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SUWANEE, Ga. – Backcourt play proved to be the difference for the winners during the four games I watched Friday night during the Atlanta session of the 2016 adidas Uprising Gauntlet in the seven-court Suwanee Sports Academy.

The Southern California-based 17s Compton Magic squad went 4-0 during weekend one on the circuit in Dallas.

But North Carolina’s Stackhouse Elite had too much balance and too much Lyndell Wigginton for the Magic and its UCLA-bound guard to overcome.

Stackhouse pulled away down the stretch for a tougher-than-the-final score-indicates, 76-61, victory.

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BROOKLYN, NY – With 40 teams and just two days to do so, trying to sort out all of the high-caliber prospects in the 2016 edition of Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League is a daunting task, for sure.

But, hey, I’ll give it a shot . . .

Games tipped off at 8 in the morning on Saturday and Sunday, in a four-court facility that normally serves as the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, and wrapped up at about 10 p.m. Saturday and 5 o’clock on Sunday.

I watched 30 of the EYBL’s teams for at least one full game and saw at least half of those for large portions or all of a second game.

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BROOKLYN, NY – It didn’t’ take long for the national spotlight, of sorts, to turn onto the first day of the 2016 Nike Elite Youth Basketball season.

At 2 p.m. on Saturday one of the fifth set of games in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal – converted into a four-court hoops facility by Nike for the event – was televised by ESPN2.

And the California Supreme and PSA Cardinals squads more than held up the league – and themselves –well in the glare of the extra lighting and the focus of the ESPN cameras.

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NEW YORK, NY – What figures to be one of the travel ball circuit’s top circuits demonstrated exactly why that will be the case this spring and summer Friday night during the opening session of the Under Armour Association at Basketball City on the edge of Manhattan.

Six-foot-one Isaiah Washington (St. Raymond in the Bronx) and 6-5 Keith Williams (Brooklyn Bishop Loughlin) led New York’s New Heights on an 8-0 run to close out Southern California’s Earl Watson Elite, 63-58.

Williams (who finished with a game-high 24 points) hit a 12-foot, step-thru with a second on the shot clock (and about 30 seconds on the game clock) and a three-point edge then, after Earl Watson missed an attempt, Washington was fouled and sank the insurance free throws.

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RENO – Saturday’s first-ever Talent out West Showcase – held at both Reno High and just down the street at the Pennington Boys and Girls Club – proved just that for lot high school basketball players in and around the city, as well as adjacent states.

The 75 or so athletes in attendance included among 20 seniors who have yet to decide upon college destinations.

The most notable of those included 6-foot-10 Octavian Corley (McQueen in Reno) and 6-7 Zach Williams (Galena in Reno).

Corley averaged 18.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.3 blocked shots per game this past season as his team finished 18-11.

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