Bill Hensley Spiece Run-n-Slam:Day One

The annual Spiece Run-n-Slam Tournament has all ways been one of my favorite tournaments of the summer. Not because the tournament all ways seems to attract some of the top teams in the Midwest, but because the games are played in the state of the art Spiece Fieldhouse, my choice as the top basketball facility in the country. With 8 beautifully courts under one roof, and experience holding major tournaments, it's always a pleasure traveling to Fort Wayne, Indiana to watch basketball games.

Friday night kicked off with a slate of games featuring several elite teams. In the U-17 division, All-Ohio Red got out of the gate quickly as they totally dismantled Spiece All-Indiana 84-69. Leading the charge for All-Ohio was Trey Burke who finished with a game-high 30 points, followed by Nate Spears' 12 points, Stevie Taylor's 11 points Anton Grady's 6 points. With several players unable to make the trip (George Fant, Elijah Macon, Cheatum Norrils and Treavon Jackson), All-Ohio was forced to pick up some players for the weekend to fill out their rosters. Joining Red this weekend are Anton Grady, Brandon Neal, Nate Spears and Dominque McDonald. Next up for All-Ohio Red is Team CBIZ at 8:00am and Playground Elite at 12:30.

Speaking of Team CBIZ, despite a heroic effort by Akron commit Blake Justice, who hit 9 treys on the way to a team-high 31 points, CBIZ went down in defeat to the Playground Warriors 88-82. For the Warriors, Simon Bowers was the high man with 19 points, followed by Kevin Mays and Nimrod Hilliard, both of whom added 17 points. I was really impressed with the play of Hilliard, as he controlled the game from the point and consistently beat his guy to score or distribute.

All-Ohio Force was in the game early against the Mac Irvin Fire, but the Fire's talent level of eventually caught up to the Force, as Mac Irvin got the 88-61 win. The Fire was paced by Wayne Blackshear, Mychael Henry and Andre Henley who all finished with 17 points. Mike Shaw added 10 points. Jake Forrest led All-Ohio with 15 points, while Ryan Burrell contributed 13 points, Austin Traylor went for 12 points and Marcus Copeland kicked in 9 points. Not sure where George Marshall and Sam Thompson were on day one.

The Family continued to roll as they smashed CMA Elite 71-37. Carlton Brundage was the man for The Family with 15 points, while Patrick Onwenu added 12 points. It's hard to tell Seattle's Tony Wroten is still working his way back from a knee injury, as he looked as good as ever while dropping dimes, hitting threes and finishing at the rim. Seattle Rotary easily got by MBA Select 77-57. In the contest, Wroten dropped a game-high 21 points, followed by Gonzaga pledge Gary Bell with 9 points.

Other News and Notes:

Team Philly was dominating Mac Ohio at halftime 46-27. Chris Lewis, Juanya Green and Ameen Tanksley appeared to be inflicting the most damage when I left. Trent Waybright seemed to be the guy trying to stop the bleeding for Mac Ohio. All-Ohio Purple got on the board tonight in the U-16 division with a 30+ point win over the Macomb County Cougars. Both the U-17 and U-16 OBC teams won tonight. The U-17 squad defeated Illinois Old School by about 5 points while the U-16 bunch won by about 14 points. Eric Troug and Isiah Rogers were the high men for the 16s. Many of the top scouting services are in Fort Wayne looking for standout players. I saw Dave Telep, Clark Francis, Van Coleman, Evan Daniels, Rodger Bohn and Brian Snow just to name a few. There are a lot of big names players MIA this weekend. I wonder how many proms trumped basketball this weekend? To see day one pictures, visit the Buckeye Prep Facebook Fan Page.