Best of the Best – Game 3 Preview (5A All-Stars vs. Metro League)

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 3rd annual Best of the Best Tournament takes place at Reynolds High School this weekend, May 30 and May 31, as many of the state's top seniors will don the uniforms of their respective conferences and battle for league pride. Six of the seven 6A conferences will be represented and a 5A all-star team will round out the field in what should be a very competitive two days of games.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the third contest that will take place at 1:15 on Saturday, May 30, the 5A All-Stars take on the Metro League. Here's a look at that matchup.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 5A All-Stars, coached this year by La Salle head coach Sean Kelly with assistant Demetrius McQuarn from Centennial, is another team that if all the rostered players are able to participate, has the base to win it all. There's size, great guard play, and future college talent going to every level of play on the roster. Big man and co-5A Player of the Year Bryce Lowenback from Crook County leads the way and if the future Idaho State Bengal wasn't enough, he'll have plenty of help. D-II signee Lucas Labounty (Western Colorado) from Thurston was one of the top shooters and scorers in the entire state and D-III commit Foster Kettering (Pomona-Pitzer) from Summit is an absolute matchup nightmare with his size and skill. The other co-5A Player of the Year, Fuzzy Montague, and Keion James from Parkrose (both headed to West Valley in California) combined with Canby's Jaxon Lawson (Chemeketa) make up an incredible combination of point guard play and Mid-Willamette Player of the Year Jonah Lasselle (Coe College for soccer) does a little bit of everything. The Centennial trio of Jemel Baker (Siskiyous), Quentin Neal, and Harold Turner will all provide depth.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Metro League, with a new coach this year in Southridge assistant Nejuan Thompson, has reached the Best of the Best Finals the past two years - can they make it three in a row? They may play more of an underdog role this year but never count out the Metro with their disciplined style of play and teamwork. Pacing the squad will be two Southridge standouts headed to college with big man Ryder Zanon (Seattle Pacific) and Drew Groenig (Bushnell), and a quartet of players from Westview in Dayton Jenkins (undecided), Dash Nicely (Linfield), Ian Bautista, and Justin Cheng all have great experience playing with one another. As we've seen in past Best of the Best Tournaments, that's sometimes all a team needs to pull off wins.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/DYH_2lBEVah/","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"instagram","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.instagram.com/p/DYH_2lBEVah/ </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/DX-fhPSCX3F/","type":"rich","providerNameSlug":"instagram","responsive":true} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.instagram.com/p/DX-fhPSCX3F/ </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed -->