Khalif Wyatt

Last night I traveled over to Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania to watch Norristown take on Plymouth Whitemarsh on PW's home court.

This contest was close throughout but Plymouth Whitemarsh held a 5 point lead going into the fourth quarter.  This lead was erased almost immediately as Norristown hit a 3 pointer on their first possession and then scored again after a PW turnover.

PW would regain the lead but not for long.  Norristown ended up making some big plays down the stretch and held a four point lead with the ball, with just under 10 seconds remaining.  

Norristown's Khalif Wyatt, who is a future Temple Owl, was fouled and added extra padding to the lead by hitting both his free throws.

Final Score: Norristown 45 – PW 39

Here are player evaluations of the standout performers from this game.

Norristown

Khalif Wyatt (2009, 6-2 PG/SG) committed to Temple
While this is not the best we have seen Khalif play, he did put together a pretty nice game against PW.  He started out by throwing a great outlet pass over a defenders head, resulting in a easy layup for his teammate.  Then he followed that up by knocking down his first 3 pointer in the game.  Khalif did knock down a couple more threes in this contest, but he seemed to shoot a lower percentage then we are used to seeing from him.  When Khalif has an open jumper he really takes his time to set himself up for the shot.  He has a very smooth stroke and shoots with a high arc, which is always good for a shooter.  He can however do more then just shoot the ball as he can really drive the ball and get his shot off in traffic. 

While he is not always the quickest player on the court, he does a fantastic job of using ball fakes and dribble hesitation moves to get by defenders.  There were however some mixed results once he got into the lane.  Khalif had a few too many turnovers after driving into traffic.  A couple of his passes were deflected and he also traveled twice.  On the other hand he did have some great finishes including one drive where he took it right at 6-9 CJ Aiken.  Khalif bumped CJ back with his right shoulder to keep him on the ground and then with his left hand hit the layup.  He also had a beautiful baseline drive where he stopped on a dime, pulled up and banked in a jump shot.

In crunch time Khalif really made some huge plays for Norristown that had nothing to do with him scoring.  Defensively he blocked two layup attempts that could have tied the game or cut the lead to two.  After he caught an inbounds pass out on the perimeter he was instantly double teamed, which was happening most of the second half. Khalif then quickly found a man wide open under the hoop for a layup to push the lead up to 4 points.  After PW failed to score Norristown got the ball back and Khalif was fouled with less then 10 seconds remaining.  They were still only shooting one and one, but Khalif hit both, effectively ending any hope of winning for PW. 

Plymouth Whitemarsh

CJ Aiken (2010, 6-9 PF/C)
CJ was by far the tallest player on the court and his height and length really caused some problems for Norristown.  Defensively he blocked quite a few shots and altered countless others.  On offense he was able to corral his own misses around the hoop and put them back in because the Norristown defenders were simply too small.  He was also able to rebound very effectively for these same reasons.  All of CJ's points were scored right around the hoop with the exception of two free throws.  He had at least four dunks and scored on a number of put backs.  CJ scored another bucket after he grabbed an offensive board off a teammate’s miss and found himself directly under the hoop.  From right below the hoop he went up and banked in a layup.  While CJ was a force underneath the hoop he played out on the perimeter way too often.  With his height advantage he should have just set up camp in the post to grab rebounds and score around the hoop.  He took a few shots from out around and behind the three point line, but missed them all.  Overall this was a pretty good game for CJ but he should have exploited his size advantage more.

Jaylen Bond (2011, 6-5 SF/PF)
Jaylen is a fantastic leaper and he really showed that off in this game.  On the first possession of the game for Plymouth Whitemarsh, Jaylen cut to the hoop and was thrown an alley oop.  He caught the oop and threw down a big time 2-hand dunk.  After that Jaylen was very quiet offensively up until the final seconds of the second half.  With just seconds remaining he got the ball around half court and then drove with his right hand all the way to the hoop with a defender right on his hip, and finished with an emphatic slam.  Time expired for the second quarter right after the dunk.  Later in the game Jaylen had another spectacular dunk but this time out on the break.  Other than this dunk he really did not do much else offensively.  He did attempt 2 midrange jump shots but missed them both, one of which was blocked.  His release is somewhat slow and he needs to work on his shooting form.  Jaylen is definitely an intriguing 2011 prospect due to his athleticism.