ATLANTIC CITY — On paper, the Juice All-Stars were elite, a collection of the top players from the top teams — Lincoln’s Isaiah Whitehead, Boys & Girls’ Leroy (Truck) Fludd and Thomas Jefferson’s Jaquan (Son Son) Lynch — in PSAL Brooklyn AA. Yet for most of the summer, their star power wasn’t adding up to AAU success.
Aside from a semifinal finish at Nike/iS8 Spring High School Classic, Juice never seemed to be on the same page, until Friday in the Silver bracket of Live in AC.
After finishing 0-3 in pool play, losing twice by a combined eight points, Juice ripped off three wins six hours apart at Richard Stockton College. Juice’s come-from-behind, 81-77 win over the N.J. Pirates clinched its first crown on what may turn out to be their final tournament together, depending if they enter this weekend’s Buzzer Beater Classic in Manhattan, run by The Hoop Group.
“We couldn’t go the whole summer without winning anything,” Fludd said.
As was the case the entire day, Juice received balanced production. Fludd, the uncommitted wing who will go to prep school this year, scored 23 points, Grady standout Nyheem Atkins followed with 15 points, Whitehead added 12 and the FIU-bound Lynch finished with 11. Juice topped D-One Sports (N.C.), 80-53, in the semifinals behind 25 points from Lynch and 15 from Whitehead and nipped the Ottawa Guardsmen (Can.), 53-50, as Whitehead scored 18 in the quarters.
“We finally put it all together at the end and got the job done,” Juice coach James Barrett said.
A step slow and lacking the needed intensity, Juice struggled early against the Pirates, trailing by as many as eight points against the hot-shooting club from New Jersey. But they took command with a punishing 23-5 run coming out of halftime, a direct result of improved defense, better ball movement and passing on jump shots to get into the lane. The Pirates answered with a spurt of their own to get even at 69, but Whitehead made two free throws, Lynch hit a jumper and Trevonn Morton sank a 3-pointer.
“We played like a team in the second half,” Barrett said.
Atkins was an x-factor, going all-out in the first half while his teammates tired legs led to the shoddy start. He scored inside, was integral on the glass and even led the break on occasion.
“He’s like the secret on our team,” Barrett said. “Nobody really knows about him.”
The biggest change, Fludd said, was in everyone playing like a team, instead of going one-on-one. As Barrett said, Fludd, Whitehead and Lynch were used to dominating the ball, shooting at their heart’s content. They all made sacrifices on Friday — Whitehead, for instance, didn’t lead Juice in scoring in the final two games — and it led to a title.
“It’s good to walk away winners,” Barrett said. “Even though it’s the consolation, it’s good momentum for a lot of the guys going into their high school seasons.”