Mike's Saturday Standouts

On Saturday I attended three games in Columbus, Richmond Heights Vs Harvest Prep, Upper Arlington Vs Grove City and Eastmoor Academy @ Whitehall. In this article I'll break down the five standouts I saw during that day of hoops.    Emory had a massive weekend with a 32 point performance in a win at Sandusky and another strong showing against Harvest Prep in another marquee victory for the Spartans. Emory is a quick guard who can knockdown shots off the catch and attack closeouts off the dribble. Working well off the Division I talent Richmond Heights has, Emory can push the pace either as a primary ball handler or a runner streaking down the court to score in transition. When the Spartans are forced to play in the half-court, Emory had a couple nice cuts that led to easy shots as well. If Richmond Heights is going to defend their crown one last time, they'll need this type of performance from Emory in the playoffs.     Harvest Prep came out the gates sleepy and dug themselves a double-digit hole after the first few minutes of the game. They led a ferocious comeback to cut the game within two possessions in the fourth quarter before eventually falling short against a fellow Division V powerhouse program. Campbell was scoring efficiently in the paint with a handful of layups at the rim. When the Harvest Prep guards were able to get to the paint, Campbell made himself available for layups on either block and also finished off a BLOB. With his size advantage in the paint, Campbell also had a few second and third chance opportunities due to his offensive rebounding abilities. Columbus is loaded in Division V so it will be interesting to see who emerges from the group of teams.     Upper Arlington trailed at halftime but Smith came out of the locker room determined to lead a comeback with his future college head coach in attendance. With a layup off a backdoor cut, a 3-pointer off a DHO, a lefty layup off an offensive rebound and a monster slam dunk, Smith led his team to a comeback victory less than 24 hours after beating Hilliard Bradley in a conference rivalry game. Smith also made a couple nice drop-off passes to teammates like [player_tooltip player_id='1469692' first='Weston' last='Gregg'], who also had a big game for the Golden Bears.     The freshman came up huge on the big stage and almost carried Grove City to a statement win. Saxton is a quick guard who showed improved 3-point shooting off the dribble with some loud makes from downtown. I've always been impressed with Saxton's quickness and ability to get to the rim at his size as he displayed some impressive dribble moves and pump fakes to get himself the space to score at the rim. If you combine this improved 3-point shooting with those skills and Saxton is going to be a tough cover for a long time for opposing OCC schools.     One of the more interesting talents in the Columbus city league, Moultry has had a strong Sophomore season with numerous double-double performances. Standing at 6'8, Moultry can protect the rim with his length and snatch rebounds over smaller defenders. I was also impressed by his passing ability out of the post, knowing where he should be looking if the defense sends a double-team his way. When Eastmoor Academy was running away with the game in the fourth quarter, Moultry had a powerful slam-dunk to cap off the rivalry game win over Whitehall. Expect to hear a lot more about Moultry over the next few seasons as he should continue to improve.

On Saturday I attended three games in Columbus, Richmond Heights Vs Harvest Prep, Upper Arlington Vs Grove City and Eastmoor Academy @ Whitehall. In this article I'll break down the five standouts I saw during that day of hoops.