PHILADELPHIA – What appears to be a deep, tall and gifted eastern-based Class of 2026 was on display, front and center, during Saturday’s first day of the annual Pangos All-East/Frosh-Soph Camp in the St. Joseph’s Prep Kelly Fieldhouse.
Nearly 240 freshmen (Class of 2026) and sophomores (2025) – with a few impressive eighth graders sprinkled in the mix – were spread over 24 camp teams that played twice apiece.
Camp action – with all games live-streamed and archived by BallerTV – resumes at 9 o’clock Sunday morning and concludes with a couple of afternoon all-star games.
Six-foot-seven A.J. Debantsa (St. Sebastian in Needham, MA), based upon his strong performance during the USA Basketball high school workouts in Colorado Springs two weekends ago , came into Philadelphia as the most nationally “hyped” of the freshmen.
And he showed a lot of the reasons for those accolades during his second game with “VCU” Saturday evening on the center of three courts being used for the camp, blocking a jump shot by 6-7 A.J. Williams, racing to the rim in transition for a high-flying jam, leaping over a crowd on a follow of his own miss and nailing a deep 3.
But Williams (Bergen Catholic in Oradell, NJ), playing for “LaSalle”, turned in a couple of quality performances himself Saturday, while going mostly head-up with Debantsa, freeing himself for a couple of clean jumpers and nifty drives and finishes.
They were far from the only standouts from the class Saturday.
The tallest – and, perhaps, most compelling – of the prospects on display was Keiner Asprilla, a 7-footer who hasn’t been in the U.S. long after migrating from Colombia.
Asprilla (pictured) made a gifted freshman from Philadelphia, 6-7 Winni Matta (Father Judge), look almost small although Matta played anything but that against his opponent from Don Bosco in the Boston area.
Matta went after him relentlessly with his quickness, strength and guile.
But Asprilla was part of four or five “oh, my” sequences that offered prime examples of his effort, quickness, strength and fluidity, including beating a much smaller opponent to a loose ball near mid-court and then – seemingly – covering 40 feet in three dribbles for a crunching dunk.
There were also quality Class of 2026s forwards from as far away as Cleveland (6-8 T.J. Crumble, Lutheran East) and Rock Hill in South Carolina (6-6 Elton James of Legion Collegiate Academy), and a bunch of New York guards of note from the class, including Jordan Skyers (Cardinal Hayes in the Bronx), Josh Powell (Archbishop Molloy in Queens) and Jasiah Jervis (Archbishop Stepinac in White Plains).
Two of the most impressive sophomores on Day 1 were VCU “teammates” of Debantsa, 6-0 Danny Carbuccia (and does Stepinac have some guards or what?) and 6-5 Barrett Loer (by way of St. George’s in Newport, RI).
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