Bryce’s week-two standouts: 2021

<p>I was able to see games at the Edmond Open and the Joe Lawson Memorial Invitational Tournament, including each of the top six prospects in the Oklahoma 2021 class. I have not seen a week with quite this much star-power in my career as I saw during week two, and it is unlikely that I will again anytime soon. The players listed below are among the best senior prospects I saw during the second week of OSSAA basketball action and are in no order.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="535625" first="Trey" last="Alexander"]</strong> | Heritage Hall CG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>As Alexander’s weekend in the Joe Lawson tournament progressed, it became clear that his weekends spent participating in Team Griffin training camps paid off.</p> <p>They call him Tricky Trey, and one reason for that is his talents in converting shots at tricky angles, where he helped the Chargers gain the most ground as they claimed the tournament title. If he has any space, no matter how shallow he is in accordance with the rim, it seems he is always able to put the ball in the net.</p> <p>Alexander also earned tournament M.V.P. honors after scoring performances of 39 and 31 points. If you were there, you never felt he was going to miss, so much so that it was surprising when he did.</p> <p>The Auburn-commit also handled point-guard responsibilities for the Chargers, facilitating and spotting his teammates open shots on the perimeter thanks to his ability to improvise on the drive.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745374" first="Danquez" last="Dawsey"]</strong> | Lawton MacArthur PG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> [caption id="attachment_1012016" align="alignright" width="300"]<a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/uploads/2020/07/BTR-17U_Danquez-Dawsey.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1012016" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/uploads/2020/07/BTR-17U_Danquez-Dawsey-300x180.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="180" /></a> [player_tooltip player_id="745374" first="Danquez" last="Dawsey"] (Clare Reynolds/Prep Hoops).[/caption] <p>There were few, perhaps fewer than would apply to any other ball-handler in the tournament, defenders who could stop, nor limit, Dawsey. </p> <p>The ball-handler has top-notch quickness and was able to penetrate even the strongest defenses in the tournament with surely frustrating access. He just made it look easy with the ball in his hands as defenders struggled to halt his production. Even more dangerously, Dawsey is about as efficient as they come.</p> <p>Also a reliable rebounding guard, Dawsey is one of few players who could legitimately gather triple-doubles on his best nights, though many others will shamelessly stretch the truth on their performances.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745370" first="Keyondre" last="Young"]</strong> | Del City SF</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The skinny has not changed on <i>Slim</i>: he is truly one of the most capable basketball players in the 405 area code, and he does it all at about 6-foot-7-inches.</p> <p>Young’s length is truly a point of awe; if you watch even a couple plays of his film, you will be drawn almost instantly to how close he gets to the rim on his mid-range jumpers.</p> <p>And he can shoot, too. The Valpo-signee was able to knock down two shots from deep in a 32-point night against Heritage Hall.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745355" first="Sean" last="Pedulla"]</strong> | Edmond Memorial PG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The Virginia-Tech commit was knocking down shots with defenders breathing down his neck in a low-scoring contest between the Bulldogs and Kingfisher. The senior notched 18 of Memorial’s 33 points in the title game to claim the Edmond Open Championship. It was an ugly battle, albeit, but Pedulla’s perseverance was certainly one of the catalysts to Memorial winning the game.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745381" first="Keyshon" last="Spotwood"] | Edmond Memorial PG</strong></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Spotwood may have been the M.V.P. of the Edmond Open title game; defensively, he was brilliant in a tough task; sticking to one of the most resistant guards Oklahoma has seen in the last five years.</p> <p>Spotwood was impressively adherent to Cortes, sticking to him like glue, not getting beat often off-the-dribble and forcing the YellowJackets to utilize ball-screens all night. Additionally, he helped persuade Cortes into foul-trouble in the first half, rendering Kingfisher without its best passer and overall producer for pivotal moments in the game.</p> <p>Without question, Spotwood’s presence pushed the Bulldogs to the win.</p> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745367" first="Colby" last="Onyekuru"]</strong> | Edmond Santa Fe</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Onyekuru is one of myths favorite players in the state, and he has been since his sophomore season. Standing at a true 6-foot-6-inches, Onyekuru has remarkable length, guard-speed and the ability to play and defend all five positions.</p> <p>Santa Fe coach Troy Lallemand joked during the preseason that Onyekuru may be the best point guard in the COAC, and he may not be wrong about that. Onyekuru can bring the ball up the floor and routinely stops on a dime at the top of the key to launch a long triple from the dribble.</p> <p>The senior is just as calm with his hands on the ball in sets designed for him to knock down 3-pointers as he is receiving the ball with his back to the bucket and spinning out, hitting fade-aways, twisting himself to get angles on post-defenders and more.