**********2023 Sheetz Holiday Christmas Classic**********
UPDATED…UPDATED…UPDATED….
(Kudos out to Brindon Christman(Southwest Guilford High School AD) and Mike Cook(High Point Central High School AD) and to Viginia Christman with the Media Room ADD, for a great job making the Sheetz hit the fan successfully again, and the fans from HPCA seemed to like the way the fan was turing when the Sheetz came flying out like it did in the end, on Friday night)…..
Girls Games for Friday:
12 Noon 7th Place Game:High Point Central vs. Southern Guilford-Annex Gym….Final:Southern Guilford 54, High Point Central 11….Nine free throws and one field goal for HP Central…
12 Noon 5th Place Game:West Forsyth vs. Pinecrest-Jim Coggins Gym…Final:West Forsyth 48, Pinecrest 27….Vernon with 10 for West Forsyth…
3pm 3rd Place Game:Southwest Guilford vs. Oak Grove-Coggins Gym…Final:Oak Grove 48, Southwest Guilford 39
6pm Championship Game:High Point Christian vs. Wesleyan Christian Academy-Coggins Gym…Final:High Point Christian 43, Wesleyan 37
End of First Quarter:HPCA 6, WES 5…Halftime:HPCA 22, WES 17…End of Third Quarter:HPCA 30, WES 26…Final:HPCA 43, WES 37
HPCA scoring:Torrence 19 points, Taylor 8, Forester 7, Lewis 4, Walker 3, Yourkhart 2, Johnson 1…
WES scoring:Hawley 12 points, Carr 11, Browne 5, Jackson 3, Cunningham 2, Cooper Cox 2, Nwobu 2…Cooper Cox for WES with also at least 7 assists and 6 key rebounds….
HPCA(14-1)/WES(13-5)
As an 8th-grader, Cooper Cox is much like Tyler Lewis was, back when Tyler was starting as an 8th-grader for the Forsyth Country Day Furies…At so many times in the game, you can see why Copper Cox is fast becoming one of the top girls basketball players in the Triad and the state, in a hurry….She does not start for WES, she comes in early in the first quarter for the WES Trojans and plays almost the rest of the entire game…She never started for NWG Middle back in 6th grade, but started a lot in the 7th grade, as the coaches were trying to keep all of the parents happy, and everyone knew that once Cooper came in the game, she would take over the game as a very positive force….
She does so many things to make her teammates look and play better, and tonight she only took three shots, two threes and a two, and she made the two-point field goal…She did not take one shot at all in the first half, but began to look more for her shot in the second half, as she should….
Congrats to former Page Pirate and HPCA coach Brittany Drew on the Championship Victory….The Drew Effect is really starting to take hold on High Point, and HPCA….
Boys Games for Friday:
1:30pm 7th Place Game:High Point Central vs. Western Guilford-Annex Gym…Final:High Point Central 72, Western Guilford 39…HP Central led by Adonia Torance with 19 points, Evan Williams with 11 points, Daniel Dines with 11, Colin Burgess and Jacob Williams with 9 points a-piece…
1:30pm 5th Place Game:Seaforth vs. Westchester Country Day-Coggins Gym…Final:Westchester Country Day 71, Seaforth 59….WCD had Edwards with 18, Patterson 15, and Bayne with 13 points…
4:30pm 3rd Place Game:Southwest Guilford vs. Oak Grove-Coggins Gym…Final:Southwest Guilford 78, Oak Grove 75 OT
Twyman with 21 points for SWG and Steven Harrison with 14 points for the SWG Cowboys…
7:30pm Championship Game:High Point Christian vs. Wesleyan Christian Academy-Coggins Gym…Final:High Point Christian 77, Wesleyan 56
End of First Quarter:HPCA 19, WES 16…Halftime:HPCA 42, WES 22…End of Third Quarter:HPCA 61, WES 36…Final:HPAC 77, WES 56
HPCA scoring:Vanweerhuizen 14 points, Cathcart 12, Mitchell 11, Grier 10, Denny 9, Clay 8, Mabe 8, Davis 4, Sanders 3…
WES scoring:Zaach Wiggins 17 points, Agunas 12, Williams 5, Young 5, Morgan 5, Ingram 4, Hancock 3…
HPCA(15-2)/WES(10-5)
The big difference in this game was that it was raining threes for HPCA…In the first half, the HPCA Cougars shot over 50% from behind the arc, and we are not talking going 1-2, or 2-4, or 3-6…High Point Christian rained threes with a total of eight(8) made three pointers in the first half of the basketball game…The Cougars had VanWeerhuizen with 4 threes, Cathcart knocked down 3 threes, and Mitchell added a trey, and you have to say, The Trey was going The Way of HPCA today/tonight at The Sheetz Store, there inside the World Famous Jim Coggins Gym, on “The Ranch” there, at Southwest Guilford High School….Not sure if the College team or the “Fire Response” team from over at GTCC would have been able to cool off the Cougars tonight…It looked like the return of Mack Calvin, Gene Littles and Larry Miller shooting three-pointers for the Carolina Cougars back in the days of the old ABA, at the Greensboro Coliseum on a Friday night vs. the Virginia Squires and Doctor J/Julius Erving….They used to call the Greensboro Coliseum, “The Big Barn” on West Lee Street, so if have “The Big Barn”, and you have “The Ranch”, there are some similarities….Rich Brenner reporting from the “Big Barn”, and Clara Goodwin coming in loud and clear, at “The Ranch”, on a Friday night….
