By Ronnie Flores

The highly-anticipated No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup between top-ranked Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) and No. 2 Link Academy (Branson, Mo.) didn't quite materialize as expected on Dec. 8 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. as part of the EYBL Scholastic Showcase. Coming into the contest, Link Academy already took a 77-76 loss on Dec. 2 to then No. 8 Prolific Prep (Napa, Calif.) at the Derek Smith Shootout in Louisville, Ky.

Regardless of the prior results or ranking coming in, Link Academy figured to be one of the few teams capable of upsetting the top-ranked Eagles. If anything, it was expected to be a competitive game and it turned out to be that even though Montverde Academy led by 23 points (56-33) after three quarters. The Lions played a spirited fourth quarter and got their deficit down to six (48-42), but shot selection and lack of defensive stops proved to be their downfall as Montverde Academy moved to 8-0 with the 71-59 victory.

Texas-bound Tre Johnson was the catalyst that made the game interesting in the fourth quarter, as the Mr. Basketball USA candidate finished with 25 points, including 6-of-8 3-pointers, for the Lions. Montverde Academy out-rebounded Link Academy, 40-25, and was credited with 16 assists to Link Academy's six.

Mr. Basketball USA front-runner and Duke-bound forward Cooper Flagg was one of four Eagles in double figures with 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. Undecided big man Derik Queen led MVA in the scoring department with 20 points and nine rebounds, while Baylor-bound point guard Robert Wright had 16 points and six assists.

Saturday afternoon at the Las Vegas Aces practice facility in Henderson, Nev., No. 15 AZ Compass Prep (Chandler, Ariz.) actually gave the Eagles a tough game as well, but never led and trialed by 19 points mid-way through the third period. Still the 16-16 fourth quarter stalemate was a moral victory of sorts for the Dragons, who similar to Link Academy, got within 48-42 before falling 58-46.

Georgia-bound power forward Asa Newell led Montverde Academy with 16 points and also had eight rebounds. Junior point guard Jeremiah Fears had a productive game for the Dragons, finishing with 13 points.

There are no moral victories in credible national rankings, although losing to the Eagles didn't hurt AZ Compass Prep or hurt the other teams that have lost to MVA so far. Each week across the country there are controversial finishes, disputed calls and notable circumstances that could cause a team to lose a game it felt it should have won. We have hundred of results to pour over and consider each week, and even though winning in the bottom line, sometimes those circumstances come into play.

One such case occurred when Stony Point (Round Rock, Texas) met Lake Travis (Austin, Texas) in a battle of unbeaten clubs on Dec. 2. The game was decided at the buzzer when Stony Point's Uzziah Bunytn, a 6-foot- junior guard, intercepted a mid-court heave, squared up and launched a shot from half-court that went in to give his team a dramatic 66-63 victory. There was 0.8 seconds showing on the game clock when the long inbounds pass was thrown. There was some controversy as to if the shot should have counted, but what there was no question about is Stony Point tied the game with two seconds and Lake Travis still doesn't have any other loss on its resume.

As a result, Lake Travis is one of 13 newcomers this week at No. 26, two spots behind the highest ranked newcomer, fellow University Interscholastic League (UIL)club Beaumont United (Beaumont, Texas) at No. 24. The Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) has Beaumont United, last season's Class 6A state runner-up, as its top-ranked club, but we go with Stony Point as Texas' top-ranked club based on national results. Not only have the Tigers' handed Lake Travis its only loss, they have handed No. 35 Millennium (Goodyear, Ariz.) its only loss, 82-69.

Millennium is another newcomer and replaces previous No. 29 Perry (Gilbert, Ariz.) as the top-ranked Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) club. Perry lost to Sunnyslope (Phoenix, Ariz.), 53-53, and one of Sunnyslope's two losses is to Millennium. Its other setback is to No. 18 St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.). Because Desert Mountain (Scottsdale, Ariz.) lost to unranked Pinnacle (Phoenix, Ariz.) and defeated previous No. 38 Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.) in overtime, no other Arizona team can crack the back end of the FAB 50.

