ST. GEORGE, UTAH – The location may have changed by some 400 miles to the northeast.
But the first day of the Pangos All-West Frosh/Soph Camp, held at the Nets on Fire’s four-court facility, maintained the high-level of boys’ high school basketball players that the annual event normally showcases at Southern California sites.
The move, of course, was necessitated because of the California restrictions for indoor gathering and athletic competition in the current COVID-10 climate.
One of the highlights of Saturday’s action was a match-up of two of the better “big” prospects, regardless of class standing, in the west.
Six-foot-11 Jazz Gardner, who had a terrific freshman season for Hacienda Heights (CA) Los Altos, helped his “Pepperdine” camp team knock off “Gonzaga” in one of last of the 24 games contested in four, four-game “sets” games played Saturday.
That win camedespite the strong effort of 7-1 freshman Khaman Maker Jr. (Las Vegas Desert Valley Prep/from Sudan).
Maker (pictured) unofficially blocked a half-dozen shots, a couple of those attempts by Gardner.
The camp attracted 240 players, including a smattering of some of the better eighth-graders (Class of 2025) located at western-based middle schools.
There were the usual strong pools of players from Southern California, notably including St. Bernard Class of 2023 guards Darius Carr and Tyler Rolison; Bishop Montgomery sophomores Xavier Edmonds and Will Smith III (the best perimeter defender I watched Saturday night); and 6-7 Harvard-Westlake sophomore Brady Dunlap (who attended Hart as a freshman).
And two of the better sophomores in Northern California also each had a dose of often-spectacular plays in their respective games – the last of those Saturday night while on opposing teams.
Six-five Courtney Anderson – who attended Salesian in Richmond as a freshman but has since relocated to another quality Bay Area-based program, Dublin – and Smith combined to help their “BYU” team knock off “Long Beach State”.
That team was led by 6-7 Tyler Harris (Newark Memorial), who had some high-flying finishes inside the lane despite being hounded by the no-nonsense defense of Smith.
Each of the camp squads will play once apiece Sunday morning, before the camp is set to close with all-star games at 1 (MT) and 2 p.m.
BallerTV is live-streaming and archiving each of the games.
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