Cross State Classic Standouts

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The first weekend of IHSA basketball ended in the south suburbs at Rich Township with the Cross-State Classic. In the final two games we saw Illinois powers face schools from Michigan. In the article, we cover the top guys from the Illinois side.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kenwood 62 over King (Detroit Michigan) 36</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1385283' first='Aleks' last='Alston'] 2025 Kenwood&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Aleks opened the season with the strong opening performance 19 points. He nailed two threes connected on an alley-oop dunk and hit a few jumpers.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2321397' first='TJ' last='Seals'] 2025 Kenwood&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Seals started the game with the first 7 points for the Broncos. He scored the first layup off the tip and the rest from transition points off King's missed shots. Before the half TJ hit a corner three. He finished with 13 points and a handful of rebounds.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2125612' first='Devin' last='Cleveland'] 2027 Kenwood&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Devin looked good running the new operation at Kenwood. He got his teammates involved before looking to score himself. During the game he didn't take a ton of shots but did hit a three in the first quarter. Later on he got to his mid-range shot a few times before finishing out with a handful of free throws. He finished with 14 points and 5 assists in the win.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Summit Academy 54 Rich Township 48</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2621194' first='Jayden' last='Williams'] 2026 Rich Township&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A game that had a very slow start. Jayden was one of the few guys who had his shots falling in the second quarter. He connected on two jumpers and a three-pointer to lead all scores at half with 9 points. In the second half he didn't get as many clean shots but did score two more times. Jayden finished with 13 points.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1766460' first='Al' last='Brooks'] 2025 Rich Township&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We are used to Brooks having big numbers after games but in his Raptor debut he struggled at times to score. Al converted some difficult layups and even finished missed shots to rack up rebounds. Brooks didn't look as comfortable in the opening game as usual. He didn't have much space to operate. With more reps and games Al will start putting up big numbers this season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->