by Bill Martin
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Ryan Davis

Boston Elite took the lead early in this game but Team Odom stormed back and a held a ten point lead early in the second half.  This lead would not last much longer as the Boston Elite chipped away until they regained the lead.  Raheem Singleton led the charge ahead for the Boston Elite, by attacking the hoop and hitting clutch free throws. 

With a two-point advantage and 11 seconds remaining in the game Aaron Williams of the Boston Elite went to the free throw line to try and ice the game.  He missed the first attempt of the one and one, and Team Odom grabbed the rebound.  Ryan Davis of Team Odom got the ball, dribbled up the court and found Markeys Deans wide open in the right corner for a three-point attempt.  Markeys nailed the shot and with less than 2 seconds remaining Boston Elite could not get off a good shot attempt.  Team Odom won the game 40-39.  Here are the player evaluations from the game.

Team Odom

Ryan Davis (2008, 5-11 PG)
Ryan is a small but quick point guard who will not hesitate to pull the trigger from beyond the three-point line.  He had a few open looks in this game but did not shoot at a high percentage.  What Ryan really did well in this game was distribute the ball and dribble his was out of pressure defense.  On one play he sliced through the defense getting right to the hoop, then threw a no look pass directly behind him to RJ Evans for an easy lay up.  As mentioned above he also had the assist on the game winning shot by Markeys Dean.

Averon “AJ” Mathews (2008, 6-10 PF)
AJ was a monster on the boards and on the defensive end in this game.  So much so in fact that he earned himself the games MVP award.  Most of AJ’s points came from offensive rebound put backs.  He did have one really nice double pump move to avoid a shot blocker and still made the lay up.  What really made AJ’s game stand out was his presence in the middle on the defensive end.  He blocked three shot early in the game and really made the Boston Elite think twice before taking the ball inside.

Ryan Pearson (2009, 6-6 SF)
This was not one of Ryan’s best games but he still was able to contribute and draw defensive pressure away from his teammates.  He showed he could hit some difficult shots in this game, but with improved shot selection he could have shot at a higher percentage.  A couple of his shots he hit with one hand while on the run.  He banked one such shot in while being fouled.  Despite being double teamed on another possession Ryan attempted a fade away jump shot from 15 feet away from the basket.  This shot attempt resulted in an air ball. 

RJ Evans (2008, 6-2 SG)
This was a rather quiet game for RJ.  He hit a couple threes and had one good looking take all the way to the hoop, but did not do much else otherwise.  He did look very confident from long range and fired one shot up from NBA three-point range, although he missed.

Markeys Deans (2009, 6-5 SF/PF)
Markeys played very well defensively throughout this game but started off slowly on the offensive end.  On one Boston Elite fast break Markeys flew in from behind to block the easy shot attempt.   He also had multiple steals in the game but struggled on the fast breaks after the steals.  He threw one pass away and even missed a lay up on a break away.  Markeys did however step up his offensive production in the second half.  He hit three, huge three pointers including the game winning shot.

Boston Elite

Gabe Fumudoh (2008, 6-7 SF/PF)
Fumudoh did an amazing job rebounding in this contest, despite giving up a couple inches to Averon Mathews.  He did have some trouble scoring in the post against the taller Mathews.  Gabe also showed off some excellent footwork with a beautiful spin move getting to the hoop for the score.

Raheem Singleton (2008, 5-11 PG)
If the Boston Elite had won this game Raheem Singleton would have been named the games MVP.  When his team was down, Raheem took the game over and pulled them back when they were at the brink of getting blown out.  His clutch free shooting late in the second half kept the Boston Elite in the lead. 

Raheem showed he could do a little bit of everything in this game.  He handles the ball very well and can dribble his way out of double teams.  Raheem has excellent quickness and gets up and down the court in a hurry.  On more than one occasion Raheem got the defensive rebound and took the ball all the way to the hoop himself, blowing by any sort of transition defense in the process.  Raheem also displayed some impressive leaping ability when he elevated above the post players to grab a rebound with one hand.  He also seemed to be getting to the hoop pretty much whenever he wanted.  From there he would either find an open teammate for an easy bucket, or he would hit a lay up or at worst he drew contact and got to the line.  Raheem also looked very confident from behind the arc, he knocked down a couple threes in his game. 

If there were a downside to Raheem’s game it would have to be his durability. He went to bench on three separate occasions, after getting knocked around and he already entered the game with an ankle injury.  He did come back into the game each time after only a minute or so, but with him on the bench the Boston Elite offense did not run as smoothly.  Raheem is an excellent prospect that we will be keeping an eye out for.

Aaron Williams (2008, 6-3 SG)
Aaron was deadly from three-point range in this game.  He knocked down shots from well beyond the three-point line and some of those were highly contested by his defender.  Aaron also did a nice job in transition, on both sides of the ball.  Offensively he made a pretty looking pass to a cutting teammate for an easy lay up.  He also made a nice reverse lay up after slicing his way to the hoop.  Defensively Aaron came up with a huge block to prevent a wide-open lay up.  Aaron had a pretty nice game but marred his performance by missing the free throws to ice the game.  If he had hit those free throws the Boston Elite most likely would have won the game.