King James Classic-Day Two

U-17 Division:

In the U-17 division the second day of the King James Classic started pretty much they way day-one ended in terms of competitive games. Some of the first round of games included match ups between Ohio's Friends 4 Life vs DC Assault, the New York Gauchos vs the Milwaukee Spartans and All-Ohio White vs Riverside Fastbreak from New York. DC Assault fought off an aggressive Friends 4 Life team to claim a 71-59 win, while the Gauchos beat the Spartans 76-56 and All-Ohio White was defeated by Riverside 49-42. Quinn Cook was the difference for DC Assault.

In their second game of the tournament All-Ohio Red enjoyed a hard fought 59-54 victory over the Rising Stars JG from Chicago. Stevie Taylor was hot early, and along with backcourt mate Trey Burke, paced All-Ohio Red. Teas Valley's Nate Anderson had his pick and pop game going while George Fant aggressively attacked the cup. After the Rising Stars rebounded in their third game of the tournament to upend the CP3 All-Stars, a three way tie left All-Ohio third in their pool. Once into single elimination bracket play, All-Ohio Red went to work, beating a feisty NEO Ballers 70-58. The next hurdle came in the form of the Milwaukee Spartans who had recently beaten All-Ohio Red by 1 point in the NY-2-LA Swish & Dish tourney a couple of weeks ago. Led by Stevie Taylor who was virtually unguardable, Red dominated the Spartans to the tune of 19 points. Elijah Macon played with more fire than I have seen in a while, George Fant got busy down low, and of course Trey Burke helped hold it down in the backcourt. Next up for All-Ohio were the West Virgina Wildcats who had shooters at virtually every position. After a 53-46 win in the night cap, All-Ohio Red was into the Elite Eight where they will face Michigan's The Family to get to the Final Four.

Other news and Notes: A Shane Larkin-led Florida Assault jumped all over Carolina Flight and finished with a 70-43 victory. Although the New York Gauchos got by the Wisconsin Hurricanes early in the day, they were tripped up in their last game of the night by an impressive CP3 All-Stars squad. Before notching a win against New York, CP3 avoided elimination with a win over a Quinn Cook-led DC Assault team in the second round. In that game, Jacob Lawson had one of the nasties dunks in the tournament! The Ohio Basketball Club (OBC) had too much size for All-Ohio Force as they cruised to a 53-46 win. Aaron White and Nick Harney were the culprits for OBC, while Austin Traylor did the damage for the Force. The standout performance of the day had to come from Aaron Thomas' ridicules performance in Queen City Prophets' loss to All-Michigan. Though Ozie Davis had his team ready from the opening tip, and actually took a 44-36 lead into the locker room; "the team from up north" came storming back to win it 77-78. It did not help the Prophets when Brandon Neal went down midway through the first half with a nasty cut to his forehead. Although no individual scores were tabulated (None were kept the entire weekend), Thomas may have gone for about 40 points, most of which were either deep treys or off dribble penetration. Columbus, Ohio's Running Rebels were at it again trying to be giant killers. This time they had an early lead on The Family before injuries set in and The Family went on the cruise to the victory. Ohio Basketball Club's U-16 squad finished first in their pool after defeating Team Detroit and have now advanced to Sunday on the strong play of Chillicothi's Malik London. All-Ohio Red's U-16 team lost by 1 point to the Carolina in the first round of bracket play. All-Ohio Pruple is out as is All-Ohio Red 15's after dropping a 1 point contest.

Middle School Action:

I had some time to run over to Kent to check out some 8th grade action. When I arrived, Syracuse Select was dominating Basketball Stars of America on their way to a 49-20 blowout win. Jamel Chambers led Cuse with 10 points. Gary Scott's Buckeye Prep team held on to defeat We Got Game 52-57. Buckeye Prep was lead in scoring by Ronnie Williams (13 points), Alex Stewart (12 points) and Darryl Long (10 points). It should be noted the Long was a rebounding machine as he notched double digit rebounds. Young (19 points) and Cox were the high men for We Got Next. To check out the pictures of the tournament visit the Buckeye Prep Facebook Fan Page.