Titans Holiday Hoops Standouts

The Titans Holiday Hoops event brought six games to Berea-Midpark High School, in this article we'll break down the standout performers from the day.    Still a sleeper in northeast Ohio, Holley doesn't generate the same buzz a lot of players with his talent level do around the area. I'm not really sure why because Holley is electric to watch with his ability to fly in the air as an elite vertical athlete who tries to tear the rim down on dunks. Combine that with his ability to knock down time and space 3-pointers and a couple finishes in the paint where he was simply too big and too strong to be stopped and Holley had a dominant performance on Friday morning to open the day.     Considering Moore and Holley are around the same height and position, I expect the pair to guard each other but they both mostly scored on cross match-ups throughout the day. This meant both players were able to attack weaker defenders and Moore especially did a nice job of using his length around the rim and loved to use the euro-step to avoid rim protectors. With long strides as well, Moore was tough to stay in front of and flashed the ability to knock down perimeter jumpers. Moore shows a lot of natural talent and could be an interesting long-term bet for a small college program willing to develop him in the weight room.     Trinity got a gritty win over Revere in a back-and-forth contest that saw neither side take control until the final stages of the game. Duncan had a handful of athletic finishes at the rim, had a couple mid-range shots and turned defense into offense with a few steals as well for an athletic Trinity team that wants to speed up the opposition.     Duncan is such a unique player to watch because of the shot diet that he has for Euclid. With almost any other player in the state most of the shots Duncan attempts would be horrible looks for them. To Duncan's credit, even when he misses these contested looks they are on target and just off, making most of them good shots for him. An elite tough shot maker, Duncan can score using step backs or against a hard closeout. Never afraid to shoot it, Duncan can score 35+ points on 30 shots any night, similar to what he did on Friday to lead his team to the win. I'll be curious how Duncan adjusts to the college level where his volume will decrease, it could let him get easier looks and improve his percentages across the board. Few players in Ohio put the ball in the bucket as smoothly as Duncan does and that gives him interesting upside at the college level.     One of the elite wing athletes in northeast Ohio, few players elevate like Caffey does at the rim. With a couple monster dunks in traffic, Caffey got the crowd going crazy after his highlight-reel dunks on Friday. Wanting to attack and finish with the left hand, Caffey is a solid energy piece for a well balanced Nordonia squad led by Caffey and senior guard [player_tooltip player_id='1887692' first='Trevor' last='Turnbull'], who was also a standout in the tight loss to Euclid.     North Royalton did an excellent job of breaking the press in the second half of their game against the host Titans and found the open man to score the basketball. Escano was occasionally the guy waiting at the other end of the court for his teammates to break the press and pass it down the court for him to finish with a layup. He also knocked down a couple of corner 3-pointers and had a confident finish off a steal. Really impressed with the discipline of North Royalton in the second half, taking care of the basketball against a swarming defense in a tough road environment.     Reece has been a hot name in northeast Ohio this season after breaking the Berea-Midpark school record for points in a game against Saint Ed's. He showed why on Friday as Reece can fill it up in a hurry as a slasher. Playing with a high motor, Reece gets some easy buckets off the full-court press that Berea-Midpark runs for the full 32 minutes. Combine that with his strength and soft touch at the rim and he's efficient in the paint as well. On a night where he couldn't really find his 3-point shot, Reece still finished with around 25 points, a top scorer in northeast Ohio's 2027 class.

The Titans Holiday Hoops event brought six games to Berea-Midpark High School, in this article we'll break down the standout performers from the day.