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Class of 2015 cherishes last time together at Clash of the Classes

05/06/2015, 11:45pm EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The Clash of the Classes brought together several of the area’s top players from each grade to the court at Imhotep Charter for a two-day affair, with the consolation and championship game taking place Wednesday night.

The graduating class (2015s) and rising seniors (2016s) each won their semifinals Tuesday against the 2017s and 2018s, respectively, setting up a matchup of two groups chock-full of high-major Division I players.

Here’s a notebook from the action at Imhotep Charter:

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Consolation: 2017s vs. 2018s
Playing on what will be his home court next season, former Mastery Charter wing Koby Thomas put on a show, scoring 42 points to lead the Class of 2017 (rising juniors) to a 108-96 win over a game group of rising sophomores. The 6-5 wing, who’s already enrolled at Imhotep and will suit up for the Panthers next year, provided almost all of his output on layups and alley-oops, largely off feeds from future teammate Daron Russell (25 points); Archbishop Carroll’s David Beatty added 24 for the victors. Academy New Church big man Marcus Little (23 points) and Shipley point guard Sam Sessoms (20 points) paced the 2018s.

Championship: 2015s vs. 2016s
With under 15 seconds remaining, Jabri McCall delivered the game-winning 3-pointer from the left corner, lifting the Class of 2016 over their elders, 120-117. That came just 30 seconds after Minnesota commit Ahmad “J.R.” Gilbert had tied things up with a triple of his own, capping off a wild, high-scoring contest. Gilbert’s 29 points and Samir Doughty’s 28 led the way for the departing seniors, while recent Penn State commit Nazeer Bostick led the victors with 27; he was joined by Tony Carr’s 22 and McCall’s 20.

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Graduating seniors enjoy final opportunity together
Throughout the final of the Clash of the Classes, it was fairly clear that the group of graduating seniors weren’t all too concerned about whether or not they ended up with the title and associated trophies at the end of the evening

For a group of young men who are about to head off to their respective colleges--most of which are of the Division I variety--it represented a final chance to take the court together and enjoy being teammates one more time.

“I had fun today, I’m not going to lie,” said Ahmad Gilbert, who’ll be going off to Minnesota for the start of his college career in just a few short months after winning three state titles in four years at Constitution. “I had fun playing with the guys that I grew up with.”

Gilbert, Levan Alston (Haverford School/Temple), Mike Watkins (Phelps School/Penn State), Derrick Jones (Archbishop Carroll/UNLV) and company didn’t all play together on the same AAU teams, or even in the same high school leagues as each other, but they’re certainly more than a little familiar.

“We definitely grew together,” Alston said. “We think of Philly as one big family, so we’re like brothers.”

This was the last hurrah for the group to take the court together, joined by familiar faces like Math, Civics & Science’s Samir Doughty, Martin Luther King’s Sammy Foreman and Mt. Zion Prep’s Sean Lloyd (formerly of Imhotep), all of whom have been all over the city’s high school and AAU scene during their prep careers. Other stalwarts like Chris Clover (St. Joseph’s Prep/SJU), Lamarr Kimble (Neumann-Goretti/SJU) and Kimar Williams (Constitution/Florida International) weren’t in this particular event, but they certainly are part of that same close-knit bunch.

They’ll be seeing each other on the courts again for sure, but likely in much bigger arenas--like the Palestra, Liacouras Center and Bryce Jordan Center.

So while the Class of 2016 celebrated its win over their elders, the future college stars just smiled as they left the court. They knew that sometimes, it’s not all about winning and losing.

“I’m glad the juniors won, because they’re going to be like us,” Gilbert said. “They’re going to have to cherish this last moment.”

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Shipley duo shows why Gators are on the rise
Though they’re teammates at the Shipley School, Kiyon Hardy and Sam Sessoms are plenty used to having to go head-to-head.

Shipley head coach Phil D’Ambrosio always makes sure to put his two diminutive-but-tough guards on opposing teams in practice, forcing them to go up against each other to improve their games. So it was nothing new when Hardy, who’s a rising junior, and Sessoms, a rising sophomore, found themselves squaring off dozens of times during the consolation game.

Sessoms, with his 20 points, certainly got the better of the individual matchup, as Hardy was held to just eight, but it was Hardy’s Class of 2017 team that got the win.

“This was fun, playing against one of my teammates,” Hardy said. “He motivates me during practice.”

If there’s one thing the two have in common, it’s their size--Hardy is listed at 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds, and Sessoms maybe has an inch and 10 pounds on his older teammate. Hardy is the more seasoned perimeter shooter, while Sessoms is more of the drive-and-kick (or score) variety, but they’re both far from one-dimensional guards.

“He frees me up a lot because he’s a real good shooter, he’s one of the best shooters in our league, and I can go to the hole,” Sessoms said. “They’re scared to play off him because he can shoot so good, so he opens up a lot of opportunities for me.”

This past year, Shipley went 14-10 overall, with a 5-4 record in Friends’ League play; the Gators lost 46-43 to Academy New Church in the league playoff’s play-in game. With the starting backcourt returning for two more seasons, Sessoms and Hardy are hopeful their best days in high school are still ahead of them.

“I think we played good [this season],” Sessoms said. “We started off strong, kind of fell off a little bit, but next year we’re going to be way better.”

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Quick Shot
--It’s almost impossible to take away anything from a scouting standpoint in an All-Star Game scenario, but one thing that did stick out was the shooting of Archbishop Carroll 2017 SG David Beatty. Primarily a slashing off-guard when he got to high school, Beatty has really developed his shooting ability both as a catch-and-shoot perimeter threat and now to the point where he’s comfortable pulling up off the dribble and knocking down shots. If he can continue to refine that trait over the next 8-10 months, he’s going to have a rain of offers heading his way in the 2016 April live periods--if not by the end of this summer.


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