LAS VEGAS – All in all, it was a pretty nifty Wednesday for the Southern California high school basketball scene:
Artesia senior-to-be James Harden, roughly eight hours after scoring 34 points in the Pump-N-Run Elite team’s 86-80 adidas Super Sixty Four final victory over D.C. Assault, never cooled while adding 33 to lead his team past Houston Hoops, 103-86, in Cox Pavilion during the Las Vegas Prep Showcase.
The team from Texas beat Seattle Friends of Hoop, 70-52, earlier Wednesday in the final of The Main Event, also played in Cox Pavilion.
Some 18 miles southeast of Cox Pavilion in Foothill High in Henderson, Daniel Hackett of St. John Bosco scored 21 points to help the Southern California All-Stars bounce back from a 13-point deficit and knock of Chicago’s Mean Streets Express, 69-63, in the final of the Open Division of the Reebok Big Time Tournament.
Hackett would be a senior at SJB next month but is taking three summer school classes in an attempt to fulfill his graduation requirements and skip what would normally be his final year as a prep in order to enroll at USC and play with the Trojans during the coming season.
He shared MVP honors with the most dominant low-post presence on the high school scene, 6-9 Kevin Love, who had 20 points and 15 rebounds in the final some 30 hours after announcing that he would sign with UCLA in November.
Brandon Jennings, a slick and explosive guard who spent two years at Dominguez but plans to attending Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., also helped SCA’s cause considerably by play quality defense in the second half against Mean Streets Express guard Eric Gordon, who was held to seven points after scoring 18 before intermission.
Yo, Frank, keep up the good work!