Midwest Live Showcase: Sunday Standouts
Council Bluffs- Championship Sunday at the Iowa West Field House brought a close to the 2020 Midwest Live Showcase event. Here are the standouts from the concluding day of a fun return to basketball in Council Bluffs. Team Buddy Buckets…
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Continue ReadingCouncil Bluffs- Championship Sunday at the Iowa West Field House brought a close to the 2020 Midwest Live Showcase event. Here are the standouts from the concluding day of a fun return to basketball in Council Bluffs.
Team Buddy Buckets 17U
Aside from dropping a highly competitive showcase matchup against OSA Adidas, Team Buddy Buckets were far and away the team of the weekend. The trio of Sean Pedulla Sean Pedulla 6'1" | PG Edmond Memorial | 2021 State #81 Nation OK , Sean Franklin Sean Franklin 6'4" | SF Choctaw | 2021 State OK , and Ethan Scott Ethan Scott 5'10" | PG Mustang | 2022 State OK provides an incredibly balanced attack and they can score with the best of them. This was the case most of the weekend and showed again as they wrapped up the 17U Midwest Live title. Pedulla is a point guard who just makes things happen, and Scott might be the best shooter I’ve seen in person this calendar year. They beat two really solid teams in Iowa Barnstormers Gold and Colorado Hawks to bring home the title on Sunday. In the championship matchup against Colorado Hawks, Pedulla finished with 11 points and 6 assists, while Scott, who was playing up a grade all weekend led Team Buddy Buckets with 25 points. Look for this very talented squad to be one of the top teams in the Midwest throughout the summer.
Emarion Ellis Emarion Ellis 6'4" | SF Assumption | 2021 State #141 Nation IA – Iowa Barnstormers Gold 17U
Emarion Ellis Emarion Ellis 6'4" | SF Assumption | 2021 State #141 Nation IA was one of the players I had heard a lot about coming into the weekend but had never watched in person, and I can say I was thoroughly impressed. Ellis had a solid weekend for the Barnstormers top team, but there was a sequence in their bracket play loss to eventual champion Team Buddy Buckets that really stood out to me. Ellis is a multi-sport athlete with crazy athleticism. He was all over the court all weekend long, and though his stats didn’t jump off the page he made things happen for Barnstormers. The sequence I’m referring to involved Ellis going baseline and throwing it down with one hand, and then chasing the ball down and blocking it off the glass on the other end. Ellis is rated as one of the top players in Iowa, and has received multiple D1 offers in both football and basketball for good reason.
Austin Holtz- BCR 16U
Playing on a team made up of players from three smaller Nebraska high schools, (Bennington, Omaha Concordia, and Omaha Roncalli Catholic), the soon to be junior at Bennington High knocked down 8 three-pointers while leading BCR to a 68-50 win over Northeast Shockers. The BCR team went 5-0 at Midwest Live.
OSA National Porter 17U
This team has some shooters, who are also solid players all around. The three Sunday standouts in leading OSA Porter to a championship in their bracket were Taveon Thompson of Lincoln Southeast, Graham Cassoutt Graham Cassoutt 6'5" | PF Papillion-La Vista South | 2021 State NE of Papillion La-Vista South, and Dawson Mohr from Scottsbluff. All three of these guys showcased their ability to score the ball at all 3 levels throughout the weekend, and capped it off on Sunday by bringing home a bracket championship.