PassThaBall.com BATTLE IN THE BORO 2016 PART 1 Report

PassThaBall.com was in the building evaluating the talent at the 2016 Battle in the Boro tournament. Here's what they had to say:


The 12th annual Battle in the Boro, presented by National Exposure Basketball, saw Team Penny Pruitt 2017 (based out of the Memphis, Tennessee, area) win the Boro’s Junior Showcase (top division of players of rising senior status or younger). All told 642 teams gathered in Metro Nashville, Tennessee, from July 10-13 for the event with over a 1000 college coaches (NCAA Divisions 1, 2 and 3, NAIA and junior college) from all over the USA present to dissect the vast pool of talent ranging from middle school to rising senior age.

Semifinal: Team Penny Pruitt 2017 (Tennessee) 69-49 AD Elite – Peterson (Texas)
This one was over early as the Tennesseans had legs while the Texans, who survived overtime the prior night, didn’t.  Frustration built in half two as the AD head coach was ejected with a second technical. Tesia Thompson led Team Penny (sponsored by former NBA play Penny Hardaway) with 22 points. AD was led by Adriana Whitfield (5-6, guard, 2018) with 18 points.

Final: Team Penny Pruitt 2017 70-55 Sports City U
This was something of an upset as Sports City is stocked with Power 5 talent including a couple of USA National 16U team members. Conversely, Team Penny is perceived to have primarily mid-major talent but in this match-up had an edge in quickness, particularly when it came to penetration. As in its semi, Sports City fell back early but closed to 36-34 at the break. Key to Penny’s first half success was 3 three’s by guard Selena Pruitt (5-6, 2017) keeping the Ohioans from thinking zone. Half two was marked by repeated successful drives by Penny’s All-tournament guards (see below) Tesia Thompson (finished with 14 points) and Jireh Washington (finished with 10 points). When not scoring themselves, they dished to center Antionette Lewis (6-1, 2017) who finished with a game high 20 points. Using successful delaying tactics down the stretch, Team Penny was not threatened in the last four minutes. Sport City was led by All-tournament team member Zia Cooke (see below) with 14 points.

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