There are tons of other results in the past two weeks that caused as much change as we've seen in any poll in recent years, but the one event that has the biggest impact on the rankings was the National High School Hoops Festival at DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, Md.) over the weekend. When the dust settled two FAB 50 mainstays returned to the FAB 50 this week: The host Stags at No. 39 and Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) at No. 31.

On Dec. 10, DeMatha downed previous No. 42 Archbishop Wood (Warminster, Pa.), 75-51, to remain unbeaten on the young season, as Ashton Meeks finished with a game-high 23 points. On Saturday, DeMatha easily downed Campbell Hall (North Hollywood, Calif.), 80-54.

Earlier on Sunday, new No. 3 Paul VI (Chantilly, Va.) defeated then No. 10 Sidwell Friends (Washington, D.C.), 65-47. Sidwell Friends other loss was to No. 13 John Marshall (Richmond, Va.) in overtime. On Saturday evening, John Marshall dominated the overtime period, 11-3, to defeat Sidwell Friends, 63-55. Paul VI also needed a dominant overtime (16-8) on Saturday to knock off No. 12 Myers Park (Charlotte, N.C.), 78-70. Myers Park's second loss is to No. 43 Combine Academy (Lincolnton, N.C.), which suffered its only loss to battle-tested Oak Cliff Faith Family (Dallas, Texas).

Oak Cliff Faith Family is one of this season's surprising teams to take multiple losses and fall from the rankings. Perhaps no bigger surprise is preseason No. 10 Richmond Heights (Richmond Heights, Ohio) losing its first three games of the season to fall all the way out this week.

As for Oak Hill Academy, the Warriors are back in the FAB 50 with a 11-1 mark, with their only loss a 84-57 setback to new No. 2 Long Island Lutheran (Glen Head, N.Y.) at the Marshall County Hoopfest in Kentucky. Oak Hill Academy wasn't ranked in this year's preseason for the first time since 1988-89.

RELATED: ?Preseason 2023-24 Mr. Basketball USA Tracker | | ??

Ronnie Flores is the national Grassroots editor of www.ebooksnet.com. He can be reached at?[email protected]. Don't forget to follow him on Twitter:?@RonMFlores

The post NEW FAB 50: Holiday Madness! appeared first on www.ebooksnet.com.

There wasn't a FAB 50 update this week, as we'll update our national team rankings on December 16 right before the start of the nation's top pre and post-holiday tournaments, which include a vast majority of the top ranked teams, and then come back and begin our weekly updates beginning January 6, 2020. One thing we know for sure, is there will be a new No. 1 team next week as No. 1 IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) fell to No. 4 Paul VI (Fairfax, Va.), 67-56.

Paul VI has turned in plenty of significant regular season victories over highly-ranked foes in recent years, including a win over 2013 FAB 50 national champ Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) at the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions, but last weekend's win at the National High School Hoops Festival was quite impressive as it's clear the Panthers will be a viable FAB 50 title contender all season. We began the Panthers at No. 4 in the preseason and not any higher because of some concerns about their interior prowess, but with the level of talent their backcourt plays at, it might not make any difference. Paul VI led by as much as 17 points with just under four minutes in the game after IMG Academy quickly went up 5-0. Paul VI held a 32-29 halftime lead.

The Panthers were led to victory by Duke-bound Jeremy Roach, who has successfully recovered from ACL surgery that caused him to miss his junior season, and junior guard Trevor Keels. Roach finished with 16 points, four rebounds, three assists and knocked down three critical 3-pointers. Keels had a team-high 25 points, four rebounds, two steals and knocked down 5-of-12 3-point attempts as the Panthers got rolling from the outside. When you add in Josiah Freeman, who knocked down 4-of-10 3-pointers the following night in Paul VI's 78-75 win over Word of God Academy (Raleigh, N.C.), and sophomore Knasir “Dug” McDaniel, it just might be the best quartet of guards we've seen on one team in recent memory.

