Five Key Questions from Putnam City vs Putnam City West
Putnam City defeats Putnam City West 69-67 in a comeback victory. PCO showed tremendous toughness coming back on the road from a 15-point deficit. Here are the five key questions from PCO vs PCW: 1. What is Putnam City’s ceiling? PCO…
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Continue ReadingPutnam City defeats Putnam City West 69-67 in a comeback victory. PCO showed tremendous toughness coming back on the road from a 15-point deficit.
Here are the five key questions from PCO vs PCW:
1. What is Putnam City’s ceiling?
PCO is a legitimate threat to almost every team in 6A due to their great guard play and gritty role players. Tre Carolina, KD Jolly, and Alfred Alkannama are a tough guard trio who can all put the ball on the floor and break down their defenders.
The past few years they have been a tough scrappy group who just didn’t know how to win quite yet. This year’s team took a major step with this victory over the #1 ranked team in 6A and a major rival.
If everything works out for PCO, they have the ceiling of stealing a bid to state.
2. What does Putnam City West do when Rondel Walker doesn’t play well?
PCW blew a large lead but they were playing a team that is better than their #13 ranking. PCO plays exactly like PCW so their usual style advantage was negated.
2020 guard Rondel Walker is a D1 prospect who can score with anybody in Oklahoma but today just was not his day. He missed easy layups he usually finishes.
He just never got in a rhythm offensively so others had to step up which is one of the encouraging results of this loss.
Players like Shelby Sampleton and Jaylen Rainey stepped up in Walker’s statistical absence and took the scoring load on themselves.
Sampleton was a can’t miss threat all game long and he showed he can make shots in a bunch of different situations. Rainey was a load to stop down low and he maid the refs earn their paycheck tonight as he lived at the FT line due to his aggressiveness.
3. What did PCO do to comeback from down 15+ points?
PCO hung in the game with little contribution from anyone behind the arc which condensed the floor spacing. However, KD Jolly stepped up late in the third quarter and the fourth quarter and he provided big-time shooting which changed the momentum.
Alkannama was huge in the third quarter as he finished everything around the rim. He was either catching and driving not letting anyone cut him off from getting to the rim.
However, he used his motor and basketball IQ to be in the right spot at the right time to get cheap baskets around the rim.
Carolina was the cherry on top as he provided clutch baskets down the stretch and he hit big FT’s to ice the game.
4. Who is the best shooter for PCW?
Trentez Scales and Sampleton were the main reason for PCO putting so much effort into coming back because these two lethal shooters always had a counter punch when PCO was on a run.
It was a tie game coming out of halftime and these two hit back-to-back threes to make it a six point game before you could even blink.
Scales and Sampleton showed the ability to shoot in a multitude of situations. There were moments where would get an in rhythm spot up shot but most of their shots were on the mid-break where your momentum is a factor but it didn’t seem to affect these two knock down shooters.
This is a shooting duo to keep an eye on for the rest of the year.
5. Why isn’t Tre Carolina recruited more?
Carolina is skilled senior guard who can play at a fast pace but he can also slow it down and create efficient shots in the half-court. He is an underrated finisher around the rim seeing as he is 6’0.
There is no reason a kid who has been doing this since his freshmen year should be considered “under the radar”.
Rather it is JUCO or D2, Carolina is a legitimate prospect who skill-for-skill can hang with almost any guard in the city. He has faced some of the best guards to come out of OKC for 4 years and he has always held his own.
Carolina is one of those “steal” prospects who’s future college announcement won’t get a ton of buzz but once he steps on the floor for that institution, people will his name wasn’t bigger in recruiting conversations in Oklahoma.
Photo Credit: Michael Mayberry/Defining Moment