SCOTTSDALE, AZ — He and his teammates were making their season debut Friday night at Chapparal High against significant competition as part of the HoopHall West.
But, after 32 minutes of game time against the best team — and player — in Arizona, guard Boogie Fland and his Archbishop Stepinac buddies (by way of White Plains in New York) proved every bit as good as their preseason hype declared they are.
Fland, who signed a National Letter of Intent with the University of Kentucky last month, took an inbound pass with seven seconds to go and, a big stride beyond mid court, drilled a pass to the left wing and into the “shooting pocket” of sophomore Danny Carbuccia, a foot or so behind the 3-point arc.
With the flick of his right wrist, Carbuccia gave his No. 14-rated Crusaders (in the Ronnies Flores/Ballislife national pecking order) a 53-50 victory over two-time, Arizona state champion Gilbert Perry.
No. 29 Perry and their elite 6-foot-8 junior, Koa Peat, get another out-of-state toughie Saturday night on the same floor when they take on California’s top team, No. 10 Studio City Harvard-Westlake at 8 o’clock MT.
The Pumas (who fell to 4-1) held a four-point lead at intermission. And, before he and his teammates and coaching staff went to their locker room for the break, Peat was honored at midcourt as the USA Basketball’s male high school athlete of the year after helping USA BB’s U16 capture gold during a FIBA tourney in Mexico in June.
Despite missing nine of his 13 shots from the field and committing five turnovers (yep, he was the convergence point of the Stepinac defense), Peat did more than enough to show why he is — conservatively — one of the top five so prospects in the national class of 2025, grabbing 12 rebounds with four assists to go with a couple of blocks and 12 points.
But Friday night, at least, the 6-3 Fland was the most dynamic and best player on the floor, making a good case as to why he may be as good a “point guard” prospect as there is in the national senior class.
Fland scored a game-high 27 points (one of just two players with at least 20 during the four games played Friday), hitting four of nine shots from beyond the arc to go with five rebounds and three steals.
He was credited with just two assists the last of those helping end things abruptly.
Six-five junior D’Andre Harrison was the Pumas’ leading scorer Friday night, scoring 17 points while hitting eight of 14 shots from the floor (a couple of those via Peat passes) to go with eight rebounds.
The Crusaders also get some upper-tier California competition Saturday afternoon, facing Corona Centennial, led by Arizona (Carter Bryant) and UCLA (Eric Freeny) signees, at 2:30.
In the Friday night finale, North Hollywood’s Campbell Hall built a double-figure advantage in the first quarter then had to pull away in the final minutes to knock off Chandler’s Basha, 71-64, in a matchup of squads that are part of the Platinum Division field in Southern California’s Dec. 26-30 Classic at Damien.
Senior forward Baron Bellamy scored a buzzer-beating layup off an offensive rebound to give his team the win over La Mirada last December in the Silver Division at Damien.
And was perfect from the field in seven attempts (including five 3s) to lead five Huskies’ starters in double-figure scoring with 17 points.
Fellow seniors Aaron Powell and Aliaun Iscandari (a combined eight of 28 from the field) didn’t shoot well but provided a collective nine rebounds, eight assists and three steals to help their team improve to 2-2.
Campbell Hall’s junior point guard, Isaiah Johnson, hit five of seven shots from the field and was perfect on six free throws to score 16 points with five rebounds, four assists and only two turnovers while playing all 32 minutes.
Basha (4-1), which takes on Henderson (NV) Coronado Saturday at 1 o’clock in another of the HoopHall West games, could have pulled out the victory if multiple players hadn’t missed multiple layup attempts throughout the third and fourth quarters.
Sophomore guard Mason Magee led three Bears in double figures with 17 points.
In the two “prep school”/EYBLS games played earlier:
*Seal Beach (CA) Veritas Prep 62, Chandler (AZ) Canyon International Academy 58: Deng Alier and Andrew Nagy (Nagy is a transfer from Orange County’s Orange Lutheran) scored 15 points apiece as the SoCal squad held on after taking a 12-point into the fourth quarter.
Sophomore point-guard Miles Sadler scored 11 points with seven assists, seven steals and five turnovers for CIA.
*Mt. Pleasant (UT) Wasatch Academy 71, Chandler (AZ) Compass Prep 63: Six-six junior Isiah Blackwell didn’t shoot sharply (missing 10 of 15 from the field, including five of six behind the arc) while scoring 14 points. But he was still the most influential player on the floor for the winners with eight rebounds and four assists while never leaving the floor.
Wasatch Academy’s John Mobley Jr., Bhan Buon and Fischer Brown divided nine 3-pointers in a combined 16 attempts.
Junior guard Jeremiah Fears scored a team-high 18 points with four steals for Compass Prep but had just one assist while committing five turnovers.
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