NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C.—Few club teams could offer up a better way to finish the summer than the way Team Elite put an exclamation mark on their 2016 Summer Tour. The final day of Nike Nationals and the third annual Girls EYBL Championships saw the Georgia based squad not only grab the coveted EYBL title, but take home the top honors in the 16 team Junior Division as well.
The action began among the 24 qualifying Nike teams on Wednesday and culminated in Saturday’s semifinals and championship game at the Riverview Park Activities Center. The semis saw the Tennessee Flight get an early jump on Boo Williams and never look back posting a rare 20 point win over the folks from Virginia, 71 – 51. The other semifinal was much more competitive with Tree of Hope coming up short on an ice cold shooting morning (26%) to Team Elite whom moved on by way of a 54 – 46 win. The stage for the final featured two teams from the same pool as Flight came out as the top seed by virtue of their earlier six point win over Team Elite. Ironically the same pool also featured the top seed for Nike Nationals, Cy-Fair, who saw a disappointing end to their summer finishing with a 1 and 4 mark and failing to move into bracket play.
Team Elite came out of the gate quick in the championship game leading by as many as nine in the first period and ultimately holding a 16 – 9 lead after one. The eventual champs got their first double digit lead at 25 – 15 with 2:32 to go in the half and took and 11 point edge into the break leading 29 – 18. Flight found the going no easier in the third and saw the brass ring slip even further away as they looked at a 16 point deficit entering the final period.
Anastasia Hayes found the range early in the fourth and created some momentum that created some hope for Tom Insell’s crew. The lead was cut to single digits, 44 – 35, on Elizabeth Dixon’s three point play with 5:36 remaining. Hayes and Dixon continued to produce cutting the gap to just five with 4:04 remaining. Team Elite caught their breath and got the cushion back to 10 with just under three minutes remaining on some timely offensive boards. Flight wasn’t done yet as Dixon and long range shooting Brinae Alexander helped cut the gap to just four with 1:20 to go. Out of a much needed time out Team Elite easily broke Flight’s press converting and taking the wind out of their opponent’s sails. In the end Team Elite got the win and the top bragging rights on the summer circuit claiming the Girls Elite Youth Basketball League crown 54 – 47.
In the win Team Elite got 17 points from dynamic Quanniecia Morrison on 7 of 11 shooting. N’Dea Jones added 9 while Sydne Wiggins chipped in 8 more. Hayes led Flight with 17 finishing 6 of 13 from the floor including a 3 of 5 effort from deep. Dixon added 12, six of which came on free throws in pressure situations down the stretch. As a team, Flight struggled early from the floor but ultimately managed to finish the game at a 38 percent clip. Team Elite shot 46.9 and had just 12 turnovers while Flight coughed it up 19 times. Flight won the battle on the boards but gave up some costly offensive boards in crucial situations near the end.
The appropriately named Junior Division (All players on both rosters with the exception of one in the final will be juniors this fall) saw Team Elite claim a hard fought win over North Tartan 64 – 61 for their contribution to the “Nike Sweep”. Kaila Hubbard led the way with 18 points on 43 percent shooting from the floor. North Tartan had two in double figures as Zoe Young had 16 and Sam Haiby contributed 14 with both shooting over 50 percent for the game. Young, however, went down with an ankle injury in the third and did not return.
Defending EYBL Champs California Stars took home consolation honors this time around by winning the Silver bracket. All Ohio beat Texas United in one semi while the Stars got past California rival West Coast Premier to advance to the championship game. Evina Westbrook had 20 in the final to lead the way in the 69 – 59 win.
For more information on all the action at Nike Nationals follow the link below to the Girls EYBL web site or go to Game Changer for all the stats and results.
http://nikegirlseybl.com/#home-1
As noted earlier top seed Cy-Fair found the going rough but they weren’t the only ones. DFW T-Jack came in at 8 an2 and followed their fellow Texans by posting a 1 and 4 mark of their own. The Carolina Flames were 6 and 4 in rounds one and two but went 0 for 5 this week. They were’nt by themselves on the winless column as the Kentucky Premier and Miami Suns also went home with no wins under their belts. Five teams finished with just one win in five games. On the upside, the Philadelphia Belles who won a three way tie to advance to Augusta with just two wins competed aggressively and posted two more making it into Silver Bracket play.
Below are images records and stats for the 24 teams the qualified for the trip to Augusta this year.
