Battle in Seattle: 2022 Standouts (Part I)

<p>The summer of 2021 is here and AAU basketball will rule practically every weekend in July. Things got off to a fast start the first three days of the month as the NW Sports Hub in Centralia hosted WCE’s Battle in Seattle. We got a chance to catch a number of games on days two and three of the event and it felt good to soak in the first real club basketball action in over a year.</p> <p>Our focus was on Oregon-based teams and some of the best were there. Here’s a look at some of the top performers we saw, starting with a first batch of Class of 2022 standouts, all from Greg Dundon’s Elite 24 program.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="857343" first="Samaje" last="Morgan"], Elite 24 (OR) (2022 Churchill)</strong></p> <p>Through talking with several coaches who were there at the event, the consensus was Morgan was one of the top prospects from Oregon there. In the game we saw, he was extremely quick with the basketball and got into the lane and scored over taller defenders. We caught up with Morgan and will have an update posted soon.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="857340" first="Mason" last="VanBeenen"], Elite 24 (OR) (2022 West Linn)</strong></p> <p>VanBeenen emerged as arguably the top shot-blocker in Oregon this season and he showed that at the Battle of Seattle. He protected the paint and showed good anticipation skills against those trying to score over him. Offensively he showed good aggressiveness around the hoop.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="857353" first="Malik" last="Ross"], Elite 24 (OR) (2022 Tualatin)</strong></p> <p>Ross did what he does best - get to the basket and score at the hoop, get fouled doing so, or do both. He’s simply a bull when he gets into the lane and is especially electric on the break. He’s another guy that several coaches noted played well during the three-day event.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="857358" first="Leo" last="Sewell"], Elite 24 (OR) (2022 Wells)</strong></p> <p>Sewell joined the team late in the spring and has settled in playing both with the ball in his hands or off the ball. He made some good decisions with his passing as we’ve gotten accustomed to seeing him do, but was also doing well with hitting perimeter shots.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="1079539" first="Marcus" last="Lee"], Elite 24 Volt (2022 Lake Oswego)</strong></p> <p>Lee was playing with a brand new group in Centralia but seemed to be fitting in well with his teammates. If there’s one thing we know he can do, it’s knock down shots from the perimeter. So when we only got a brief glimpse of one of his games but when we turned our head to look, it was no surprise to us he was hitting a three.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="855932" first="Braden" last="Hudgins"], Elite 24 (OR) (2021 Forest Grove)</strong></p> <p>We are going ahead and including Hudgins here because he was one of the few unsigned Oregon seniors playing and several coaches from NWAC schools were tracking his every move. The 6-foot-7 forward was hitting catch and shoot threes while also playing physical down low on defense while fighting for rebounds.</p>