Beach Ball Classic notebook: Giants of tournament go down

The giants have fallen in the 31st Beach Ball Classic at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.

The tournament featured three teams ranked in the top 31 in the ESPN Powerade Fab 50 Boys Basketball Rankings. Two failed to get through the quarterfinals and the other was bounced convincingly from the semifinals.

No. 5 Prestonwood Christian Academy (Texas) was knocked out in the quarterfinals on a buzzer-beater by Whitney Young of Chicago.

No. 17 Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.) was trounced in the semifinals by an unranked Milton (Ga.) team.

No. 31 St. Augustine (New Orleans) fell to Lone Peak (Utah) in the semifinals.

Lone Peak, like its semifinal opponent Whitney Young, had been ranked in the top 50 before falling out of the rankings this past week after previously being ranked 21st and 32nd, respectively.

Giving thanks

Prestonwood Christian (Texas) has a tradition of circling center court following a game and saying a prayer. It’s often alone, as it was Friday, but the Lions are sometimes joined by the opponents, as they were following Whitney Young’s buzzer-beating win Thursday night.

Players from the teams embraced in no particular order, arm-and-arm in a circle after the game. “We go to a Christian school, so after every game we give thanks to the Lord for allowing us to play that game,” said Prestonwood junior guard Marquan Botley. “It just depends on the [opposing] coach, it just depends on how they feel about it and I guess their school. It was spontaneous. We do it and we ask the coach if they want to join us, and he said he wanted to.”

Did the postgame solidarity ease the pain of the loss? “Not at all,” Botley said. “You’ve still got to go into the locker room and talk about your mistakes and what you did right, and at the end of the day we came up short.”

What could have been

As good as the talent is on display this week at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, a few teams could have been even more competitive had they not lost stars either prior to or during the Beach Ball.

Among the teams that were without key components were the teams that met in the semifinal nightcap Thursday.

Whitney Young has been starting three sophomores because heavily recruited 6-9 junior Thomas Hamilton and 6-8 senior and Colorado State signee Jermaine Morgan are out with leg injuries.

Lone Peak is without one of its three BYU commitments and its most effective player taller than 6-4. Eric Mika, a 6-8 junior, has to sit out the year after transferring from a private school.

Scott County’s top scorer, 6-3 senior Isaiah Ivey, had to sit out his team’s first two games of the tournament because of two-game suspension leveled in Kentucky for an on-court scuffle.

Lakota East 6-3 junior Stedman Lowry, the team’s leading scorer, was lost to a knee injury early in the team’s opening win over Socastee.

Inside recruiting

College coaches aren’t the only people at the Beach Ball Classic trying to sway the multitude of talented uncommitted players to sign with a particular college.

Players who have already committed are sometimes taking the opportunity to encourage talented opponents to join them.

Senior Shaq Johnson of Milton (Ga.), an Auburn commitment, said he was influential in getting both seniors Jordan Price of Southwest Academy (Ga.) and Jordan Granger of St. Louis to commit to Auburn.

Johnson is friends with Bishop Gorman senior star Shabazz Muhammad through summer camps, and has mentioned Auburn to him. “I’ve been trying, but he’s probably not going to go there,” Johnson said.