Rebels Capture King James Title

2020 Rebels-King James Champ

This past weekend, Coach Justin Ferguson’s #10 ranked Rebels Basketball squad ran the gauntlet at the King James Shooting Stars Classic and eventually captured the 8^th grade Gold Division title.  Over the weekend, the Rebels finished a perfect 6-0, with wins over MVP Dynasty, WV Storm (68-64), Ohio Valley Hidden Gems, VCC Nova, E1T1, and Select (61-51).  It should be noted that E1T1 is the #1 ranked team in the state of Florida!  Standouts for the Rebels included: Devin Hightower, Nick Ferguson, Garvin Clarke, Tahj Staveskie and Akin Holloman.

Coach Sam Anderson’s #8 ranked Dayton Swish made a run to the semi-finals of the 8^th grade Gold division of the Kings James tourney this past weekend before being upended by a team from Canada.  During the weekend, the Swish notched wins against Murphy AC (60-61), the Prospectors and teams from Indiana, New York and Toronto.  Standouts for the Swish included: Sammy Anderson and Keonte Hughley.

Coach Ryan Holiday’s #19 ranked SMAC Next Level team was the last team standing at the Midwest Classic in Cleveland.  In the 8^th grade title game, SMAC took down SMAC Pettigrew 56-28. Caleb Payne led SMAC in scoring the entire weekend, averaging 15 points per game.

All-Ohio Red 2020-Champions

Marty Finta’s #3 ranked All-Ohio Red 2020 squad added another tournament championship to their resume this past weekend.  Playing with a short roster, All-Ohio ran through the field at an OYB tournament in Pickerington.  In the championship game, All-Ohio ran into a scrappy Buckeye Storm team out of Portsmouth, OH, but was able to hold on to collect the 13-point win and tournament title.  Standouts of All-Ohio included Alex Williams, who powered is way to an 18 point per game average, Idris Lawrence, Gabe Finta and Elijah English.  From what we understand, that Buckeye Storm team is very talented and worthy of a top 20 ranking.  Apparently they lost to the #11 ranked Cincinnati Royals by only 1 point and played All-Ohio very tough.

MVP Dynasty 2023 was rolling through the King Kames Shooting Stars Classic until they ran into Baltimore Thrill in the semi-finals and went down 42-37. Before their exit, the Dayton-based MVP notched wins against NEO Tru Game (51-34), Toledo Wildcats (47-20) and TNBA East (27-24).  The leading scorers for the Dynasty were Dre’sean Roberts, Tyron Barnes and Jamison Rivers.

We have to give a shout out to the 2026 Ohio Rebels for their runner-up finish at the King James Shooting Stars Classic over the weekend.  The Mansfield-based Rebels were knocked out of the tournament by the Maryland-based New World, one of the top 2^nd grade teams in the country.  In addition, the Rebels won it all at the Nike Grassroots tournament a few weeks ago. We plan to keep an eye out for these young fellas over the next couple of years.

Buckeye Prep Power Rankings