Tough Start for Ohio Teams in Opening Session

Saturday morning at the Nike EYBL in Dallas was unkind to both Ohio-based teams, as both All-Ohio Red and the King James Shooting Stars went down in defeat in the opening session.  For King James, the morning session ended much like Friday’s contest, as King James fell to 1-6 over all with an 80-65 loss to Memphis YOMCA last night.  Today, the Shooting Stars were bested by Howard Pulley 87-65. Sheldon Jeter, a 6’6 PF from Beaver Falls, PA was the leading scorer for King James with 12 points, followed by Kevin Clark (10), Devon Carter (8) Pharah Brown (7), Antonio Hearn (7) and Lorenzo Cugini (7). I had a chance to talk with a couple of people who follow King James, and the general consciences is  that the problem is the overall talent level on the team.  Although the kids play hard, the talent in the EYBL is simply superior to the Akron-based team's.

Sheldon Jeter

In their opening game on Saturday, All-Ohio Red matched up with the top team in the nation, Boston’s BABC. Red got on the board first with a Kenny Kaminski 3-ball, but BABC answered right back with a trey of their own.  By halftime, All-Ohio was down only 9 points despite being off their game.  BABC came out of the half on fire and quickly ran the lead to about 15, before Red cut the lead to 11 points.  From there, BABC started delivering body blows, both literally and figuratively (the game got a little chippy), and Red could not respond.  About midway through the second half, it was clear that Red did not have their best stuff, as the BABC kids played with more bounce, and pulled away to claim a lopsided 78-50 victory. 

For All-Ohio, no one really played a good game.  It was also clear that BABC employed an effective 2-2-1 full court press in order to slow down the All-Ohio guards and prevent penetration. Elijah Macon led All-Ohio with 12 points, followed by Teddy Rozier (11), Teddy Hawkins (10), Leroy Alexander (4) and Jordan Potts (2). Although he as not the leading scorer (6 points), that honor goes to Jake Laman, a 6'8 WF from Wrentham, MA. who dropped a game-high 20 points, Nerlens Noel (6'9 C) may have been the best looking prospect on the floor.  Noel is long, active and bouncy, and he does a great job of finishing around the bucket. The second leading scorer for BABC was Rene Castor (6'2 WG) who finished with 18 points.

 Nerlens Noel

All-Ohio will look to get back on track tonight at 6:30 when they face a 0-6 Charlotte Royals.  In this writer's opinion, for All-Ohio to reach their full potential, the post play must become more consistent and the guards must do a better job of finding them when they do get open.  From what I can see, Red's post players spend too much time away from the bucket, resulting in poor rebounding and limted interior scoring.  King James will look for a reversal of fortunes as they take on a tough Indiana Spiece.  Check out the pictures I took at the Buckeye Prep Facebook Fan Page.  Also, follow the game-to-game updates on out twitter account at Buckeye Prep