New England Championships day one notes

April 17, 2010 New England Hoop News Staff

Day one of BasketBull's Hall of Fame New England Championships was filled with upsets.  Numerous favorites predicated to win their pool and advance for in bracket play bowed out of the gold bracket by suffering pool play losses.  Certain teams didn't bring their "A" effort forward and other teams were pitted in tough pools. 

Looking at Sunday, we're faced with a Gold bracket that is dominated with Connecticut teams.  Connecticut Basketball Club rolled through pool play and will square off with the CT Hoop Stars (re-match of last week).  CBC was led throughout the day by the interior play of Brandon Sherrod and perimeter savvy of Phil Gaetano while the Hoop Stars were led by wings John Papale and Gerald McClease.  Other CT teams that put together impressive runs in their pools:

CT Elite - led by Jason Perrier and Oscar Assie, Elite rolled by CT Premier and then put together an impressive 2nd half surge to knock off a talented and fundamentally sound Dwight Howard Warriors team from Florida.

CT Select - Squeaked by Next Basketball (NJ) and ABC.  Next Basketball was a talented group but Anthony Jernigan proved to be too much for Next to handle. 

CT Knights - Maybe the most impressive win of the day came with CT Knights beating possibly the tournament's most talented team in Expressions by 10.  Tylon Smith Jr of Kingswood Oxford got to the rim at will and made big plays, and free throws. 

Drive4Stardum - The frontcourt trio of Adam Schrenegost, Ethan O'Day, and Zack Askew dominated the CT Grizzlies and ABC - Krumins. 

Other pools winners in the 17u include: Titan Magic made up of mostly Wilbraham and Monson players, RI Hawks, Jersey Jayhawks, Hunting Park Warriors (Pa.), and MBR. 

Other tournament notes:

  • Connecticut Elite 17u is made up of a combination of 2010 and 2011 kids, which is allowed in most spring tournaments, and was impressive today. Jason Pierrer is a solid D-II/DI prospect, Oscar Assie is a beast inside, and LaQuan Mendehall can play. 
  • Connecticut Basketball Clubs 15u team was scary good this weekend with a backcourt of Cornelius Tyson and Kahlil Dukes.  Add shooter Jake Fay and many other players from last years CBC 14u team and they have loads of talent. 
  • The 17u Silver bracket is just as good as the Gold bracket and might be more talented.  Expressions, Dwight Howard Warriors, Lynchburg Hoops, Team Next (NJ), Westchester Hawks, Albany City Rocks, MB Nation, and others will all battle it out. 
  • The GOSH Warriors out of New York came to play hard.  Picked up full-court defense for most of the game.  It's not too often you see that in AAU basketball.  Though they lost two games by 10.

If you have any comments to add to this article, please email us at comments@nehoopnews.com.

Comments

Add a Comment

Log in to add a comment!
Not a member? Sign up...it's free