Thursday, April 10, 2014

Georgia Pearls win 6th Grade Division at #ATLShowcase


This little group was simply all over the place and I was sitting with some of their parents and learned they were playing up, in fact three of the players were in the 4th grade. One of those 4th graders, Naja Reeves, wore #3 but started at the point, knew the game, knew how to attack and could handle the ball, same can be said for Kristy Goshay who has a ton of athleticism as well. Kiara Simpson was also athletic and strong, showed signs of loving to play defense, which along with the mid range is a lost art. She and Sania Fegin were hard to handle in the paint as they overpowered opponents




Speaking of overpowering, let me say this, if Gabby Matthews grows to six feet, she'll have colleges beating down her door. She too is strong but can finish with two or three people on her, in fact she had a double-double in the championship game, well she had it in the first half. Zakiya Freeman finished strong as well, read plays before they happened, same with Kamora Reynolds, these youngsters I saw in the ATL knew basketball which is good sign of things coming


All is well with Lauren Bell's game, needed a rhyme to finish up with but she's another with a lot of potential. Paris Miller also showed she could handle the ball and make plays as she weaved out of traffic. Paris and Sydney Bowles were the other two 4th graders on the squad and Bowles simply blew me away at times. She appears to be on course to make the magic number of six feet, that coupled with so many of the intangibles she's already showing spells big things ahead. What I liked more than anything was they way she attacked from the wing and finished against older kid with contact.




This team is deep, with hard work, this group can also do big things