Those HPCA Cougars were so hot in the first half from three-point range, it really was like they were on Fire/Firah….That’s what they used to say about the guy at the outdoor basketball courts on Sunday afternoons….The guy was hot you needed to throw a bucket of water on the guy, because that man/kid was on FIRAH…..The guys hitting the threes got good all-around support from Clay, Grier, Denny and Mabe….I think I saw a Denny on each team from this game, so maybe those two guys could get together and open up a restaurant there in High Point, and I do believe I have the perfect name for their eating establishment…I think we could just go ahead and be very novel, and call the restaurant Denny’s…How about that, now the HPCA team will have a great place to head off to, for their postgame meal….
Very entertaining games this evening/Friday night, and that all now leads to our Post Game Honors, and you can see them below….I hope you enjoyed The Show…We will go look for some video, so it will seem like we went pro….Or maybe we could just drop in the name of Robbie Cano, don’t you know…Here are The Honors….But no Chuck Conners, and if we playing “End of the Year Trivia”, could you tell me what TV show Chuck starred in???? Maybe not, but Wikipedia has the info….And we have the exit door staring us in the face…The Honors, The Honors, The Honors, and I saw Rudolph’s nose at Christmas, did you see Donner’s??? This is the Game within the Game, and we need to ease out….And we just did, to your relief….
This years MVPs:
2023 Toot Clay- HPCA (Men’s)
2023 Kylie Torrence- HPCS (Women’s)
All-Tournament Team- Boys
Name School 1st MVP-Toot Clay HPCA 2- Adam Grier HPCA 3- Max Van Weerdhuizen HPCA 2nd Place 1- Owen Augunas WCA 2- Luke Morgan WCA 3- Zacch Wiggins WCA 3rd Place 1- Stevon Harrison SWGHS 2- Mikhai Twyman SWGHS 4th Place 1- Loucas Shoaf Oak Grove 2- JB Shabazz Oak Grove 5th Place 1- MJ Edwards Westchester C D 6th Place 1- Kooper Jones Seaforth HS All-Tournament Team- Girls Name School 1st MVP-Kylie Torrence HPCA 2- Angel Walker HPCA 3- Courtney Taylor HPCA 2nd Place 1- Sara Kate Carr WCA 2- Taylor Hawley WCA 3- 3rd Place 1- Trista Charles Oak Grove 2- Avery Ray Oak Grove 4th Place 1- T'Yanna Freeman SWGHS 2- Aleesia Everett SWGHS 5th Place 1- Campbell McClain W. Forsyth 6th Place 1- Aniyah McGregor Pinecrest
Funny how everybody bitches about one private school in the HAECO, but nobody says much about multiple private schools in the Sheetz tournament.
Lol ikr smdh. Should not bitch at all just let the kids play private public whatever just enjoy the games as a fan. Kids deserve to work hard and follow their dreams no matter where from or what school they go to sheesh.
Btw Andy the Cox kid is amazing but man hey there are some other talented eight graders kids out there too now omg man.
