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| Brandon Green-5'11 WF Detroit |
On
Saturday, I spent some time at Jerry Watson’s Memorial Day tournament in
Columbus, Although the field was way
down this year (only about 56 teams) there were a handful of compelling
match-ups worth watching in the 7th grade division. Early in the
morning, All-Ohio’s 7th grade team played a split version of its 6th
grade team (the other half of the team had to fill in for a 6th
grade team that was a no show). In that game, the 7th graders raced
to an early 7-0 lead for which they never really relinquished. The 6th
graders would chip away at the lead the entire game, and actually get to within
42-43 with 8:08 left in the game, but big brother would eventually get it done
66-58. Pickerington’s Jimmy Weirick led all scorers with 20 points, followed by
Jamil Goliday with12 points. Greg Tribble paced the 6th graders with
12 points, followed by Gerard Reynolds with 10 and Jordan Mitchell with 8
points. It should be noted that Ohio Hoopster’s Juan Elmore is running with
All-Ohio this weekend.
Ed
Lyshe’s 7th grade Buckeye Prep squad matched up with Detroit
Showtime in the morning and got out to a 4-0 lead. The game was locked up at
6-6 by the 14-01 mark, but Detroit took their first lead (11-10) with 11:28
left in the half. By halftime Buckeye Prep was down 34-35. Prep opened the
second half with a score to take the lead (36-35), but Detroit would respond in
a big way and open up a 38-48 lead by the 12:27 mark. Buckeye Prep would eventually cut the lead to
51-54, but Detroit would hold on for the win. Individual scores were not kept,
but Detroit’s Brandon Green (5’11 WF) was the top guy for his squad.
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| Garrett Tipton-Played Big for Prep |
Later
in the afternoon Buckeye Prep hooked up with Demarco Bradley’s full All-Ohio
Red 6th grade squad in pool play. Prep got out to a quick 2-0 start,
and then 6, before All-Ohio trimmed the lead to 5-6 at the 12:07 mark. With 5:33
left in the half, Buckeye Prep was up 17-9 and cruising. An All-Ohio run late
in the first half cut the lead to 14-17 with 4:40 left. All-Ohio took their
first lead of the game (23-21) at the 1:50 mark, and would take a 24-23 lead
into the half. A Seth Goodson layup to start the half gave Buckeye Prep the
lead, but a Jordan Mitchell trey gave the lead back to All-Ohio (27-25). After
an All-Ohio run, Prep answered, and a Garrett Tipton layup tied the game at 29
with 11 minutes left. Buckeye Prep took a 31-29 lead at 10:25 and from there,
they never really looked back. The difference in this game was Prep’s ability
to not only handle the press, but to actually get easy buckets off of it.
Garrett Tipton had a big game, scoring a game-high 22 points.
Detroit
Showtime and All-Ohio’s 7th grade squad got it on in game 2 of the
day, and despite the standout performance of Juan Elmore, All-Ohio went down
69-62.
