David Hassinger (@David_Hassinger),
Varun Kumar (@VRKumar8) &
Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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No area AAU team had a stronger July than WE R1’s oldest group.
After taking home the Under Armour Invitational inaugural title last week in Atlanta, the Delaware-based program came back to the Philadelphia area to host the Battle of the Borders at Life Center Academy (N.J.). They followed that up on Sunday by taking down the Keystone Blazers, 66-63, in overtime at the End of Summer Classic to end the AAU season on a positive note.
It was a bittersweet moment for WE R1 co-director Matt Pauls, who joined his Team NJABC with Terrell Myers’ East Coast Elite program three years back, combining forces and changing names.
WE R1’s 17U squad took home the Under Armour Invitational and the End of Summer Classic the last two weeks. (Photo: Josh Verlin)
The win over the Keystone Blazers marked the final AAU game for several WE R1 standouts over the last few years, including Villanova commit and Blair Academy senior Tim Delaney, Easton (Pa.) wing Tyler Kohl, Trenton Catholic’s James Wright, Archbishop Carroll’s Ernest Aflakpui, and more. Derrick Jones, another mainstay, sat out the final game after playing with his father’s Team Evolution program this final tournament.
It was a group that contributed at both the 16U and 17U level last year, and helped the new organization achieve national success so soon.
“They stayed together and they got better. Often times what happens is at this elite level, it splinters. These guys didn’t splinter, and they got better, and they continued to win and develop,” Pauls said. “It means a ton, it really does mean a ton. They are great players; they’re just as great people.”
The win over the Blazers was arguably the second-biggest victory of the day for WE R1, and certainly their less-attended. A few hours prior, with dozens of Division I coaches and quite a few more fans surrounding the court, WE R1 and Team Final met up in a high-profile, high-powered matchup that saw the Under Armour squad meet up with the area’s only Nike-backed program.
It wasn’t exactly a matchup of two teams playing at full capacity. WE R1 was without Stephens, Carter and Malik Ellison, who broke his leg during the week. Team Final was without Syracuse commit Malachi Richardson, and had just gotten off a flight from Las Vegas a few hours prior.
Still, it was a statement victory by WE R1, who led by as many as 20 in the first half and cruised to a 66-50 win, led by Kohl (23 points) and Jones (14).
“Those are important games because it’s always a good measuring stick for programs,” Pauls said. “We have injuries, they have a missing player, they’re coming back from travel, there’s all of these different things–it just doesn’t matter. Let’s play, let’s go out and get after it.
“Sometimes we’re going to get our hat handed to us, but sometimes we’re going to hand hats. I loved it–[though] I probably wouldn’t have loved it if we would have had our hat handed to us.”
Of course, things didn’t look quite so rosy for the team back after the April live periods. Usual starting point guard Traci Carter (Life Center Academy, N.J.) found out he would miss the entire summer with a torn meniscus, and then St. Andrew’s (Del.) shooting guard Myles Stephens, a Princeton commit, tore his ACL out in Pittsburgh late.
So it was somewhat fitting that the player who made the game-sealing free throws with seven seconds left in overtime was Otis Livingston, a Linden (N.J.) guard who was one of the few who joined the program for this summer.
“It was a great summer playing basketball with these group of guys,” said Livingston, one of the few on the team without any Division I offers, though he’s hearing from several high-academic schools. “Good players, great coaches, just great people in general. It was just nice to play with this team.”
“We’ll never replace Traci Carter, but with Otis, we knew that we were going to get energy and effort and the ability to make plays, and he did that,” Pauls said. “One thing that we worked on him with was dribbling north and south rather than east and west, and once he got that and he started to move the ball north and south, things started to really gel–and that actually happened in July.” –Josh Verlin
The day’s other finals:
16U–Philly Pride vs. WE R1
Philly Pride head coach Sean Colson was tired of watching his team let championships slip away this season.
They never seemed in danger of doing that against WE R1, racing out to a big lead early and dominating their final game of the season, taking the 16U title convincingly 51-37.
Philly Pride’s 16Us won their End of Summer Classic bracket. (Photo: Josh Verlin)
“It was good for us to win because we let a couple of championships slip away,” Colson said. “We won three championships and we lost about two or three in the championships. We’re kind of disappointed about that, but I’m happy with the kids. They did it in front of a lot of people and against a really good team.”
The Pride controlled every aspect of the game, most notably with their sharp ball-movement and tenacious rebounding.
Point guard Stevie Jordan continued his strong play, facilitating his team’s offense, while forward Josh Townsend controlled the glass with 12 rebounds.
“Josh played great. He’s a warrior, always plays good. And all those guys rebounded- LaPri [McCray-Pace], DeAndre [Hunter], even the guards, everybody played well,” Colson said.
Hunter, a junior wing from Friends’ Central, led all scorers with 12 points and was much more assertive when he was on the floor. The Phoenix star looked more comfortable moving up-and-down the floor, as he continues to recover from a broken leg that cost him his entire sophomore season.
Colson was pleased with the improvement his team showed, especially considering the adversity his team faced in the middle of the season.
“We definitely got better. We had one change at point guard when Jabri McCall went to another team, which happened right before we went to Houston, which hurt us,” he said. “We brought David Beatty in and it worked well. I thought the kids did an excellent job of adjusting. At the end of the day I’m happy with the season we had.” –Varun Kumar
15U–WE R1 vs. Team Final
WE R1 took the court a little short handed in their championship matchup. With only six guys, they knew that they would have to come together as a team to win it all.
“If you stick your mind to it and you focus and play as a team you can do whatever, it doesn’t matter how many you got, all you need is five,” WE R1 coach Kyle Finklea said.
The game was tight in the beginning, but towards the end of the first half, WE R1 used its strength inside, coupled with their outside shooting and defense to pull away. They guys also learned a valuable lesson on what it takes to win big games.
“No matter what we gotta fight, all summer we have been trying to fight, this is the first game playing where they fought through the whole game and I’m proud of them,” Finklea said.
One player who stood out for WE R1 all weekend was forward Zach Kent, who attends St. Andrews in Delaware. He scored 13 points in the victory, and was a big factor on both ends of the floor. Finklea spoke highly of the development of Kent and and teammate Eric Ayala, who had 15 points and also played well.
“Eric, he’s doing what he does, he scores the ball for you and he’s our guy, our go to guy,” said Finklea. “Our bigs, their development is just fighting for and scraping and boxing out. They really fight for our team and might not get the ball as much as they want but they play good for us. They got better defensively and they are good at communicating with each other.”
Beating a Team Final squad is always an accomplishment, especially considering how well the U15 Team Final squad has played over past several weeks.
“It feels good because we knew this was going to be a tough game, it’s a big tournament, we wanted to come in and beat them,” Finklea said.
Now, with the July live period officially over, the kids start to gear up for the beginning of the school year and again practicing and playing with their high school teams. They return to their respective schools coming off a successful Summer Final where they added a winning a championship title to their resumes.
“All August we are just doing workouts, until school starts we are just going to be in the gym getting better, it doesn’t stop just because the summer is over.” –David Hassinger
