CHANDLER, Az. – Some future Southeastern Conference players came through in a big way Sunday afternoon while leading the South squad to victory over its West counterpart in the championship game of the first-ever Pangos All-American Festival.
And the most notable of those was 6-foot-9 Jabari Smith, no doubt bound for future stardom for Bruce Pearl’s University of Auburn program.
Smith (pictured) – who attends Sandy Creek High in Tyrone, about 30 miles south of Atlanta – scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds to help the South to a 98-89 victory over a West club that included a future SEC player of its own.
Smith, whose play down the stretch helped his team rally past the Midwest Saturday evening, headed the event’s 10-member all-event selections as the Most Valuable Player.
And, as mentioned earlier, the SEC was “repped”, big time, in that finale.
Smith got plenty of help from:
*Six-nine Daimion Collins (Atlanta, TX), bound for the University of Kentucky, who scored nine points with three blocked shots;
*Jerrell Colbert (Houston in the Memphis suburb of Germantown), a 6-9 post committed to LSU, had a team-high 12 rebounds with six points;
*and 6-4 Jahmai Mashack (Etiwanda in Southern California), bound for the University of Tennessee, chipped in with nine points, four rebounds, three assists and solid perimeter defense.
And the SEC “presence” in the title game didn’t end with the South team.
Six-two guard Nolan Hickman (who is from the Seattle area but is playing as a senior at Wasatch Academy in Utah), did his best to keep the West within striking distance while scoring 28 points with four assists and three steals. He’s expected to join Collins in Kentucky’s 2021-22 freshman class.
Hickman’s Nike-EYBL Seattle Rotary teammate, 6-10 Paolo Banchero, cranked out 17 points and 13 rebounds despite facing the formidable defensive tag-team of Smith, Collins and Colbert.
Turning in second consecutive quality efforts for the South were guards Ty Ty Washington (who attends Compass Prep, where the games were held in this Phoenix suburb) and Trey Alexander (Heritage Hall in Oklahoma City), who split 32 points Sunday.
In the third-place contest, the Midwest overwhelmed its East counterpart, 146-107.
And the performance of 7-foot Chet Holmgren (Minnehaha in Minneapolis) of the Midwest was even more mind-boggling than it was in his team’s narrow loss to the South Saturday.
Holmgren went for 25 points, 19 rebounds, 14 blocked shots and five assists.
Yep, you read correctly: 25, 19, 14 and five.
His two-game averages: 22.5, 14.5, 12.5 and 4.5.
Damn! He is so gifted . . .
The All-Pangos All-American Festival selections (courtesy myself and Ronnie Flores of Ball Is Life):
Jabari Smith (MVP)
Trey Alexander
Paolo Banchero
Kobe Bufkin (Grand Rapids, MI, Christian/MIDWEST)
Daimion Collins
Rahsool Diggins (Philadelphia Archbishop Wood/EAST)
Nolan Hickman
Chet Holmgren
Shane Nowell (Sammamish, WA, East Side Catholic/WEST)
Ty Ty Washington
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