This is the teams first year together.  Not bad.  Also good for the Under Armour brand recognition in Bmore.  The better the Under Armour AAU teams become the less boundaries MD has to hurdle in the AAU game.  I have no idea if any of the players will become MD targets (just finished their freshman year of HS).  Lets hope there is a player or two on the team that is ACC talent.

July 14, 2011

B'more Finest's 15U team wins at Big Shots

An "up and down" AAU season for Aaron Williams' B'more Finest 15-and-under team turned completely positive last weekend.

The first-year, Under Armour-sponsored program won the Big Shots Myrtle Beach I championship Saturday with a 50-36 win over South Carolina-based TMP in the title game.

“They came out in this tournament with a different look, like they were ready to play,” said Williams, a St. Frances assistant who previously coached for the Baltimore Assault and Crusader Nation organizations. “We had June off, had a lot of individual workouts. They bonded in this tournament to get the win.”

St. Frances’ Allen Costley led the way for B’more with 16 points in the title game.

“He does a little bit of everything,” Williams said of Costley, a 6-foot-4 small forward.

Patterson’s Kwyten Brooks led the team in scoring the first game of the tournament with 18 points. Broadneck’s Alex D’Alessio – son of Loyola assistant coach Luke D’Alessio – led B’more in assists in the championship game with nine.

“He played very well,” Williams said. “He’s like an extra coach out there sometimes.”

St. Frances’ Tevin Costley -- Allen’s cousin – and Arundel’s Darian Bryant also provided important contributions for B’More Finest.

Harris “hit some big shots for us throughout the tournament,” Williams said. “When we needed to bust the zone, he lit them up with jump shots.”

In the frontcourt, Kenwood center Trevis Buckhannon “blocked a lot of shots and rebounded well,” while Chapelgate small forward Isaiah Harris-Winn “really stepped up big in the championship game, came in with a lot of energy. It was probably one of his best games of the whole summer.”

B’More Finest was down three players in Myrtle Beach. Tommy Heard (Milford Mill) was out with a rib injury, while Dunbar point guard Dre Gibson (the team’s “most consistent scorer throughout the summer”) and Good Counsel center Shane Eberle were unable to make the trip.

Williams said his team, which travels to West Virginia this weekend for a Hoop Group tournament, was “very excited” to bring home the Big Shots championship.

“They felt like they probably should have won a few earlier in the summer that they let slip through,” Williams said. “You could tell in this championship game, they came out focused to win this. They weren’t going to leave Myrtle Beach without a championship.”