Ohio Teams Take King James

This past weekend a couple of Ohio teams ran the gauntlet that is the King James Shooting Stars Classic to win the U-17 and U-16 championships. Both All-Ohio Red and Ohio Varsity went undefeated over the weekend to bring championships back to central Ohio.

Late Saturday night, All-Ohio defeated the New York Gauchos for the second time this spring (66-53) to punch their ticket to the final 4. The difference in the game was the outstanding guard play of Terry Rozier and Myles Hamilton, both of whom dropped team-highs of 17 points. In addition to Rozier and Hamilton, Leroy Alexander had a solid game with 10 points, followed by Elijah Macon who added 7. Melvin Johnson led the Gauchos with a game-high 21 points, followed by Asadou Sidibe’s 10 points. It should be noted that the Gauchos were without one of their top players in Deshann Suber, who had sustained an injury the previous game. On championship Sunday, All-Ohio easily defeated in-state rival King James Shooting Stars (72-56) to advance to the championship game.

In the final game, and for the second straight weekend, All-Ohio Red faced off against DC Assault. Last week at the Pittsburg Jam Fest All-Ohio defeated Assault in the elite eight, and on Sunday Red got a second win (66-74) to claim the U-17 championship. Scoring for Red was as follows: Terry Rozier (15); Jordan Potts (12); Leroy Alexander (11); Kenny Kaminski (9); Myles Hamilton (6); Elijah Macon (5) and Jalon Robinson (4).

I have to give some props to the Ohio Hoopsters, who, despite stubbing their toe in pool play, ran through the U-17 Bronze bracket to claim the title.

Despite only playing with 7 players, Randy Clarkson’s Ohio Varsity squad made an improbable run to the tournament championship. Powered by the outstanding play of Jack Gibbs and Randall Clarkson  Jr., Ohio Varsity defeated OBC in the elite eight, and then got by a solid Atlanta Knicks team to advance to the final game. In the championship game, Ohio Varsity went on to claim victory over Martin’s Wolverines.

In the 9th grade division, All-Red beat OBC in the semi-finals, but could not get it done in the championship game, as they lost to Expression Elite. In the 7th grade division, the Cincinnati Lakers continued their championship level play, as they defeated cross-town rivals Elite Cavilers 59-43 in the final four, followed by a 34-50 domination over the Georgia Stars Black to take the title. To see the full tournament results click on the tournament link.