</p> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="1015836" first="Ian" last="Golden"]</strong> | Broken Arrow</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Golden is fast -- like <em>really </em>fast -- and has great scoring capabilities to lend to Broken Arrow’s disposal. He is impressively resilient on his path to the basket, and he can maintain his top gear with control long after defenders have tired from his quickness.</p> <p>Defensively, Golden is a menacing thief, as he routinely rushed through lanes of traffic to cause clusters around the ball that usually resulted in either him or one of his teammates gathering a steal.</p> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="938846" first="Javeon" last="McCalister"]</strong> | Del City SG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>McCalister has taken an inflated role as an on-ball guard this season, though he still has his edge as a scrappy scoring guard. In his contest against Heritage Hall, McCalister passed the ball exceptionally well, made plays for others at high gear, and was overall efficient in his efforts as a play-maker.</p> <p>Additionally, he shot the ball well and hit some pivotal shots that kept Del City in the game late. McCalister well-represents the spirit of coach Lenny Hatchett’s Del City brand of basketball.</p> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745361" first="Tyler" last="Pinder"]</strong> | Broken Arrow</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Pinder is born ball-player with high-energy and a natural intuition to score.</p> <p>He has great instinct for the offensive game and uses his pace to drag defenders along. He has mostly simple moves in his catalog, but they’re polished and perfected to aid him in dropping defenders and hitting shots on the drive, from the mid-range, and deeper.</p> <p>Speaking of the drive, another great trait to Pinder’s game is his ability to slide and slither past defenders, using his body as a sort of buffer between them and the ball as he transitions nicely from the handle to finishing at the rim from difficult angles.</p> <p>A dangerous shot-sinker, there is not much defenders can do to stop Pinder at his best.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="1015831" first="Jaiell" last="Talley"] | </strong>Broken Arrow PF</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Talley can really explode, and Broken Arrow utilized his elevation to catch teams off-guard -- namely Casady and Edmond Santa Fe -- on multiple occasions on the back-side lob.</p> <p>It’s easy money for a player with Talley’s strength to score on plays like this, but he’s no one-trick pony. He also does a great job at the high post or short corners to curl off screens or catch defenders in a blunder before sinking an easy mid-range jumper, a craft he has polished well.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>Jay Morrow | </strong>Lawton MacArthur G/F</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>If there’s one takeaway from Lawton MacArthur’s runner-up finish at the Joe Lawson Memorial Invitational Tournament, it’s that they are a <em>scrappy, resilient </em>team.</p> <p>Drained of much interior talent, nor size, it was clear that Morrow, who stands about 6-foot-1 or so, was tasked defensively with filling that void, and though he may have been quite outmatched as far as stature, you would not have noticed it if you looked at the stat-sheet.</p> <p>Despite the Highlanders playing in somewhat of a compromised situation on that end, Morrow stood his ground against post-scorers, some considerably larger than him, and he frequently forced bad shots, <em>blocked </em>shots and beat opposing players for rebounds.</p> <p>Offensively, he showed talents as well for Lawton Mac. He often created his own shot from the perimeter and sank some very impressive shots from deep out of the handle.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>Brandon Cowan |</strong> Lawton MacArthur SG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Clutch. Clutch. <em>Clutch</em> performer.</p> <p>Cowan may have been Lawton Mac’s second-half M.V.P against Tulsa Memorial as the Highlanders claimed victory in the revenge game against the top-ranked 5A team in the state.</p> <p>Of his 19 points in that game, 10 came in the fourth quarter with the Chargers breathing down his neck, both on the scoreboard and literally. In a tight race, it was the 5-foot-6-inch senior who kept Mac in front as he absolutely refused to miss from long-range, forced Memorial to respect his 3-ball, and drove to the rack and finished against heavy contact.</p> <p>Cowan could not be stopped despite taking some acrobatic shots around the rim that most players wouldn’t dare in high-pressure situations.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>PJ Mitchell-Johnson | </strong>Casady PG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Mitchell-Johnson had his full talents on display against Broken Arrow in a win against a touted 6A foe. The senior guard is remarkably shifty, and his highly-effective handle helped him to create separation with efficiency.</p> <p>From there, he’s a pro at sinking shots. The Emporia-State commit notched 21 points in the victory against Broken Arrow.</p> <p>Mitchell-Johnson also helped the Cyclones with his capabilities as a passer. He has eyes-in-the-back of his head vision, and he can transition from the handle to the dish at top gear with great precision, allowing him to make passes with similar accuracy to his 3-ball while slashing through the lane.</p> <p>All-around, Mitchell-Johnson proved again why he is heralded as one of the top shooters, scorers, and overall guards in the Oklahoma-City metro.