By JACK LeGWIN
CARTERSVILLE, Ga. — Led by the tandem of Scottie Lewis and Bryan Antoine, Team Rio will be playing for an Under Armour Finals championship on Saturday after knocking off Team Thad on Friday night behind 22 points from Antoine.
They play Sports U Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
“It was a huge win,” Lewis told SNY.tv. “They beat us back in LA, so we knew what we were going to do when we came out. We started up a bit slow, but Bryan and Jalen kept us going, I woke up in the second half, and we did what we were supposed to do. We all played our part and pulled out the win.”
Not only will Sports U and Rio be playing in their age group, Trevon Duval and We-R1 will be competing for the championship in the 17U division.
“It means a lot,” Antoine said. “To have three Tri-State area teams in championship games, it means that Jersey has a lot of up and coming talent, so it really means a lot to all of us.”
Indiana’s Tom Crean, St. John’s Chris Mullin, Georgetown’s John Thompson III and many other high level coaches watched Lewis and Antoine this weekend, but one coach really stuck out to Antoine.
“I’m going to be honest with you,” Antoine said. “Whenever any coach comes up and watches our game I’m usually pretty chill. But when coach Cal [John Calipari] came up, not going to lie, Jalen Gaffney and I saw him come up to watch us, that was the first time I’ve ever been starstruck by a coach.”
When asked if having high level coaches like that come out and watch him play, Lewis says that it’s just motivation, knowing that he’s doing the right things.
“As far as my work ethic is concerned, it definitely has,” Lewis said. “It means that all of the work that we have put in together, it means that we are on the right track. We are taking our training to the next level, and we are looking forward to seeing where that goes.”
With hundreds of coaches watching their games over the past couple days and Calipari watching on Thursday night, Team Director Brian Klatsky said that Kentucky as well as Duke have said that they will keep tabs on both Lewis and Antoine.
“They have both reached out during the season,” Klatsky said. “They both said they have their eyes on them. Kentucky was here [Thursday] and [Friday] It’s so early in the process, we are just trying to keep them grounded. Helping them doing really well in school. Most programs aren’t looking at rising sophomores, so we are just trying to keep them focused.”
As for representing the state, Klatsky says that while many say the talent level might be low in the Tri-State area, the youngsters playing for championships are showing that is just not quite the case.
“There are a lot of people down on the talent in the New York/Jersey area,” Klatsky said. “When you break down the draft with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kyrie [Irving], Karl Towns. We are based in Central Jersey and when you have two five star guys like these guys and they’re focused on carrying the torch for the area, the area has a lot of talent. We have eight kids up here with us. They’re all going to play in college. We have a 15U Team playing 16U, we are playing up. I know it’s early in the process, but this is big for us.”
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