I guess maybe a little different for me since I have been tracking Cooper Cox since back when she was in fourth grade…
I am on the trail of all of the young players, female and male…..Last week during the HAECO Tournament, the top young player on my real young watch list was 8th-grader Sophie Montana, from the Greensboro Day School Bengals…Like Cooper Cox, Montana does not take a ton of shots, but the other things she does with and without the ball are outstanding….I have her side-by-side Cooper on the 8th-Grade girls list from Guilford County…There may be others, but they will be coming my way soon enough….
I find and study most of them….You have 9th-grader Brooke Parker, who is looking very good for the Ragsdale Tigers, and her confidence is way up now this season, and that is good for her, being at the upper level, now on Varsity, after last season with Jamestown Middle School Tigers….Larissa Ervin and Marlei Williams are other very promising freshman players for Ren Stewart’s Ragsdale Tigers…Brooke is going to get The Look, but it won’t long and the others will be turning heads too….
Ninth-grader Leena McField is one of the top players in the state for the girls right now and I am not just talking freshmen, I am talking all 9-12 grade female basketball players in N.C….She is that good, and has that much promise…Was with her all last season on the Middle School circuit while she was at Northern Guilford Middle, and have been to see her play live this season for the Northern Guilford HS Nighthawks…She scored 28 the night I went to see her play, with 20 of her points coming in the first half, and she did not play the 4th quarter….Her NG team was up by 40-plus…
Lola Vanore at Page HS is the real smooth PG you would want to run your high school team for the future…Vanore, like Leena McField and Brooke Parker, is a 9th-grader…Lola just has to work on being aware of not dribbling into the halfcourt and corner traps….She will pick that up with more reps and in the process of seeing many more of those traps….Vanore can also score, but like many other young players with veteran players around them, Vanore is not looking for her shot enough now, but she will…..Vanore played for Coach Kristen Shelton, while in middle school at St. Pius X, so you know this kid is always ready to go….
Another 8th-grader I do not want to leave out is Peyton Wood over at Mendenhall Middle School…Peyton is as tough as they come and she knows the game of basketball as good as any young kid around…Saw her as a sixth-grader and saw her as a 7th-grader, and she will be ready to roll with this season for the Mendenhall Mustangs…I am doing that she is in the 8th grade for this year off of memory…If Peyton is now only in the 7th grade instead of the 8th at Mendenhall, will have to back it up a little bit…Peyton’s dad, is the baseball coach at Western Guilford HS, so we could see Peyton playing for the WG girls when HS hoops time rolls around….
Another point on Sophie Montana, from the GDS Bengals, her mother was the girls assistant coach at Northwest Guilford last season, and if she is still in tate capacity in the future, you never know, Sophie could end with the NWG Vikings….The Vikings would have lost out on Copper Cox, but picked up Sophie Montana, and the sky is high for Montana…Her mother also is the former head girls coach for the GDS Bengals….
One more young player to watch out for and then I will let it all soak in for everybody for awhile…That would be 9th-grader Calicia Deberry over at Ben L. Smith HS…Saw her last year and I always called her Alicia, but they are now saying it is Calicia, she was at Allen Middle last year if my memory bank is working right, right now….Saw her play maybe three games last year, and at times she could not be stopped and a time or two, I couldn’t find her…She was out there, but she was not getting involved with the offense…It was like she had it turned it off on a certain day, and Calicia was out there, but she wasn’t out there….I would ask someone on her team bench, where is Alicia…They would say, oh she’s out there, Alicia is out there….
She is for sure out there this year/season…I saw her play in the HAECO, and I was nearly amazed…I asked Morgan Smith, a guard for the Ben L. Smith what was going with Calicia??? Morgan said we are keeping her motivated and she is responding well…I will say so…When I saw Calicia playing the HAECO, that was the hardest I had ever seen the kid play…She was playing non-stop, baseline-to-baseline, and she did not let up…She playing on both sides of the offensive end of the court….Calicai Deberry was giving it all, and she was All-In for the Smith Golden Eagles, and this kid is impressive…Much different attititude and approach than what I saw from the 8th-grade version….Good stuff all the way around….
There you go with my weekly reader on the young high school talent on the girls end of the basketball court in Guilford County…We will start making most of Middle School rounds, beginning next when the kids get back to school….
Bunch of girls played on that very good aau team cox and Montana were in who also very good just not out there. Saw them play a few times for Montana father and they were must see tv.
They are at Jamestown kernodle and northwest also kiser
Up and coming stars