SCOTTSDALE, Az. – The “showcase” game of Thursday’s first day of the three-day HoopHall West at Chaparral High was undoubtedly the nationally televised clash between Phoenix Pinnacle and Fresno San Joaquin Memorial.
And the two standouts for each team – yeah, the only reasons, in reality, the game was getting the ESPN treatment – delivered the goods, with Pinnacle’s Nico Mannion and SJM’s Jalen Green scoring 33 often-spectacular points apiece.
But it was Mannion (PICTURED) – the University of Arizona-bound, best point guard in the Class of 2019 – and the rest of the Pioneers who cruised to an eased-up, 90-69, victory over the squad from the central portion of California.
In the two games that wrapped around that clash, the host Firebirds were barely challenged by Henderson (NV) Liberty, 64-51, in the opener and then another Las Vegas-are program – Clark – knocked off another Phoenix-area club, Surprise (no kidding – that’s the name of the city the school is located in) Paradise Honors, 80-58.
In hindsight, a Clark-Pinnacle meeting would have been much more competitive than the “showcase” game was.
The start of that tilt must have had the TV viewership giddy – that was certainly the cased inside the gym, that was about three-quarters full.
Green opened things with a big slam after 6-foot-11 Braxton Meah controlled the opening center jump.
Then things turned into Green-Mannion shootout that so many showed up, or clicked on their remotes, to see.
Green added 15 more points in the first quarter, with nine of those coming on three 3s in a row.
And Mannion drilled four of his own 3s on his first five shot attempts and went on to two-up Green with a 20-piece for the first eight minutes.
But Mannion’s teammates chipped in with nine points of their own – five of those assisted by Mannion – while Green’s only scoring assistance came via an “And 1!” by Jaden Geron late in the quarter.
Hence, the Pioneers took an eight-point advantage into the second quarter.
Mannion’s passes led to 3s by four different teammates in the second stanza with his only make in four attempts also a 3 as Mannion & Co. pushed the advantage to 16 points (49-33) at intermission.
Senior guard Trent Brown (a terrific shooter who finished with 14 points) took the initial challenge of trying to make scoring difficult for the high-flying Green, likely the top shooting guard prospect in the national class of 2020.
Junior Marcus Libman – apparently, also a standout football receiver – was shifted onto Green and he did about as good a job as just about anyone on the high school level could do in limiting his touches and contesting his jump shots.
Green missed 10 of his next 13 shots from the field, before finishing with three consecutive transition dunks (the last two of those after Pinnacle Coach Charlie Wilde pulled all of his starters).
The 6-5 Green finished 11 of 22 from the field (including four 3s, the last of which was his only second-quarter bucket) and seven of nine on free throws to go with five rebounds, two assists and two turnovers.
Green also tried to guard Mannion, straight up, to start the contest and that, obviously, didn’t work out well and SJM Coach Brad Roznovsky pretty much gave everyone a shot at it the rest of the way while also running a variety of traps at Mannion as well.
Mannion cooled off a tad after the first quarter while finishing 13 of 23 from the field and hitting his only two free throws (to cap “And 1s!” in the first quarter) to go with 11 assists, five rebounds and just one turnover three minutes into play.
Libman (13 points) and junior center Tosh Baker (14 to go with eight rebounds) joined Mannion and Brown as double-figure scorers while freshman JoJo Hunter, who missed his first five shots, scored nine of his 12 points in the second half give SJM its only other scorer to crack double figures.
Mannion and his pals figure to have much rougher sledding Saturday night at 7 o’clock against Rancho Christian (led by Isaiah and Evan Mobley), one of the three or four best teams in California.
Rancho Christian takes on Chicago Simeon at 4:30 in one of the five games set for Friday’s second day of play.
In the first game played Thursday, senior guard Blaise Threatt (son of former NBA guard Sedale Threatt) led four Chaparral players who scored from 18 to nine points in the balanced attack.
Touted 6-6 junior Julian Strawther scored 30 points for Liberty but it took 27 shots from the floor (he sank 11 of them, including five 3s) to ring up that many.
He also grabbed four rebounds to go with four steals and five turnovers.
Sophomore guard Frankie Collins scored 13 points in the third quarter (all five field goals and each of his three free throws) and finished with 19 for Clark in the finale.
Collins’ teammate Jalen Hill (a 6-6 forward who signed with the University of Oklahoma last month) added 23 points with five rebounds.
Senior guard Josh Hawkins led Paradise honors with 20 points.
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