Team SCAN had extra luggage to carry on its way back home to The Bronx from Las Vegas. Nobody seemed to mind — everybody, in fact, was itching to carry the Fab 48 titles the burgeoning program’s 15U and 16U teams captured with thrilling victories on Sunday.
SCAN capped a memorable AAU season with a brilliant performance at Fab 48, the two teams combining to go 16-0 in the prestigious showcase featuring the top programs nationwide.
“Big-time — really big-time,” Scan directions and 16’s coach Terrence (Munch) Williams said. “No better way to end the season.”
As a result, both clubs are likely to finish atop the last FiveStarBasketball.com national rankings when they are released.
The 16’s, after all, edged current No. 1 Team Thad (Tenn.), 74-71, in the championship game on Sunday behind 21 points from Cardinal Hayes guard Shavar Newkirk, 14 from national rising junior prospect Chris McCulloguh and 12 from suddenly hot recruit Terry Larrier. Our Savior New American forward Cheick Diallo had arguably the game’s two biggest baskets, pushing a one-point deficit to a three-point lead, late in the fourth quarter.
“It cements we’re the best 16U team in the country,” Williams said after winning his 11th title with the group. “The kids did a great job eating well, sleeping well, resting their bodies — doing all the things you need to win the tournament.”
Newkirk was brilliant from the start of the tournament to its finish, running the team with patience and precision, taking over when necessary and leading his teammates in times of need.
“What Shavar did in July proved to me he’s one of the best point guards in the country now,” Williams said. “He was the best point guard in Peach Jam, he was the best point guard in Massachusetts and he was arguably the best point guard at Fab 48. … Point guards win games. Shavar really put himself on a pedestal, at least in my mind to run the team the next few years. There were games he literally put us on his back.”
On Sunday, SCAN’s 16’s began the day with a 48-43 win over Team Loaded (Va.), followed by a 66-45 rout of GAME Elite (GA.) in the semifinals and the showdown with Team Thad in the finals.
The 15’s began the day with a 55-48 win over Team Loaded-Jones (Va.); hammered OMG Elite (Ga.), 73-52; and just got by the Minnesota Cyclones, 69-68. Like the older group, this one was typified by its balanced, getting great play from Chance Ellis, Dondre Rhoden, Devonte Green, Austrian Robisnon, Unique McLean, Chris Atkinson and Tremont Waters.
Making it even more impressive, Green and McLean are technically rising freshman and should be playing with the 14’s, which finished third in the AAU Nationals in Orlando, Fla.
“As a program, you look and say, ‘wow, you’re not just representing New York, but you’re going to be looked at by teams across the country as a high-major program,’” Williams said.