Day 2 here at West Chester University for the Big 64 event and we were back at the Student Rec Center and Hollinger Fieldhouse with another round of games involving teams from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and DC.
Game # 1 on Sunday started with my HS alma mater Chester HS taking on Friends League power Shipley School in a 9a tilt at the Rec Center. Playing without a few bigs the Clippers used a mostly guard lineup to speed past Shipley 47-37 and 5’11” ’19 Michael “Man Man” Smith was a big reason why. He has a terrific feel for the game and a nice tight handle to get where he needs to go on the court. He uses his court vision to set up his teammates in scoring positions and delivers the rock with precision. He has excellent range on his smooth looking jump shot and in this contest he had that jumper working knocking down several treys and when the defense tried closing out on him he drove it hard to the basket for quick strike baskets. With the game winding down he showed off his comfortable stroke at the FT line dropping in four of them in the last minute of play. For the Gators of Shipley 6’9” ’19 Ray Somerville was a handful for the Chester defenders with his size and strong frame. He made some nice power moves down low for buckets and grabbed a good share of in area rebounds plus he blocked several shots and made it hard for Chester to get good looks in the paint.
I caught 2 of Archbishop Ryan’s games and this team looks really good right now and an early prognosis would be a high finish in the Philly Catholic league and a return trip to the Palestra for the semi-finals. I realize it’s only September but this team passes the ball extremely well and all five guys on the floor are apt to touch it on a given possession. While they have no true size this scrappy bunch has high motor players and a mix of shooters and playmakers that can wear down the opposition. 6’4” ’19 Amin Bryant may not possess a great jump shot but he is a fantastic rebounder for his size and can score inside with toughness and guile. 6’0” ’19 Jaquill Stone who has already announced that he will go the Prep route at Woodstock Academy and reclass to 2020 next year has really improved his overall game. He always had the jet quick speed to blow by defenders in his forays to the basket but now he’s finishing with either hand and his jump shot and passing game are more consistent. Him and Bryant are also top notch defenders as well. 6’5” ’19 Colin Reed was thought to be their perimeter marksman and while he is a tremendous shooter with range he’s starting to display some added skills like ball handling and passing that previously were not strong points in his game. Ryan added a player this year from Lithuania in 6’4 ½” Geeiminas Mikseckas who has a fine all around game and showed it here in their two wins vs. Shipley and Methacton HS (PA). He can score it in a number of ways from getting to the basket to pulling up for a silky smooth jumper and he has range to the arc. He is a tremendous passer with great instincts and he showed some toughness defensively. These four played a pivotal role in the wins from scoring the basketball to passing and defending and they played as hard in game 3 as they did in their first game which couldn’t be said about every team here.
One of the games I looked forward to was the Sankofa Freedom vs. Bishop Eustace tilt and boy did it live up to my expectations. Eustace came out on top 43-41 in OT in a well played game that saw Sankofa erase a 9 point deficit in the last four minutes to extend the game. For the Crusaders 5’9” ’20 David Cross had a great matchup with Sankofa’s 5’8” ’19 Kobe Devine as these two went toe to toe for much of the contest. Cross used his quick reaction dribble to push the ball up court to feed his inside guys while Devine worked the perimeter knocking in a few threes when not feeding the ball to the post. Eustace got some long distance shooting from 6’3” ’19 Matt Kempter who has a pretty stroke from outside the arc but he’s been effective driving the ball to the cup as well and showed it in this game. 6’5” ’20 Derrius Ward and 6’7” ’19 Khalil Turner can both shoot the trey ball well but on this day they were a tad off so most of their offense came on slashing drives to the basket. Turner was especially effective getting the ball to open teammates with crafty passes and he continued his strong defensive play with a couple blocked shots in crunch time. For Eustace despite battling a sore hip 6’6” ’19 Mattia Morini (Italy) played well inside defensively helping out 6’7” ’21 Will Humer (Sweden) as they constantly denied Sankofa second chance opportunities with strong work on the glass and getting a few blocks between them. This European duo will definitely be a problem for their opponents this season. 6’2” ’19 Scott Spann gave up several inches to his opponents inside but as always he was a factor for Sankofa from getting tough scores inside to rebounding and defending and hustling all over the floor. After watching this game I would love to see these two connect for a regular season contest unfortunately that can’t happen this year as Sankofa’s schedule is filled.
I only saw Westtown School once on the day but it was worth the wait as they nipped a very good Capital Christian School (DC) squad 58-54 as recent U Conn commit 6’3” ’19 Jalen Gaffney pulled the strings with deft passing and timely shooting to lead the Moose to a taut victory. They also got nice contributions from 6’7” ’21 John Camden who hit a couple treys and hit some pull up jumpers to help seal the deal and 6’3” ’20 TJ Berger who hit a few bombs himself.
Constitution HS from the Philly Public league won two of their three games and I viewed all three and 6’1” ’20 Keyshaun Hammonds and 6’5” ’19 Jabari Merritt looked to be in good form as they made plays consistently throughout. Hammonds is a knock down shooter who was hitting deep three balls all day and he showed some good passing skills getting the ball open teammates with crisp dishes that often times led to good shot opportunities. Merritt definitely benefitted from some of those feeds as he consistently scored in the paint showing off his tough finishing moves and ability to finish thru contact.
Three players that I have watched countless times and been impressed with their games played well in the contests I was able to see starting with 6’3” ’19 Dave Duda from Methacton HS. In his game with Archbishop Ryan he again showed his value as a spot up shooter for his shorthanded team and at the end he was clearly winded as this was their third game but his ability to knock down three balls kept them in the game for about ¾ of the contest. 6’1” ’19 Carl Gibson of Cherry Hill East HS (NJ) is a flat out scorer who can hit threes or get to the hole and finish with slithery effectiveness and he was all that in his teams 61-48 loss to ANC (PA). He hustled all over the floor but didn’t have enough help to affect a better outcome. 6’8” ’19 Shaft Clark was a force in his teams win over Rock Top Academy as he scored inside with power and even dropped in a few jumpers from 15 feet in the process. He was very good rebounding the ball and quite effective defending the paint for his Caesar Rodney HS (DE) Riders squad.
Two guys who were new to me also stood out even though I only got to see them play once and I’ll start with 6’1” ’20 Isaac Marshall of Academy of the New Church (PA) who was impressive with his ability to make plays in all facets of the game. He hit contested shots both inside and outside and was solid handling the ball and finding open teammates. On the defensive end he dug in and played hard getting a couple steals and forcing a handful of turnovers. I will definitely keep my eye on his progression moving forward. Next up was 5’7” ’22 Nate Ellis from Allentown, PA Allen HS who never appeared overmatched in his contest with Constitution HS and made several nice feeds to his teammates while doing a good job of handling the Generals pressure defense. He has solid form on his jump shot and showed some range on it as well knocking down at least two treys and a couple pullups from inside the arc. He will be one to watch in the coming years in the Lehigh Valley. This wraps up our coverage of the West Chester University Big 64 and hats off to Damien Blair and his terrific staff for battling through the South Campus issue and pulling off another tremendous weekend of basketball.