After reflecting on the weekend's event, I have to give props to Drew Joyce and his army of volunteers who made this tournament happen. Once again, the King James Classic attracted some of the top teams and individual talent in the country. With that said, I also have to give props to OBC's U-17 squad for being the last team standing in what turned out to be a very competitive Gold bracket. On their way to the championship, OBC (7-0) defeated the likes of the King James Shooting Stars, Hurricane Running Rebels, All-Ohio Force, CP3 All-Stars, Team Takeover, and The Family. In order to claim the championship of this tournament, OBC's needed solid guard play from PJ Boutte and Jehvon Clarke and superior post from Chane Behanan and unsigned senior Nick Harney, and that's exactly what they got. Harney and Behanan terrorized teams this weekend and should remain a force to be reckoned with all summer long. It should be noted, in their first two tournaments of the season, OBC has reached the championship game twice, and has established themselves as one of the top teams in the country. I also have to recognize OBC's U-16 squad for making a final four run. The U-16 squad was upended by CP3 in the semi-final, as they came up 7 points short. Although Westerville South's Isiah Rogers went for 25 points in the contest, it was not enough to get his team to the Chip. Columbus' own Hidden Gems made an impressive run in the U-17 Bronze division before being knocked out by Mac Ohio, another central Ohio-based team.
News and Notes:
Some of the top individual performances of championship Sunday included Michigan's Carlton Brundage who put his team on his back in the quarter-final game against All-Ohio Red, when he dropped a cool 37 points on Red to help his team advance to the semi-final game (70-64). Not to be out done, Trey Burke logged in his best performance of the young AAU season when he went for a game-high 39 points of his own. Burke was not only red hot from beyond the arc, but he consistently attacked the cup and finished. I'm not sure what his stats were, but King James' Jakarr Sampson looked awfully good in the semi-final game against The Family. His ability to handle the rock on the perimeter with his size makes him a very tough match-up. Sampson drove to the cup at will where he finished more times than not. In the CP3 vs OBC semi-final game, the North Carolina-based squad appeared to be without the services of some of their post players. I'm not sure what happened to Jacob Lawson on Sunday, but I did not see him in action or on the bench for the OBC game. Without their full complement of bigs, their chances of handling Behanan and Harney were not very good. For a more complete recap of the tournament from an Ohio perspective, visit Ohio High School Hoops and read Kurt Stubs' piece. Also, to see pictures of the event, visit the Buckeye Prep Facebook Fan Page. Finally, Ty Kish was in Akron doing his thing, so look for another hot video coming soon. The entire tournament results can be found by clicking on the hyper link.
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