Harrisburg vs Chester at the Kimber Gymnasium was another classic

Sorry I'm a little late on this one but if you happened to miss the tournament weekend at John Harris HS, you missed a good one....    The gym was loaded with talent as well as a few College coaches....   Everyone in attendance was waiting to get a good look at the 2 time PIAA State Champs Chester HS with future McDonald All American and Arizona signee Rondae Jefferson....  Of course the showdown we all were waiting for was Harrisburg vs Chester, and we all got just that....

It was nice to see some of the local teams take advantage of this type of tournament...   The local teams that participated were Harrisburg, East Pennsboro, Carlisle, Cumberland Valley and a group of CD East, McDevitt and Steelton kids put together by local youth trainer from Hard 2 Guard Sports Academy Coach Eddie Cowan.....  The teams from out of the area included Reading, Liberty, and Chester....

Although teams like Reading and East Pennsboro went 0 - 3, they showed some serious toughness and will be more than ready once the season begins...     Hard 2 Guard (East, McDevitt and Steelton) and Liberty went 1 - 2 for the day but every game they played was competitive.....   CV and Carlisle finished with winning records of 2 - 1 while Harrisburg was undefeated at 3 - 0 until they lost by three points to Chester in the Finals 36 - 33, who went 4 - 0....


The final game was a thriller as guys like Jefferson and Jr. transfer Conrad Chambers showed why they are considered two of the best players in the State....  The game was close throughout as Shaquan Sheppard, Ashton Cooksey-Easter and Jerel Patterson battled to keep the Cougars in the game...  Sheppard was all over the boards and cleaning up inside while Cooksey-Easter used his defensive energy and aggression to create turnovers and finishes on the offensive end....   Patterson played a steady ball game but was needed to take over at the end, like he's capable of doing....   For Chester, Jefferson was a " Do It All" kind of guy....   Standing at 6'8, this kid can defend all positions on a HS floor, Dribble up court after he rebound the ball, and he just makes play after play....   Once he is in the gym consistently getting shots up, THIS KID WILL BE A PRO!!!!!!!    No ifs, ands or buts about it!!!!    He's really that good!   While he only scored 12 points in the final game, he contributed in so many other ways....   7 assist, 13 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 blocks...  Plus he altered many more shots that was taken....   He did a great job defending Harrisburg's best all around player Steven Stoney as well.....   James Ezel did a good job for Harrisburg defending Jefferson as he made each shot difficult for Jefferson....  He maintained his position on the floor and contested every shot....   If Ezel could have given that same focus on the offensive end, he would have had a great all around performance for the day....     Ezel actually has the potential to be a top 3 player in this area right now as a junior, he just has to increase his work ethic and buy into what Harrisburg want him to do....  



 Some of the top players for the day that I saw were....

Rondae Jefferson - Chester
Conrad Chambers - Chester
Jerel Patterson  - Harrisburg
Shaquan Sheppard - Harrisburg
Ashton Cooksey - Easter - Harrisburg
Steven Stoney - Harrisburg
Jahaad Proctor - Harrisburg
Jose Battle - East Pennsboro
Eddie Cowan - Hard 2 Guard
Anthony Wright - Hard 2 Guard
Mark Perry - Hard 2 Guard
Tanner Kilpatrick - Cumberland Valley
Grey Kline - Cumberland Valley
Jerome Evans - Carlisle
Jordan Dockens - Carlisle
Chad Stanback - Carlisle

There were also 2 players from Liberty and 2 players from Reading that looked pretty good...   I didn't happen to get their names...  If so, I'll add them to the list as well.....

It would be great to see more teams from this area take advantage of tournaments like this...  All it does is give kids more exposure and get them better.....   One of the TOP DIVISION 2 SCHOOLS in the COUNTRY was in attendance and it was a great opportunity for some local kids to shine....