play action Friday morning.

WCE, which was led by point guard Nico Mannion (Phoenix Pinnacle) and 6-foot-4 do-it-all prospect Oscar Lopez (Torrance, CA, Bishop Montgomery), saw its season comes to a conclusion with the defeat.

The final six pool-place games in the 17U division gets underway at 8:30 Friday morning at Coronado, with the semifinals being contested in the “main” and “auxiliary” gyms at 2:45 and the championship game at 7 o’clock.

The 16U playoff quarterfinals are scheduled for 12:15 and 1:30 in the afternoon, the semis at 4 and 5:15, and the title contest at 8:45.

In the 17U division, WCE opened pool competition with impressive wins over Anthony Edwards-led Atlanta Express on Wednesday night and SportsU (New Jersey-area players) on Thursday morning.

WeR1 dispatched SportsU Wednesday night and Atlanta Express (despite by 31 points and seven assists from Class of 2020 standout Edwards), 70-67, Thursday morning.

In the showdown of 2-0 squads – and with only the winner moving into the championship round – it was WeR1, led by its own superb 2019-point guard in Isaiah Wong (Monsignor Bonner in Philadelphia) that was able to move to just two steps away from UAA championship hardware.

Wong was credited with 19 points, four rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers while teammates Alexander Rice – from the Class of 2018 but apparently prep school-bound – added 21 points (with five 3s) and Villanova-bound, low-post tower of power Eric Dixon (Abington High, just outside of Philadelphia proper) added 11 points with four rebounds and a couple of blocked shots.

Another WCE standout, Josh Green (IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL, by way of Arizona and Australia), who was in street clothes with an undisclosed physical issue) wasn’t on the floor and he is one of the more explosive athletes in the Class of 2019.

Minus his ability to finish in traffic and nail jump shots after Mannion passes, WCE wasn’t able to overcome Wong & Co., despite dazzling performances by Mannion (18 points, 12 by way of 3s, and three assists) and Lopez (17 points and four rebounds).

Mannion, who recently moved back into the Class of 2019 (he repeated the eighth grade), has Arizona, Duke, Kentucky, Villanova and Marquette among his “short list” of college finalists and Arizona Coach Sean Miller and assistant Mark Phelps were among the dozens of coaches in the crown for that contest.

Among the other head coaches in the stands were Bill Self (Kansas), Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Patrick Ewing (Georgetown and Jim Larranaga (Miami).

It’s probably reasonably safe to assume each of those guys were watching Wong with more than just passing (yeah, put intended) interest.

It’s unlikely any prospect in Southern California from the Class of 2019 has seen his “stock” with college coaches climb as rapidly this spring and summer as has Lopez.

And, after his performances of Wednesday and Thursday, that isn’t going to change.

 

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