[dtrain34]

The End of the Trail tournament is underway in Oregon City, starting off the July recruiting period. The NorCal powers seem to be well represented, Cal Ballaz, Cal Stars, JBS, et al. Have not seen any of them play yet as I have been focused on the Northwest teams, as apparently was the Cal staff as both Charmin Smith and Kai Felton were on hand at the games I saw.

Team Concept Heat, the Oregon superteam with pretty much all of that lauded '13 and '14 group (Mercedes Russell, Kailee Johnson, Jordan Reynolds, Lexi Bando and Jamie Nared), and Seattle's Tree of Hope (with 6-foot '12 wing Nyasha Sarju being named player-of-the-game and other '12s Katie Collier, Sasha Weber and Airashay Rogers also faring well) both breezed to morning wins in the first round.

Full-game video of both TC and TOH games -- along with every game played on the main court at OCHS -- is available online at:

http://www.ihigh.com/broadcasts.html...atus=completed

[dtrain34]

Seattle's Tree of Hope won its fourth straight at End of the Trail, blowing past East Bay Explosion (with Notre Dame commit Hannah Huffman and stellar '14 Gabby Green), 60-something to 30-something, with the game video online again:

http://www.ihigh.com/oregoncitypione...?silverlight=1

Not going to single out any stars from that one as it was really an 11-girl effort for Tree but rest assured the Pac-12 recruiting targets (including Cal wish-lister Katie Collier) played well.

[OBear073akaSMFan]

Originally Posted by dtrain34

Seattle's Tree of Hope won its fourth straight at End of the Trail, blowing past East Bay Explosion (with Notre Dame commit Hannah Huffman and stellar '14 Gabby Green), 60-something to 30-something, with the game video online again:

http://www.ihigh.com/oregoncitypione...?silverlight=1

Not going to single out any stars from that one as it was really an 11-girl effort for Tree but rest assured the Pac-12 recruiting targets (including Cal wish-lister Katie Collier) played well.

I saw about last 5 minutes and when they showed the scoreboard at the end with the home team winning by some 30pts. I wasn't sure who the home team was.
Thanks for the update. However was gabby green there? I know a couple of the EB Futures were brought up to the EB Black1 team. It was posted by Doug Benton Twitter account:

DougBenton Doug Benton
2014 guards Morgan Green and Makenzie Cast are playing up with EBX Black I after June losses of Green and Fatuesi. @NorCalPreps
6 Jul

But don't think the loss of abby green or fatuesi would have made much difference. EB Black1 has very little height..other than Hughes.

[dtrain34]

OK, my mistake on Green.... I thought "Gabby" must be Morgan's nickname. Gabby did not play then. Anger didn't look too broken up on the bench, so I think he saw it coming as Tree of Hope was bigger, stronger, faster than any of the kids he was able to put on the floor (though Huffman showed skill and smarts at times). Definitely not one of the stronger EBX squads but we Seattle fans were still shocked at the margin.

On an unrelated note, Jamie Weisner, a 5'10" 2/3 in the class of '12 that UW and Gonzaga have expressed interest in, went for 33 points (!) in the Northwest Blazers win over Oregon City per Chris Hansen on Hoopgurlz. A big scoring output like that is rare in AAU because players usually don't play anywhere near the whole game and often the games aren't close enough to ride stars for long periods. Blazers won that one by 13. Weisner is a Pac-12 "sleeper" who may have woken some people up today. She is strong enough, fast enough and springy enough to have reached the podium in four events at Washington 2A State track: both hurdle races, the javelin and the long jump.

[dtrain34]

Only fair to mention after bragging about Tree of Hope's rush to the Plantinum Bracket championship game that they were beaten, 60-48, by a big, strong, physical Minnesota Metro Stars team in the bracket title game.

Two plusses for TOH were: 1. They had lost to MMS, 67-46, in North Carolina during April and immediately fell behind 15-2 on Friday, a recipe for a quick fold -- but TOH hung in and rallied to take a 42-39 lead. However, some coaches believe it takes two runs to win a game and Tree couldn't find the second one. 2. The play of Taylor Peacocke, the 2012 guard from Inglemoor HS in the Seattle area, who kept TOH from getting blown out early with both scoring and defensive hustle and aided the late rush to a temporary lead.

Up next in the Northwest and of interest to Cal fans as many California teams will attend, is the MSNM tournament at UW and other local gyms starting Sunday and running from July 10-13.

[wvitbear]

Range and Tafusi player very well up there. Courtney is a junior with long arms like Gabby Green.

Tafusi is a Cortney Paris look alike. Wide body, can shoot with either hand. Best passer for a young big girl I believe I've seen. Wonderful hands. Needs to get in shape. Is only a sophomore at Presentation this coming year.

[kat0189]

not sure if this was mentioned but Gabby Green is listed with Cal Storm this summer, along with Chidom and Waters.

[OBear073akaSMFan]

...Cal storm also list Quincy Mann (2014) of Piedmont...daughter of Anthony Mann and Debra Gore-Mann.

