DOWNEY, Ca. — The Southern California junior and senior classes were represented by just 21 players at the Beach City Hoops (aka, videographer-extraordinaire Alex Carmon) SoCal Clash Saturday night at Apollo Park.
But the three-game event was exhibit A in the “it’s quality over quantity” basketball evaluation perspective.
Six-foot-nine Zyier Beverly (Washington Prep/he moved back to SoCal, from Florida, earlier in the summer) and 6-8 Marcus Adams (back at Narbonne after a year at a prep school in Corona) shared Most Outstanding Player honors.
Beverly (who might have smashed a dozen dunks in his two games) and Adams (pictured/with a nifty combination of skill and power) demonstrated why they’ve joined junior Tyler Hunt of Venice as front-runners for the 2023 L.A. City Open Division Player of the Year tag five months before it will actually be awarded.
The Class of 2023 was well-repped Saturday night – although its 11-player squad fell to its 2024 counterpart in the final game, 61-46.
*Point guards Jimmy Baker (Etiwanda) and Shadale Knight (Rancho Cucamonga), teammates on the Prodigy Elite club program, have had some nifty head-up battles in the Baseline League the past two years – and could also compete for the league’s MVP honor in 2023, too.
*Anthony Ivey (6-4) and Malik Olafioye (6-3), newcomers to St. Monica and St. Paul, respectively, showed Saturday night why they will be targeted by a lot of Division I college programs once those coaches get a chance to look at them this fall and winter.
*Six-five Mikah Ballew, who had a strong spring and summer with the BTI club program, scored from the perimeter and inside the lane equally efficiently.
The transfer from Alemany will help Valencia become one of the most improved teams in Southern California this season.
*Three more transfers who were on display Saturday were guards Darius Carr (St. Bernard to Southern California Academy) and Troy Jones (Windward to Narbonne) and 6-7 Bowen Hammer (St. George, UT, Snow Canyon to Anaheim Fairmont Prep).
Hammer, a standout for the Las Vegas Knicks’ club program, was one of the event’s standouts while drilling deep jumpers and dunking about as often and as impressively as did Beverly and Adams.
*Six-four Ariik Mawien (Capistrano Valley Christian) showed off the defensive and offensive skills that will keep him on the short list of candidates for Orange County Player of the Year.
*Wrapping up that crew was 6-3 guard Kris Gonzalez of Chula Vista Mater Dei Catholic, a starter in the spring and summer for the Oakland Soldiers EYBL team and one of the three or four best seniors in San Diego County.
The Class of 2024 squad had four players from San Diego: 6-2 Lolo Rudolph (St. Augustine), 6-8 Ryan Enos (Cathedral Catholic) and 6-7 Charlie Hutchinson and 6-2 Marcos Korch (both from Mission Bay).
Rudolph continues tracking as one of the very best of the western junior point guards.
*Another of SoCal’s top 2024 point guards, Aidan Fowler, jetted past defenders on the dribble and also shot 3s over the same guys.
One of his JSerra teammates, 6-5 Jel Drew, was also on the 2024 squad.
And two other junior standouts Saturday night were 6-2 Aliaun Iscandari (Campbell Hall) and 6-7 DeShawn Gory (Oak Hills).
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