GILBERT, Az. – The second and final day of the End of Summer Showcase looks to be highlighted by an 11:30 Sunday morning clash between what would have been two of the finest west coast-based 17s club basketball teams in “normal” (non-COVID 19) circumstances.
Vegas Elite (a member of the Nike-fronted EYBL program) and Washington Supreme (part of Under Armor’s grassroots program) hook up on court 7 in the Inspires Courts facility in this Phoenix suburb.
The game will be live-streamed by BallerTV, as will the other 35 games played that get underway at 9:30 PT.
Vegas Elite (which knocked off Northern California-based Team Arsenal, 68-62, and San Diego’s Gamepoint, 83-59, Saturday) is paced by a terrific set of guards in Richard Isaacs Jr. (Las Vegas by way of Wasatch Academy in Utah) and Zaon Collins (who recently committed to UNLV and is a senior at Bishop Gorman).
Isaacs (pictured), while playing for Belmont Shore, was one of the five best performers during last weekend’s Pangos Rocky Mountain Showcase in St. George, UT.
He’s one of the Top-5 point guards in the national Class of 2022.
Vegas also has one of the top scorers in the national Class of 2021 in 6-foot-8 Arthur Kaluma (the Dallas area by way of Dream City Christian in Arizona).
Washington Supreme is led by two Class of 2021 front-court players who’ve already committed to universities in 6-10 Jackson Grant of Olympia (University of Washington) and 6-8 Tyson Deganhart of Mount Spokane (Boise State).
And one of the best jump shooters in any class of high school, 6-5 John Christofilis (Seattle O’Dea, where he’s a teammate of 6-10, Duke-bound Paolo Banchero), was 10 of 14 on 3s in the team’s wins over Team Arsenal (64-60) and Arizona Firestorm (78-62).
Other Saturday standouts included:
*Malik Thomas, the 6-4, USC-bound senior at Damien (La Verne), who scored 22 points while I watched him play for Oxnard-based Team Build Up (he’s a member of Compton Magic, which hasn’t played in a summer event other than its “Magic Bubble” a few weeks ago) New Mexico D1;
*Class of 2022 standout point guard Aidan Mahaney (Moraga, Campolindo) for Northern California’s Team GRRR!!;
*One of Northern California’s best 2021 point guards, Yaru Harvey (Sacramento Shelton but he’s going to play as a senior for the new Southern California Academy club program), impressed when I watched the NorCal Ducks in a win against Seattle Select;
*One more Saturday standout among 2022 point-guard prospects was Tavionte Jackson (Las Vegas High) of the Nevada Hard 2 Guard 16s. Props to Bruce Williams of PrepHoops.com for the heads up on Jackson.
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