Fall League Review: East Ridge vs DeLaSalle

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It was top 5 Class AAA team DeLaSalle against top 10 Class AAAA team East Ridge last weekend at the Breakdown Fall League. Here are my takeaways. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One</strong>. <em>MVP Irvin</em>. [player_tooltip player_id='2103258' first='De'von' last='Irvin']. Irvin worked his way into the starting line-up as a sophomore, he was a key player on a top five 17u team playing up last spring/summer, and De'von is coming off a great weekend at the Fall League. Irvin first grabbed the attention in fall league with scores and then instantly getting up on the ball and pressuring Raptors. Then in overtime it was Irvin who ran the lead guard spot and then hit the game winner for De. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two</strong>. <em>Islander Defense</em>. [player_tooltip player_id='1560882' first='Cedric' last='Tomes'] was off to a great start and he hit five threes in this video so it looks like he had at least a decent shooting day. But what you also see is Irvin, [player_tooltip player_id='1968456' first='Justin' last='Johnson'], [player_tooltip player_id='1288747' first='Andrew' last='Apiagyei'], and the rest of the crew pressuring and getting after the Raptors backcourt forcing turnovers. And the entire defense did a nice job collapsing on Tomes after he got past the first man. I loved what I saw from [player_tooltip player_id='1968456' first='Justin' last='Johnson'] making grinding plays on both ends including that charge take. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three</strong>. <em>Raptor Depth</em>. Raptors look like they are going to have even more depth than expected. There is a nice group of returning players but last weekend when the Raptors lost in overtime there were players like [player_tooltip player_id='1428992' first='James' last='Martin'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1950404' first='Bennett' last='Skinner'] making plays alongside Tomes and [player_tooltip player_id='1284105' first='Charlie' last='Theis']. There were others making plays I quite simply have never seen before. They took the loss but I think East Ride is going to be deeper than expected. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four</strong>. Irvin put the game away but [player_tooltip player_id='1148715' first='Jaden' last='Morgan'] in transition, slashing and knocking out a few jumpers did his part as the go to scorer. The future UMD Bulldog played the role of scorer in the way he needed to against a top team and his team won the game. My favorite part of Morgan is that I think he has a lot of room to continue growing. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:embed {"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY6BqfFEPJA","type":"video","providerNameSlug":"youtube","responsive":true,"className":"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"} --> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY6BqfFEPJA </div></figure> <!-- /wp:embed -->