The Playaz AAU 17’s start their season this weekend with the annual Spring Fling event in Paterson,NJ! The games will begin on Thursday and end with the “Chips” on Sunday!

Kennedy H.S., Paterson, N.J…… The Spring Fling Session III was Nike sponsored for the 16u Peach Jam qualifying spots in July was run by the Playaz Basketball Club and featured some of the best teams in the Country! An abundance of College coaches were in attendance and in the end witnessed Ohio’s King James Shooting Stars and Oregon’s Team Fast get the qualifying bids! King James being the eventual 16u Champs in the event and Team Fast being the runner-up! The tournament featured a 14u Tournament which also brought top teams from around the Country and beyond as Canada’s CIA Bounce team proved to be the top team in the Tournament with a thrilling win over the Playaz team in overtime! The tremendous weekend of action also had a 17 Open where unsigned Seniors got to show their wares and it concluded with the Playaz Open team winning the “Chip”!

                                                                              16u PEACH JAM QUALIFIER:                            

                                        KING JAMES SHOOTING STARS  93                 TEAM FAST  77

   This game was anticlimactic because of the fact that each team was assured of reaching the Peach Jam qualifier with their semi final wins! But the game was played and King James proved to be the best team in the tournament ! Kipper Nichols led King James with 21 points and Luke Kennard finished with 15 in a balanced attack! Anthony Mathis lead Team Fast with 20 points while Payton Pritchard finished with 18!

                                                                              THE QUALIFYING GAMES:   THE SEMIFINALS

                                                  KING JAMES   72                        CIA  BOUNCE  63

Luke Kennard scored 28 points to lead James to their Peach Jam bid! King James can get you in an assortment of ways and they did just that in their 72-63 win over a talented CIA Bounce team! V.J. King scored 14 points, Kyle Ahrens scored 12 and  A.J. Harris added 11 for the King James squad! Bounce was led by the play of Dillon Brooks with 18 points and Jalen Poyser with 12 points! James led the entire way and had to hold on to a late Bounce run!

                                         TEAM FAST  55                   BOO WILLIAMS  53

This was probably considered an upset with Team Fast’s win over the experienced Boo Williams team! Payton Pritchard, a class of 2016 was special in the game as he was difficult for Boo to handle in this tight contest! Pritchard scored 23 points and his teammate Anthony Mathis added 18! Team Fast had loss their wing Eli Linger the night before due to a sprained ankle and he had been playing well so the lost figured to really damage the Fast’s chances! Boo was led by Chris Clarke and Malik Gray with 14 and 13 apiece and an impressive showing from 2017 guard Cltff Coleman!

16U NOTES: Team Final  brought their 16u and 15u team and Team Scan did the same and they all reached the quarterfinals! Scan’s 16u team had a great chance against Boo Williams but fell late 59-57! and a case could be made that if high major Sophomore Thomas Bryant had not gotten hurt in the contest Scan would have pulled it out! Their 15’s lost to Bounce but Temple Gibbs was outstanding throughout the whole weekend! Team Final’s 15u lost to King James, while the 16’s were shocked by that Fast team! The Playaz teams won their consolation games today as the 15’s beat the Brooklyn Badgers and the 16’s also won!

                                                                                              17 U OPEN  FINAL

                                                                           PLAYAZ  17’S    62           CJEOTO   47

DeAndre Noble-Haywood scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds to lead  the Playaz open team to a 62-47 “Chip” win over CJEOTO 62-47! Josh Morris added 15 points for the Playaz who average margin of victory was over 20 a game in the Tournament! The Playaz played with 6 players and still found a way to pull it off! Jahmal Lane led CJEOTO with 14 points!

                                                                                                                        14U  FINALS

                                                                                     CIA BOUNCE  71         PLAYAZ 14’S  70 O.T.

Anthony McNish scored 20 points, Carlo Dubria scored 15 points and Kascius Small-Martin added 14 points as CIA Bounce defdeated the Playaz 71-70 in overtime in a thrilling down to the wire contest! Darius Thorne and Grant Audu were also key contributors in the game! The Playaz were down by 8 late in the game but fought their way back to tie it and actually had a chance to win it at the end of regulation! Marcus McClary led the Playaz with 19 points, R.J. Cole had 18 points,while LeAndre Washington added 13!

NOTES: College’s in the building over the weekend! North Carolina, Michigan, Butler, Indiana, Ohio St., Seton Hall, Villanova, Boston College, Virginia, Rutgers, Maryland, Iona, Akron, Penn St., St. Peters, Delaware St., St. Francis, L.I.U., N.J.I.T. and local Felician!