King James Shooting Stars Classic-Final Day Report

Brazdeikis, Kabongo, Onyeali, Francis, Reynolds, Mitchell, Frankly & Treacy

The final day of the King James Shooting Star Classic was all about championships.  In the 8^th grade division, Canada’s CIA Bounce held off a physical Chicago Select to claim a 57-40 victory and the championship. Although it appeared that CIA Bounce’s significant size advantage at every position was going to result in an easy win, an equally physical Chicago Select team played them toe to toe for much of the contest. In fact, at the break, the game was knotted at 27. CIA Bounce scored first to start the second period, but Chicago answered with a bucket. Later, CIA Bounce went on a 6-0 run and took a 35-29 lead. Another run lifted the score to 41-34 with 6:31 left in the game. From there, Bounce would maintain no less than a 10 point lead before pulling it out by a score of 57-41. Bounce’s Ignas Brazdeikis (6’4 WF Toronto) was smoking hot from the perimeter to the tune of a game-high 18 points. Jonathan Kabongo (6’3 PG Toronto) only scored 8 points, but he ran his team to perfection, and provided several athletic highlight plays to boot. Malik Onyeali (6’0 P/SG Chicago) was the work horse for Chicago Select, and led his team with 15 points, followed by Raekwon Drake who added 10 points.

To get to the championship game CIA Bounce easily defeated the Ohio-based Shining Stars 62-33. By halftime, the game was pretty much over, as Bounce had them down 25-2.  Bounce was just too big, and shot the ball too well (hit 12 treys) for the Shining Stars to get it done. Chicago Select’s ticket to the chip was much more difficult, as they had to squeak out a 36-34 win over Florida Force to advance. Malik Onyeal was the high man with 12 points. Dante Treacy (5’8 P/SG Orlando) was a stud for Florida, finishing with a team-high 12 points.

All-Ohio Red-7th Grade Gold Champions

Much like the pre-game warm-ups for the 8^th grade championship game, many observers in the stands to watch the 7^th grade championship game assumed that All-Ohio Red would totally dominate a much less heralded Team Teague.  Not so fast my friend! All-Ohio did jump out to a 11-2 lead by the 7:59 mark, but a scrappy Team Teague refused to roll over, and battled back tie the game at 32 by halftime. Team Teague got on the board first to start the second period, but an All-Ohio spurt put them up 43-35 with a little over 12 minutes left in the game. All-Ohio would later make a 14-0 run to establish dominance in the game, them go on to get the 71-59 victory and the championship trophy.  

Jeremiah Francis was huge for All-Ohio in terms of scoring (16 points), defending and rebounding. Gerard Reynolds was equally as impressive, as he was the primary scorer (14 points) in the first half.  Reynolds may be a bit undersized for his position, but his strength and post moves are elite. Also, Jordan Mitchell added a very quiet 16 points in the win. James Frankly (5’6 PG Indianapolis) was the smallest player on the court for Team Teague, but the tough and scrappy little PG ran the show, scored, and set his teammates up for easy buckets. With the championship now under their belt, All-Ohio will take their talent to Atlanta for Session #2 of the NYBL. Their schedule in Atlanta includes a showdown with Texas Express Elite, who finished second at the 6th grade AAU Nationals last year, and a rematch with We All Can Go. In addition to barely getting by DC Premier on Saturday, All-Ohio beat We All Can Go on Sunday to advance. Elite PG Tyger Campbell will get another showdown with Jeremiah Francis in the ATL, as arguably the #1 and #2 ranked floor generals in the country will again go head-to-head!!

There is traditionally very little attention paid to the silver division in major tournaments, however, it’s worth noting that after getting smacked by All-Ohio Red in pool play, National Select made a serious run through the consolation division, where they eventually met and defeated the Michigan Titans 50-29 to claim the title. Because of crowd issues, the game was cancelled with 6 minutes remaining. Tyler Brelsford led with 11 points, while Che Evans added 9 points and Terrance Williams finished with 8 points and 10 rebounds. National Select may have beat down the Titans, but getting by The Family proved much more difficult as they advanced with a 1 point victory (79-78) after Shemar Morrow sank 2 free throws with 2 seconds left to seal the win. Morrow proved he could still dominate playing up a grade, as he led with a game-high 26 points and 13 rebounds. Tyler Brelsford added 17 markers, followed by Che Evans (14) and Terrance Williams (12 points). The NYBL was well represented, as National Select’s top guns dominated, and will also be heading to Atlanta this weekend.

Team Melo beat Rens in the 8^th grade silver bracket championship. In the 6^th grade gold division, We All-Can Go downed the New York Gauchos 61-47 to grab the hardware, while Team Glory got by We All-Can Go 40-48 in the 5^th grade gold bracket. At least in the middle school divisions, the King James Shooting Stars Classic offered many teams some great competition.