Cody Goggin

7th Place: Glendale (MO) vs. Christ the King (NY)

Glendale and Christ the King got the day started quick. This game began up-tempo as could be, with multiple turnovers and six three pointers between the two teams in the first four minutes. The pace continued throughout the first half until Christ the King started to go to their dominant big men Kofi Cockburn and Moussa Cisse more and more, realizing that they have quite the advantage over the Falcons in that respect.

At one point in the second quarter, Monty Johal caught fire for Glendale and score eight straight. Despite his 14 point first-half effort, Glendale trailed 45-38 at the half. The 14 made three pointers between the two teams, combned with the 12 total turnovers kept the game going at a blistering pace.

In the second half, the big men for Christ the King began to take over. Cisse threw down a pair of thunderous slams. In the end, the Royals’ size was too much for Glendale. It was dunk after dunk after dunk, followed up by some blocks and put backs. Despite the efforts of the Falcons, they just couldn’t quite climb back into it, losing 86-68. Johal led all scorers with his 24 points,while his teammates Jordan Walton and Jaxon Davis combined for 26 more. On the other side, Cockburn put up 22 points and seven rebounds while his frontcourt teammate Moussa Cisse had a double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds.

Consolation: Ozark (MO) vs. Wasatch Academy (UT)

Ozark continued to win with their strength like they have for much of this tournament. That stenghth’s name is Quinn Nelson. So far in this tourney, Nelson has scored his 1,000th career point and a game-sealing dunk, so you knew he would do something on Saturday. That he did, racking up 15 points in the first half, nailing five three pointers to give the Tigers of Ozark a 28-21 lead at the break.

This strategy was working fine for Ozark until the second half. Nelson started off 0-2 from three while Ozark did not score in the last 6:19 of the second half, only putting up 4 points in the entire frame and trailing as they found themselves trailing 33-32 at the end of three. Luckily for them, Wasatch was held without a field goal for the same length of time, only getting a few free throws.

The game went back and forth throughout the whole forth quarter, bringing the game to a head with 26.5 seconds left and Wasatch trailing by one with the ball. After a missed first shot attempt, Mady Sissokko got the rebound and scored in the paint to put Wasatch up 47-46 with 10.8 seconds left.  In an anti-climactic ending, Ozark lost a ball at half court and about turned it over before throwing away a pass as time expired.

Quinn Nelson continued to impress with 29 points while no one else on the Tigers had more than 4 points. Cal recruit Matt Bradley led Wasatch Academy with 14 points on the night, good enough for Wasatch to win consolation.

Dunk Contest

Darrick Jones Jr. of Oak Hill won the dunk contest by jumping over a couple of kids in the final round.

Third-Place: Brentwood (TN) vs. Webster Groves (MO)

On paper, this looked like the guard matchup of the night. Brentwood’s Darius Garland, the five-star point guard heading to Vanderbilt, versus Courtney Ramey, who has been putting on a shooting exhibition of his own thus far. Spoiler alert: it lived up to the hype. Ramey was just as good as usual, but Garland was out of this world. His handles and finishing ability are on another level and there is now no doubt in my mind that he will not succeed just at the next level, but possibly even in the pros. Check this out for some of his highlights:

Garland ended up hitting two free throws in crunch time to give him exactly 100 points for the tournament, becoming only the fourth ever player to do so. The Vanderbilt commit finished the game with 34 points. On the other side of the guard battle, Courtney Ramey scored 21 points of his own. Carte’Are Gordon did not make much of an impact in the score column (7 points), but pulled down 10 boards.

Championship: La Lumiere (IN) vs. Oak Hill (VA)

The atmosphere was insane for this game. Almost 11,000 fans gathered at JQH to witness these great players on a national broadcast and it did not disappoint.

While the third-place game looked to be a matchup of guards, the intriguing battle in this game would take place in this post. The dominant post force that is Isaiah Stewart (#26 ESPNU60) for the Lakers would matchup against Kansas commit David McCormack (#33 in ESPNU100). These are two true posts players that aren’t afraid to bully each other. These two got together early, both getting a warning for shoving in the post in the opening minutes.

Oak Hill jumped out to an 11-4 lead but the Lakers were able to pull closer before the end of the first, 13-8. The Warriors remained in control throughout the rest of the first half, leading 31-23 at the break. Things didn’t get any better in the second half for La Lumiere as it just seemed like they were outmatched all night. While they did make a run to pull within seven at one point, it never got any closer than that and Oak Hill was able to win their third Tournament of Champions in the last four years by a score of 78-70.

Keyontae Johnson had 24 points, joined by Keldon’s 23 (and 10 rebounds)  to lead Oak Hill. Isaiah Stewart continued to impress for La Lumiere with 23 points and eight rebounds of his own. Despite the championship loss, I still believe that Stewart was the second best player at this tournament.

If you have never been to the Tournament of Champions, I would highly recommend it. Might be a bit of a stretch, but for basketball fans, Saturday night of they tourney is almost a bucket list item. This is a great experience for the players as well. I can’t wait to come back for my fifth tournament next year.