Mater Dei's Franklin scores 21 in another game but team loses

Written by Senior Editor Ronnie Flores

Note: To see more of Ronnie Flores' dispatches from the summer boys hoop circuit, please see ESPN's Basketball Recruiting section.

The Atlanta Celtics have been a staple of the adidas Super 64 in the five years since its inception as a major tournament during the July evaluation period. With the No. 1 player in the ESPN 100, 6-foot-9 Derrick Favors of Atlanta on its roster and a plethora of other talented Division I prospects, the Celtics were the odds-on favorites to win the top division on paper.

During the first day of competition the Celtics played sluggishly, by all accounts, but they picked up their level of play on Wednesday. The problem was the Celtics' opponent, Pump N Run Elite of California, also brought its A game and came away with a 72-68 victory.

The story of Pump N Run's victory was the play of 6-foot-11 center Vander Joaquim from Christian of El Cajon. He held his own in the pivot versus the South Atlanta star and when he wasn't in the game, Pump N Run was at a clear disadvantage. He finished with 13 points, including a three-pointer from the corner that was in rhythm. The victors shot well from the outside, especially 2010 UCLA commit Kendall Williams from Los Osos of Rancho Cucamonga.

Williams stepped up his game down the stretch when the outcome was in limbo and finished with a team-high 20 points, including two big three-pointers in the second half. He nailed a triple to give Pump n Run Elite a 67-60 lead with just under four minutes remaining, but the Atlanta Celtics eventually tied the game at 67 on a lay-up by Favors.

Pump N Run took control on a three-pointer by Sacramento's Chase Tapley (12 points) that gave them a 68-64 lead. Favors, however, gave his team a chance when he blocked a shot and saved it from going out of bounds with 1:10 remaining that could have been the difference in his team going down by six points. Favors didn't play his best game, but unlike some of the other talented big men on display in Vegas, he still made an impact on both sides of the ball on nearly every possession.

He finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and eight blocked shots to lead his team in a losing effort. 2010 guard Trae Golden chipped in with 19 points, but he didn't look for open teammates nearly enough and his turnover in the closing seconds with the Celtics down two possessions sealed the upset win for Pump N Run.   

In another game on Wednesday and in fact the best game we've seen so far in Sin City, upstart FOH Seattle gave the California Supreme all it could handle and then some with a 79-77 win in three overtimes.

FOH took a double digit lead in the first half and led at the intermission, 39-28.

The California Supreme finally caught them at 57-57 with 4:30 remaining in the ball game on a breakaway lay-up by guard Torrance Bishop Montgomery guard Justin Cobbs. Point guard Gary Franklin (Mater Dei, Santa Ana) hit a triple that gave the Supreme the lead at 65-64 with one minute to go, but FOH rallied to take a 67-64 lead. Franklin then nailed another three-pointer to tie the game with 19.2 seconds.

FOH's Aaron Dotson tried to seal matters at the end of regulation, but his tip-in at the buzzer was disallowed. The first overtime ended with the two clubs locked at 71-71, but in the second overtime it looked like FOH would take control after Aaron Bright nailed a three-pointer. Supreme's Jamaal Franklin, however, answered with a three-pointer on the next possession and the game went into a third extra period.

In the second and third overtime, the teams played with no timeouts and only one minute on the clock and after both teams had some empty possessions, FOH finally had the ball underneath the hoop on an out of bounds play trailing 77-76. The California Supreme didn't get the alignment they wanted defensively and after the shot went up, 6-foot-10 post Jeremy Tyler (San Diego) wasn't able to secure the rebound. The ball was batted to the top of the key and Bright proceeded to knock in the game-winning three-pointer.

Bright was the game's leading scorer with 22 points, including four three-pointers, and Dotson also had a big game for the victors with 18 points. Tyler, one of the nation's top five prospects in the ESPN 2010 Super 60, had a solid game with 13 points and seven rebounds. He didn't, however, impact the action on both ends of the floor on every possession as a player with his talent and size should.

Franklin led the California Supreme in the scoring department with 21 points while Cobbs checked in with 14 points, six rebounds and five assists.            

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