EYBL, UAA recap from Indianapolis

New England Recruiting Report | Tuesday, April 26th, 2016

Nike and Under Armour both set up shot in Indianapolis this weekend for the last of two evaluation periods.

At the EYBL, BABC had a resurgence going 3-1 in the session while Expressions Elite went 2-2 and now New England’s two Nike sponsored programs find themselves tied in third place in Division C at 4-3 on the season heading into session 3 next month in May.

Terrell Brown emerged as the star for BABC this weekend. He opened with a solid outing of 12 points and 7 rebounds in a win over Team United but exploded for 21 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals Saturday morning in a 68-43 win over the family. He repeated that pattern in the second half of the weekend, going for 10 and 6 in a narrow 53-52 win over Arkansas Wings Saturday night and then being one of the lone bright spots in a loss to the St. Louis Eagles on Sunday where he finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 6 blocks.

Justin Mazzulla had his best outing of the weekend in the win over Team United, dropping 12 points and 9 assists while Marcus Santos Silva added 11 points and 7 rebounds as Cole Swider was a spark off the bench with 9 points in 7 minutes. Silva had a double-double against the Family with 10 points and 10 boards as he and Brown secured as many rebounds as the entire Family team (19) while Jalyn Hinton led the way with 14 on the perimeter. The win over the Hawks was classic BABC basketball as they controlled the tempo of the game and handed out 17 assists against just 9 turnovers while Corey Romich sparked the team with 15 points on five three-pointers.

Expressions opened their weekend with a 69-65 win over Phoenix Family and the top ranked sophomore in the country, Marvin Bagley. The “big four” all finished in double figures as Tremont Waters led the way with 18 points, 6 assists and 5 steals while Nick Richards, Kimani Lawrence and Jermaine Samuels finished with 13, 12 and 10 respectively. Samuels had his best game of the weekend the following morning, putting up 18 points and 6 rebounds, to lead Expressions to a 61-60 win over Oakland Soldiers while Waters had another balanced game with 12 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Saturday night saw a 53-67 setback against New York Lightning. Samuels was again the high man with 17 points while Richards battled foul trouble for most of the game. Joe Kasperzyk provided a nice spark with 9 points in 8 minutes off the bench. The weekend wrapped up with a 53-59 loss at the hands of MOKAN Elite. Richards was at his best with 18 points and 12 rebounds while Lawrence also had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

New England prep products also continued to star on a number of other EYBL teams. Andrew Platek is currently leading the EYBL in three-point shooting at 54% on the season for the Albany City Rocks. He had another strong weekend with 18 points (4-6 from three) against Howard Pulley, 17 points on 4-10 shooting from three against Georgia Stars and 15 points against Meanstreets. Meanwhile Anthony Gaines’ continues his breakout spring with double-doubles in all but one of the City Rocks games this weekend. He currently ranks as the 6th leading rebounder in the EYBL at 11.3 per game. Kristers Zoriks also continues to play big minutes for a City Rocks team that went 2-2 this weekend and is now tied for first place in Division A while Walker Miller had 10 points in Friday night’s game against the Georgia Stars.

Hamidou Diallo exploded for 33points on 12-18 shooting and 12 rebounds in an 86-85 win for the New York Rens over Oakland Soldiers on Friday night. He wasn’t quite as efficient for the rest of the weekend but still put up 15, 19 and 20 to lead the Rens to a 3-1 record, good enough for 2nd place in Division C. PSA Cardinals currently sits atop Division C with a 6-1 record while both Hasahn French and Walter Whyte continue to play major rotation minutes.

Across town at the second session of the Under Armour Association, the Connecticut Basketball Club finished with a 3-1 record in the u17 division scoring wins over D.C. Blue Devils, Baltimore United and Oklahoma Run PWP. Four players scored in double figures in Friday night’s win over the Blue Devils with Jared Simmons scoring a team high 16, Kewan Smoote and Mike McGuirl both putting up 14 and KeAndre Fair 11 points and 5 assists. Smoote had 12 more Saturday morning in a loss to Earl Watson Elite while Chaylyn Martin added 10. Simmons exploded for 27 points on 10-12 shooting from the floor and 5-6 from three in the win over Baltimore United with McGuirl and Martin added 14 and 12 respectively as CBC shot a combined 25-38 from the field while handing out 13 assists against only 3 turnovers. It was more of the same on Sunday morning as Simmons had 20 more on 7-11 from the field and 4-8 from three while McGuirl added 17 on 6-12 shooting and Smoote and Fair finished with 12 and 10 respectively. Jacee Martin handed out 6 assists in that win.