LAS VEGAS – Class of 2022 post Jaxon Kohler’s performance Sunday afternoon was a precise, on-court definition of dominating while he led the West to the championship of the second Pangos All-American Festival 4 in the Ampus Academy Gymnasium.
Kohler, from Utah but set to play for his fourth prep program in Southern California Academy, used his size (6-foot-8ish and 240 pounds or so), strength, unparalleled footwork, deep bag of ball and head fakes, shooting touch and – especially – patience to score 53 points as the West toppled its East counterpart, 133-112.
And it wasn’t like Kohler man-handled a bunch of future college intramural players.
He was mostly defending by a couple of Orlando, FL-based players in 6-10, 245-pound Ernest Udeh (Phillips High) and 6-7, 225-pound Ven-Allen Lubin (Orlando Christian) – each of which has a multitude of scholarship offers from both Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conference programs.
Both – like Kohler – were standouts at the two most-high profile camps of the summer, the Pangos All-American (also in Las Vegas, Jun 6-8) and the NBPA Top 100 (July 27-30 in at Disneyworld in Orlando).
Kohler, who hit 20 of 30 shots from the floor (including a couple of 3s), 11 of 12 free throws and grabbed 23 rebounds, also has a bevy of college opportunities and is set to make an official visit to the USC campus shortly.
Joining the patently obvious choice as the event’s Most Outstanding Player on the all-Pangos AAF team were his West teammates Collin Chandler (a guard from Farmington, UT, who had 16 points, 10 assists and three steals) and Jaylen Thompson (a forward and SCA teammate of Kohler, he hit six 3s Sunday en route to 24 points).
Joining Udeh and Lubin as all-event selections from the East was 6-foot-4 point-guard Fabio Basili (from Oakridge High in Orlando; his father is Italian and mother Nigerian).
No player in the two-day event did more to enhance his standing among college recruiters and those who compile national and regional “ratings” (he’s nowhere to be found in any Class of 2022 Top 100 lists) than Basili, who was credited with 27 points and eight assists while mostly locked into a nifty confrontation with Chandler.
In the third-place game that tipped at noon Sunday, the Midwest knocked off the South, 114-94.
All-Pangos selections from that game were guard Trey Pettigrew (Chicago Kenwood Academy) and forward Aidan Shaw (Blue Valley High in Stillwell, KS) of the Midwest and forward Jordan Walsh (he’s from Dallas but will play as a senior with Kohler and Thompson at SoCal Academy) of the South.
No player other than Kohler was more impressive Sunday than Shaw, who hit 11 of 15 shots from the field (including three 3s) while accruing game-bests of 26 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.
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