Southern Jam Fest Championship Sunday Recap
The 2016 Hoop Group Southern Jam Fest is always an intriguing stop on the basketball travel tour with its mixture of programs from different shoe companies as well as the array of talent in general on display. Sunday saw the conclusion of the event with four Champions crowned - from age groups 14-Under up to 17-Under.
We'll have plenty more to come on VirginiaPreps.com, including profile interviews and highlighting prospects who impressed. For now, see a Recap of Championship Sunday with our focus on the 17 and 16-Under divisions...
We-R1 Topples Team Loaded VA for 17-Under Title:
We-R1 outlasted the field of 64 to win the 17-Under Championship at Southern Jam Fest, defeating Team Loaded Virginia 75-65 in the title game.
It was a dominant weekend for the Delaware-based AAU program that plays on the Under Armour circuit. All six of their wins were by double-figures with the average margin of victory being 24.7 points per contest. In fact, the 10-point victory over the Adidas-branded Team Loaded was their closest triumph of the weekend.
Oddly enough, We-R1 played practically the entire Championship game without the guy who was most instrumental in getting them there, five-star guard Trevon Duval.
Rated #5 nationally in the country by Rivals.com, Duval averaged 22 points and eight assists per game at Southern Jam Fest. He scored 24 points in their 74-61 semifinal victory over DC Premier, which featured a couple of players - Prentiss Hubb and Naji Marshall - who were instrumental in the 16-Under program winning the Southern Jam Fest title in 2015.
But Duval sat almost the entire Championship game due to leg cramps. In his absence, Eric Ayala, a 2018 guard from Putnam Science Academy (DE), picked up the slack with a game-high 33 points, 21 coming before half-time.
Ayala, who currently holds 11 offers with Cincinnati and Penn State among his suitors to date, played last year for the Puerto Rico 16U national team. He drained five three-pointers prior to intermission. That came after scoring just four points in the semis.
Even though it was the closest final margin for We-R1 and Team Loaded would make a push by trimming a 19-point deficit down to seven in the second half, they were never threatened. We-R1 jumped out to a 7-0 lead to begin the game and had 48 points on the board by the break.
In the loss for Team Loaded VA, which went 5-1 on the weekend, they got 17 points from Hampton 2017 point guard Mastadi Pitt. He bunched 13 of those points in the second half, including a trio of three-pointers.
Signature Wins for Team Loaded:
It was a successful weekend for Ty White's Team Loaded organization on a few different fronts.
For one, their 16-Under North Carolina squad won the Championship at Southern Jam Fest, 72-65 over DC Premier. Darius McGhee bolted them to a big lead, 45-28 at the break behind his 16 points. He finished with 18.
Two other Class of 2018 standouts, Trey Wertz (6'5") and Quan McCluney (6'6"), scored 20 and 19 points, respectively in the Championship triumph.
Team Loaded Virginia reached the 17-Under Championship game thanks to a thrilling quarterfinal win over New York's Jayhawks and then beating in-state nemesis Boo Williams in the semifinals.
The matchup between Loaded VA and Boo didn't have a standing-room only crowd like last year, but it still was a much anticipated duel. In 2015, Boo Williams rallied past Team Loaded VA in a quarterfinal clash that went down to the final possession.
This time, Loaded won by a count of 59-49, slamming the door shut on a pair of dunks in the final minutes by 2017 wing K.J. Davis, who began the spring playing for Boo Williams. Pitt and Davis scored 12 points apiece to pace a balanced scoring attack for Loaded.
In the loss for Boo, 2018 wing Keldon Johnson proved to be the best player on the floor. The Park View-South Hill product scored 20 points, 13 in the first half and was a one-on-one mismatch. Johnson played last year for Team Loaded's 15-Under travel team.
Down five with 48 seconds to go against the NY Jayhawks, Team Loaded staged a comeback and won 63-62 on Rasir Bolton's driving lay-up at the buzzer. Antwan Walker led the way with 22 points in the victory.
Team Loaded NC also got the better of Boo Williams in a 16-Under semifinal matchup, winning 78-54. White had 21 points, while McCluney and Wertz scored 12 points apiece in the first half. Dajour Rucker, a 2019 forward from Cape Henry in Virginia Beach, scored 15 in defeat.
Watson Performs in Return to the 757:
Along with the aforementioned Keldon Johnson of Boo Williams, there were a host of prospects that performed well on Championship Sunday, even though they didn't get to hoist the trophy.
One of them was Nate Watson, a 6'8" power forward who's currently rated a three-star prospect and #143 nationally in the Class of 2017 by Rivals.com. He was the driving force for DC Premier as they made it to the Final Four in the 17-Under division at Southern Jam Fest.
Watson, who began his High School career at nearby Churchland in Portsmouth and now plays at Bishop O'Connell, threw down a couple of big-time slams (see the photo and tweet above) against Baltimore Elite. The 13 points he contributed in the first half helped them to a 37-31 lead at the half in a quarterfinal game they'd go on to win 74-67.
Bishop McNamara guard Jamir Moultrie poured in 21 for Baltimore Elite in the loss, while Travis Ingram, who helped Norcom High out of Portsmouth to its third consecutive state title in March, chipped in 18.
In semis on Sunday, even eventual tourney winner We-R1 didn't have an answer for Watson, who pumped in 20 points and was effective throughout on the low block.
His recruitment has taken off in recent months with offers from Marquette and Kansas coming in late April. So far on the Under Armour Association circuit, he's averaging 16.1 points per game and shooting a very efficient 64.1% from the field.
Other Championship Results:
Team Takeover based out of Washington, D.C. captured the 15-Under title at the Southern Jam Fest, defeating New Heights in the Championship game. This was especially impressive considering the squad, Team Takeover Black, was a 14-Under squad playing up and ended up being the last one standing in a field of 56.
Leading up to the Championship, the team won three games by three points or less. Keith Stevens' TTO program has produced several high-profile players over the years, and judging from some of the talent on display for the younger divisions, it doesn't appear that the well will be running dry any time soon.
Winning the 14-Under division, which consisted of 16 squads, was Boo Williams. After three double-figure wins in the tourney, they came from double-digits down to beat We-R1 for the title.
Matthew Hatfield serves as State Basketball Analyst for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a staff writer for Tar Heel Illustrated. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him every Saturday at 10 AM on ESPN Radio 94.1, plus watch him on the Cox 11 Sports Report.