City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The gym name after the best player in Lower Merion history will play host to an event named in his honor, as the Scholastic Play-by-Play Kobe Bryant Classic takes over LM on Saturday with a six-game affair.

The three boys’ games all feature District 1 squads playing out-of-area teams, with quite a few Division I prospects taking part on six teams that will all factor into their various district/state playoffs.

Here is a full schedule of the event, followed by a breakdown of the three boys’ games:

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*Life Center vs. Abington Friends -- 11:30 AM
*Council Rock North vs. North Penn -- 1:00 PM
*Lower Merion vs. SCH Academy -- 2:30 PM

Lower Merion vs. Carlisle -- 4:15 PM
Hatboro-Horsham vs. Sanford School (Del.) -- 6:00 PM
Church Farm vs. Notre Dame (N.J.) -- 7:45 PM

* = Girls’ game

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Lower Merion vs. Carlisle
This could very well be a preview of a PIAA 6A state tournament matchup, as both the Aces and Thundering Herd have their sights set on not just league championships but potential deep tournament runs, something that both programs are used to. Lower Merion (9-5) of course gets home-court advantage, something that could be extremely important for a team that has some senior leadership and talent in Terrell Jones and Noah Fennell but also relies heavily on a sophomore class that includes talented guards Stephen Payne and Jack Forrest, among others. The Thundering Herd (12-4) feature a senior-laden squad led by athletic 6-2 guard DeShawn Millington, a terrific scorer from all three levels, and 6-7 big man Ethan Houston is getting D-II looks for his post presence. Don't expect the District 3 squad to be anything but super-confident, even rolling into unfriendly territory.

Hatboro-Horsham vs. Sanford School (Del.)
The area's biggest summer stock riser, Clifton Moore, leads the Hatters against one of the region's most talented freshmen in this inter-state battle. Hatboro-Horsham (8-6) tends to go how its' star forward goes; Moore, a lanky 6-10 wing forward, has a ton of upside with his ability to stretch the floor and change the game defensively, though he's still prone to some quiet evenings. Fellow senior Jay Davis, a talented 6-2 scoring guard, usually picks up the slack. Look out for Sanford School (6-6) freshman J'yare Davis, a 6-5 wing guard with a supremely confident scoring touch; they also have a 6-6 freshman in Devin Harris, so this is a Warriors squad with a lot of long-term upside.

Church Farm vs. Notre Dame (N.J.)
It’s a matchup of two very impressive sophomores, though John Bol Ajak and Isaiah Wong couldn’t be much different. Ajak, Church Farm’s 6-9, 220-pound forward, is a rapidly-improving big man with a ton of upside; intelligent and athletic, he’s already an on-court leader for the Griffins, with good defensive instincts and timing and an expanding offensive arsenal as well. Wong, a silky-smooth 6-2 scoring guard, is a wiry playmaker with offers from Rutgers and Saint Joseph’s already in his pocket. Notre Dame has another Division I commit in the fold in senior Manny Stokes-Dixon, bound for Saint Peter's in the fall; Church Farm doesn't quite have that, but has a solid trio of seniors in the backcourt in point guard James Lawton plus scorers Augustas Veniukevicius and Faustas Kulbickas.