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Westtown Invitational: Orangeville wins, other news and notes

11/20/2017, 10:15am EST
By Owen McCue

Michigan commit Ignas Brazdeikis (above) and Orangeville Prep took down Westtown on Sunday to win the eight-team prep school tournament. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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The eight-team Westtown Invitational concluded on Sunday with four games. Three local schools (Westtown School, Phelps School and HIll School) competed at the event. Here are some of the big stories, news and notes from the event.

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Orangeville beats Westtown in battle of stars

This was the championship game coach Seth Berger hoped for when he set up the Westtown Basketball Invitational.

It was the reason Orangeville Prep coach Nathan Johnson had his team make the 500-mile trek from Ontario, Canada to West Chester, Pennsylvania.

The championship game of the tournament featured the tournament’s two most talented teams and its two most talented players.

Michigan commit Ignas Brazdeikis and Orangeville Prep took down Duke commit Cam Reddish and Westtown, 60-59, in an absolute thriller.

“That’s exactly the matchup we wanted to have and exactly the game we wanted to have,” Berger said. “We just ended up one point too short. It was awesome. It was fun to watch, a fun game to coach.”

The two teams were tied at the end of the first quarter, but Orangeville Prep built a 33-23 advantage by halftime, using a mixture of defenses to hold Westtown to eight points in the second quarter.

Berger tried to switch up his offensive approach at halftime. He said he wanted at least one paint touch or short corner touch before shooting a three. Westtown went on a 12-0 run at the end of the third quarter to cut its deficit to one. The team continued its run into the fourth, scoring six more points to build a 48-43 lead before a dunk by Orangeville’s Mathew Alexander with 5:32 left finally ended the 18 unanswered points for Westtown.

But Orangeville was able to bounce back from the potential knock out blow.

“The beautiful thing about us is, we don’t panic,” Johnson said. “I have kids who have played here before, have seen this, so we really don’t go up and down. We stay the course.”

The difference in the game was Orangeville senior Keshaun Saunders. He hit three threes down the stretch to help put his team up 58-57 with just under a minute left. Westtown got two good looks to try and retake the lead. Reddish hit the back of the rim on a pull-up three with plenty of room. Junior guard Jalen Gaffney collected the rebound, but missed a semi-contested fadeaway jumper near the free throw line.

Brazdeikis gave Westtown another chance when he missed the front end of the one-and-one with 21.3 seconds left. However, the 6-foot-8 wing guard hustled down the floor to block Jake Forrester’s attempt inside. He grabbed the miss and knocked down two free throws to put Orangeville up 60-57 with 4.5 seconds left.

Reddish missed a desperate heave at the rim amidst three defenders. Forrester grabbed the rebound and scored a meaningless basket as time expired.

“It felt short coming off my hands,” Brazdeikis said of the missed free throw. “But I was like, we’re still up one and we’re still winning this game, so I might as well do something on defense. I got the block on (Forrester) and then got the board. After that, I was liked there’s now way I’m missing this one.”

The Brazdeikis-Reddish matchup did not disappoint. Brazdeikis finished with 19 points, blocking a potential game-tying shot before sinking the game-clinching free throws. Reddish scored 28 points, including 11 of Westtown’s 17 points in the fourth quarter.

“He’s really good,” Reddish said. “He’s really smart. His IQ is very, very high. He did a really good job leading his team. Obviously we didn’t get the W, but it was fun.”

“You’re watching two NBA players right there,” Berger added.

Well-rounded effort helps Hill School pull out win

This consolation championship game was the second most entertaining game of the day, but not by much. The Hill School pulled out an exciting 82-77 win against Redemption Christian Academy.

The one-on-one battle between the Hill’s Chase Audige (William & Mary) and Redemption’s Dalano Banton (Western Kentucky) was a joy to watch. Audige scored 11 points in the first quarter and finished with 30 points. Banton poured in 37 points in his team’s loss.

The game was a big moment for Hill sophomore Caleb Dorsey. Dorsey, a 6-foot-7 wing, missed the first half of last season with a broken leg. He has made his way into the starting lineup early this year.

Dorsey scored the Hill’s last four points, including a fastbreak dunk which put the game out of reach. He also had his hands full guarding Banton.

”We have him in the starting lineup now and we gave him a tough task,” Hill coach Phil Canosa said. “We had him guard (Banton) to start the game. He stepped up. I thought he did a pretty good job on him and he’s doing great. He’s getting better every day and he’s really working hard.”

Phelps still figuring out how to play together

In Sunday's third/fourth place game coach Brian Shanahan’s team lost to the Knox School, 57-51,  a game that came down to the final minutes.

Phelps took a 29-26 lead into halftime, but relinquished the lead by the end of the third quarter. Phelps never found a rhythm offensively, scoring just five points in the third quarter. The team had 13 turnovers in transition, which is where guards Anton Loginov and Jailen Jamison are usually very effective.

Senior forward Yagizhan Selcuk led Phelps with 16 points. Guard Ian Torres scored 12 and sharpshooting big man Lucas Curran added 11 to lead Knox.

The Phelps School opened the tournament with a win against Covenant College Prep, but dropped close games against Orangeville Prep and the Knox School in their final two contests, a trend Shanahan hopes eventually changes.

“Our team’s good,” Shanahan said. “We need to get our cohesiveness together, but I like where we are progressing...Hopefully as the season goes on, our leadership, our guys come together and we start winning those tight games.”

Philly native Kia El gets D-I interest

The Covenant College Prep’s 103-69 win against SPIRE Academy was the only non-competivie contest of the day, but it gave CoBL a chance to catch up with an area product. Covenant’s Elijah Kiah-El is taking a prep year after finishing his high school career at Martin Luther King last season.

“It’s going good,” Kiah-El said. “My goal this year is trying to get my teammates scholarships. I got a couple, but I’m just trying to get my teammates scholarships. That’s it.”

The Philadelphia product said the only Division I team to offer him since he's been at Covenant is Niagra.

Kiah-El is a tough 6-foot-7 forward. He said he has been working on expanding his range and improving his ball handling this season. He said he is comfortable stepping outside and hitting a three, something he hasn’t done as much in the past.


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