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745368" first="DJ" last="Freeman"] | </strong>Casady PF</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>From a defensive standpoint, it was hard for opposing posts to get much done against Freeman. An intense presence with explosive athleticism, it was no question why he gave opposing teams trouble offensively and defensively.</p> <p>Freeman is also an impressive rebounder and opposing teams had to dedicate multiple players to him with switches or interior-concentrated zones.</p> <p>Offensively, you already know about Freeman -- the kid can get <em>up, </em>and if he rises at the rack with any space, those at floor-level are better off evacuating the lane than ending up on a Prep Hoops mixtape.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745358" first="Dalante" last="Shannon"]</strong> | Edmond North CG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Unstoppable forces beat immovable objects everyday -- that is, if you have ever witnessed a [player_tooltip player_id="745358" first="Dalante" last="Shannon"] performance.</p> <p>It seems that even against the stoutest defenses, Shannon always finds a way to produce, whether from finesse or with straight-up brute power, Shannon is the motor that makes Edmond North such a force.</p> <p>The senior guard showed off an array of talents in one contest against Edmond Santa Fe; he hit a 3-pointer in transition, knocked down a few mid-rangers, slashed through the lane, finished through contact and leapt to finish a well-placed lob from [player_tooltip player_id="745382" first="Joell" last="Wilson"].</p> <p>And that is just the surface of Shannon’s talents.</p> <p>The senior is also one of the best rebounding guards in the area, and perhaps <em>the </em>best defensive guard in the 405. Shannon has great lateral quickness, resilience and adherence to ball-handlers, and just the straight-up drive it takes to be great on the defensive end of the court. He routinely utilizes his uncanny intuition to slide over and snag the ball from lazy ball-handlers, block slashers from behind, and even just block his man straight-up on the drive.</p> <p>For his efforts, Shannon also earned Edmond Open super-five honors en route to a third-place finish.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="745366" first="Landry" last="Harris"]</strong> | Edmond North PG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>As is characteristic of the Edmond North brand of basketball, [player_tooltip player_id="745366" first="Landry" last="Harris"] oozes with energy when he is on the floor, and any college coach vying for Harris’s commitment will tell you the same thing: they love his motor.</p> <p>Harris handled point-guard duties when he was on the floor against Edmond Santa Fe, and though he only scored three points in the contest, he was pivotal in handling the ball efficiently, helping draw defenders to himself and making plays for others.</p> <p>Defensively, he is just as important to North’s success.</p> <p>Harris has a knack for gathering steals, and with his acceleration -- a rather underrated aspect to his game, if you ask me -- he was able to deceive opposing players before ramping to the ball to poke it away, usually resulting in either him or one of his contemporaries picking it up and taking it the opposite way.</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="535628" first="Matthew" last="Stone"]</strong> | Kingfisher SF</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Stone was perhaps six points short of being the unofficial M.V.P of the Edmond Open.</p> <p>The North-Texas commit had perfect shooting game, knocking down 12-of-12 shots in a 29-point outing against Edmond North in the semifinals.</p> <p>Of Kingfisher’s 27 points in the championship game against Edmond Memorial, Stone scored 14 points, including four-made 3 pointers (if my memory serves me right, he was a perfect four-of-four from long-range with the exception of a desperation heave before the final buzzer that fell <em>just</em> short).</p> <hr /> <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width: 100%;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="535632" first="Bijan" last="Cortes"]</strong> | Kingfisher PG</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Though Cortes was not as impactful as usual in the scoring margin, the senior accounted for most of Kingfisher’s production in one way or another against Edmond Memorial.</p> <p>He had at least four assists that led to made 3-point attempts, each of which were truly remarkable passes, testifying to his status as a future high-major star.</p> <p>The Oklahoma-commit started the game with a pair of drive-and-kick hook passes, each came as he dropped his defender on a screen before taking the ball to the basket from the left and quickly twisting his body to pass through traffic to Stone on the opposite wing. He also assisted Stone another time and helped Mecklenburg in a similar situation. Few other players would have been able to make each of these passes with such precision.</p> <p>Though some may reference his 7-point game as lackluster compared to his typical performances, those who were present recognized that Cortes was solely or at least partially responsible for at least 70 percent of Kingfisher’s scoring that night against the best team in 6A -- an accomplishment that, for most other players, would have been considered a valiant performance in a narrow loss.</p> <p>Still, the future Sooner was not without his flaws, and it will be interesting to see if and how Cortes and Stone rebound from this performance, only the fourth loss of their careers at Kingfisher High School.</p>