Sweet Peaches! Georgia Basketball Dominating AAU 17U Nationals
(tournament coverage, photo, and video highlights here)
Three Georgia teams earned spots in the Sweet Sixteen Monday morning at the AAU 17U Boys Basketball National Tournament in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
The Georgia Stars, winners of the AAU 17U Georgia state championship, rolled past Florida’s Tampa Fastbreak 63-46 in the day’s first games. That earned the Stars a 4 p.m. meeting with the Cincinnati Royals, who defeated Spiece Select 2008.
Also advancing was Inner Strength-Black, which held off the Rising Stars JG Gold 16U squad from the Chicagoland area. J.C. Ward scored a game-high 26 points for Inner Strength, which played for the third time in nearly 24 hours.
Inner Strength will play again at 7 p.m. If they win, they’ll advance to Tuesday’s noon quarterfinal game. Jenkins said he expects to have a refreshed Ward on Tuesday, but he’ll need him tonight.
“We have the best conditioning coach in the world,” said Inner Strength-Black Coach Buck Jenkins.
“J.C. has been playing well all summer. He grinds it out and rebounds the basketball. We depend on him in the blocks to get us two points. We got him going early today, and he carried us.”
Ward, a 6-6 rising senior from Marietta, has received interest from college coaches, but he has not committed to any schools.
“He definitely has some people interested in him,” said Jenkins, whose team overcame a squad that featured a rising sophomore that already has committed to the University of Illinois and guard Marcus Jordan, the rising junior son of Michael Jordan.