[dtrain34]

Just to wrap up the EOT, Team Concept won it with a 62-40 win over eastern Washington power Northwest Blazers. TC had beaten Minnesota Metro Stars in the overall semi-final after the Stars had eliminated Tree of Hope in the Platinum Bracket championship game. Northwest Blazers topped Cal Swish to reach the final. Below are the all-tourney teams and MVPs, including a ton of kids being recruited by Pac-12 schools. Lots of names, but remember this was a 221-team event:

End of The Trail Tournament Results 2011

OVERALL CHAMPION NATIONAL DIVISION: Team Concept-Heat

FINAL FOUR: Team Concept Heat NW Blazers Orange

Minnesota Metro Stars Cal Swish Black


OVERALL CHAMPION AMERICAN DIVISION (This is the less competive level): Payes Place Cardinal

National Division Most Valuable Players:

First Place Teams:
Mercedes Russell Team Concept
Jamie Weisner NW Blazers Orange
Jackie Johnson Minnesota Metro Stars
Deanna Johnson Cal Swish Black


Second Place Teams:
Kelsey Plum Wiggins Waves
Courtnee Walton Arizona Warriors
Katie Collier Tree of Hope
Courtney Range Cal Stars Elite

American Division Most Valuable Players:

First Place Teams:
Drew Edelman Payes Place Cardinal
Emalia Galdeira Team Stingray
Madison Wright NW Blazers Brooks


Second Place Teams:
Jenna Yee Bulldawgs
Krista Stabler Totl Package
Kim Frost Advantage YEA Elite

National Division All-Tournament Team

Jaime Nared Team Concept Heat
Jordan Reynolds Team Concept Heat
Kailee Johnson Team Concept Heat

Maya Hood Wiggins Waves
Malina Hood Wiggins Waves

Kailey Edwards Boulder Black
Lauren Huggins Boulder Black

Kendra Morrison Way to Win Gold
Chandler Smith Way to Win Gold

Onume Jemerigbe Nor Cal Elite Black
Jazmine Ware Nor Cal Elite Black

Nyre Harris Stockton Mustangs Gold
Lisa Valentine Stockton Mustangs


Dezz Ramos Utah Flight Black
Brittney Johnson Utah Flight Black

Katie Lou Samuelson Cal Swish Black 1
Karlie Samuelson Cal Swish Black 1
Ceila Marfone Cal Swish Black 1

Madison Craig Cal Stars Elite
Janine Loutzenhiser Cal Stars Elite

Brittany Martin Utah Flight Blue
Dakota Gonzalez Utah Flight Blue

Tess Picknell Columbia Cascades
Rachel Staudacher Columbia Cascades

Kylie Maeda Kalakaua Wahine
Alexandra Masaquel Kalakaua Wahine

Gigi Hashceff Nevada Academy 17
Talia Jim Nevada Academy 17

Marquelle Dent Mile High Gold
Amanda Martinez Mile High Gold


Karlee Wilson NW Blazers Orange
Khadidja Toure NW Blazers Orange
Chelsea Waters NW Blazers orange


Danielle Williams Arizona Warriors
Dominique Williams Arizona Warriors

Terilyn Moe Mission Rec Blue
Shannon Mauldin Mission Rec Blue

Johanna Paine Oregon City Black
Jenae Paine Oregon City Black


Raven Benton ADV. YEA Elite
Ciara Pedroni ADV. YEA Elite

Markita McKoy Corona Force
Erika Nwufo Corona Force

Amy Staha Texas Rising Stars
Diana Omozee Texas Rising Stars

Katy Beth Biewen Minnesota Metro Stars
Brittney Scherber Minnesota Metro Stars
Hannah Schonhardt Minnesota Metro Stars

Mokun Fajemisin Tree of Hope
Sasha Weber Tree of Hope

Annie Tarakchian West Coast Premier-Valley
Leslie Lopez-Wood West Coast Premier-Valley

Hannah Huffman East Bay Xplosion Black 1
Brianna Ruiz East Bay Xplosion Black 1

Michaela Neuhaus CBC Black
Rebecca Howell CBC Black

Kellyn Schneider New Mexico Heat
Lauren Dudding New Mexico Heat

Christina Salvatore OC Rythmn
Connie Ballestero OC Rythmn

[wvitbear]

Onume and Nye Harris made honorable mention. Saw Nye last year when Lincoln played Berkeley in the playoffs. she is a good guard.

[kat0189]

Originally Posted by wvitbear

Onume and Nye Harris made honorable mention. Saw Nye last year when Lincoln played Berkeley in the playoffs. she is a good guard.

It says MVP's of the 2nd place teams, so my interpretation is that Range's team finished second in their division, and was MVP of her team. Hence why K. Johnson, Reynolds, and Nared are not listed there.

[dtrain34]

That's correct. A flaw in the EOT all-tourney process -- though even attempting to pick such a team, even a huge one, from 221 squads is a difficult endeavor -- is that only players from teams finishing reasonably high up are eligible. Each of the final 8 teams get an "MVP" and each of the I-don't-know-how-many-high-finishers have all-tourneys selected. No doubt, some great performances from players on weak teams go unrewarded in such a system.

[wvitbear]

Cal is recruiting Mikyla Cowlings the younger sister of Alex (Northern Cal player of the year in 2009). Also the overshadowed team mate of Gabby Green,. Both play for St. Mary's High School in Berkeley. Cal coaches were closely watching her at the End of the Trail event.