MESA, AZ — The West Coast Elite program’s 17s, 16s and 15s squad won a combined four of their five games during Friday’s first day of Session 1 of the Under Armour Next boys’ basketball grassroots circuit.
And, with Friday morning-to-Sunday afternoon making up the first of two “live spring recruiting weekends” for NCAA Division I-affiliated programs, there were plenty of college coaches on hand to watch the respective teams’ — and players’ — performances.
Action resumes Saturday morning at 8 o’clock in the spiffy — and, yeah, mammoth — 16-court Legacy Sports Center Fieldhouse in this sprawling Phoenix suburb.
The WCE 17s and 16s — made up of many of the better Southern California-based players — were each 2-zip Friday.
And the 17s squad, led by a couple of Class of 2024 guards who were standouts on CIF Southern Section Open Division teams in 2022-23 (Jack Turner of Bellflower St. John Bosco and speedy and slick Darrell Morris of Valencia West Ranch), used quality second-half performances to knock off Global Squad (based in Maryland) and Martin Brothers of Iowa, 76-65 and 60-55, respectively.
WCE got a go-ahead, 3-point jumper by 6-foot-6 junior Nasir Meyer (an all-CIFSS selection at Agoura High last season), to help secure its win against the Iowa squad Friday evening.
It also got quality efforts over both games out of 6-5 Vyctorius Miller and 6-5 Kyelin King.
Miller was an all-CIFSS, Open Division selection as a sophomore at Crean Lutheran in Irvine but spent his just-concluded junior campaign at Compass Prep in another Phoenix Suburb, Chandler.
The left-handed King helped Lincoln High to a Division II title and 30-3 as one of top juniors in the San Diego Section of the CIF.
The WCE 16s’ squad victories came by even more decisive margins — of 20 and 24 points — against the Illinois Wolves, and Ohio’s Nova Village, respectively.
Terrific guards abound on that WCE club as well, notably 6-1 Gavin Hightower.
Hightower, under the expert tutelage of Coach D.J. Gay (an all-L.A. City selection at L.A. Poly who helped usher the San Diego State Aztecs rise to regional and national notoriety under former Coach Steve Fisher), continued to evolve into one of the west’s top point guards in the Class of 2025 this past season at L.A. Windward.
Hightower (pictured) has always been a superb jump shooter and scorer but is now demonstrating the more subtle but oh-so-important aspects of “point guard-play”, including sound “game management”, decision making and leadership — overlooked when videographers are making their social media posts.
The WCE 16s had three other key contributors who joined Hightower as BurlisonOnBasketball, all-SoCal selections from the Class of 2025 in forceful and productive rebounder Douglas Langford (Downey’s St. Pius X/St. Matthias); versatile Mazi Mosley (La Canada
St. Francis) and 6-6 but-still-growing E.J. Vernon (Santa Monica Crossroads, the alma mater of former NBA standouts Austin Croshere and Baron Davis.
The WCE has a couple of 15s teams, one made up of NorCal-based players and the other with SoCal kids.
The SoCal-based one is playing in another event in Mesa this weekend, at the Inspire Center for the WCE Cactus Classic, while with the NorCal club participates in the “Rise Session” games at the Legacy Sports Center this weekend.
But the NorCal team, in its 65-58 loss to Wisconsin Playground Elite, had its own nifty point guard in one of Southern California’s best freshmen this past season in 6-3 James Croy of Riverside Poly, the son of Cal Baptist Head Coach Rick Croy.
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