Tennessee-bound Jaden Springer led IMG Academy with 18 points in the loss. The Ascenders won't fall too far in the rankings because we know they are one of the best teams in the nation and were playing Paul VI without the services of Duke-bound Jalen Johnson and guard Matthew Murrell. IMG Academy was able to bounce back the next evening and take some of its frustrations out on Cornerstone Christian (San Antonio, Texas) with a 85-51 victory. Once again Springer was a catalyst, as he finished with 22 points, including 3-of-5 3-pointers, nine rebounds and eight assists. He's the one guy IMG Academy cannot afford to be without.

Big Weekend For Sunrise Christian, Hamilton Heights

A Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) program got the big win at the DC Hoopfest, but it's not often that a program knocks off two WCAC powers in back-to-back outings, but that's exactly what happened for No. 10 Sunrise Christian Academy (Bel Aire, Kan.). The Buffaloes defeated No. 12 Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.), 61-55, and came back the next night in the event's final game to shock host and No. 3 DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, Md.) 75-67.

The best player on the floor in the Sunrise-Gonzaga game was 6-foot-7, 2021 prospect Kendall Brown, who made some clutch plays and finished with 18 points on 7-of-8 field goals with his only miss coming from behind the arch. Senior point guard Ty Berry was also integral in the win, with good decision-making, ball-handling and outside shooting. He finished with 14 points, including two 3-pointers and is a terrific recruiting coup for Northwestern. Against DeMatha, Berry was the catalyst with 21 points, including 3-of-6 3-pointers, four rebounds and two steals. The Buffaloes were in control throughout, even though Brown didn't have his best outing.

DeMatha was plagued by poor shooting and the foul trouble of Michigan-bound center Hunter Dickinson. The Stags will also need their complimentary components to step up if they are going to challenge Paul VI for the WCAC crown. As of now, it looks like the Panthers rate as the favorites. DeMatha will look to turn it around quickly as it faces conference foe Bishop O'Connell (Arlington, Va.) on Tuesday night and will have a chance to atone for the loss to Sunrise Christian when it travels to face No. 2 Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) on Thursday night in a nationally-televised matchup.

Keels and Brown are not the only players who impressed over the weekend and merit serious All-American acclaim. The same holds true for wing Samson Ruzhentsev of No. 15 Hamilton Heights Christian Academy (Chattanooga, Tenn.), which upped its record to 9-0 with a 67-52 dispatching of Hillcrest Prep (Phoenix, Ariz.) in the final game at Hoophall West in Phoenix.

Ruzhentsev showed everyone in attendance and a national stream audience why he's quite underrated nationally by major recruiting services. He can handle and shoot it well, can score on all three levels and has pro athleticism. Ruzhentsev led a balanced attack against Hillcrest Prep with 17 points. We also liked what we saw from junior point guard Dominiq Penn and senior forward Andersson Garcia. Hamilton Heights has a complete team and it will take a supreme effort to knock it off.

With just 2 minutes remaining in the game, @SencireH made 2 HUGE plays to propel @STVMAthletics to a 64-59 win over Cincinnati Moeller.

Prior to yesterday, Moeller had won 50 games in a row with their last in state loss coming to Massillon Jackson in March of 2017. pic.twitter.com/SGvV7YkRLJ

— T.J. Peatross (@NEO_Spotlight) December 8, 2019

More FAB 50 Notes and Tidbits

While we wished he'd started Hamilton Heights Christian Academy a tad higher than No 19 in the preseason FAB 50, there's another team we wished we had given more preseason consideration to that comes out of the West Region. That would be Mount Si (Snoqualmie, Wash.), which actually was impressive at this summer's Section 7 Team Camp in Phoenix during the NCAA's new June live period. Mount Si should have been in front of a few of the California teams in our preseason West Region Top 20 as Washington's No. 2 team behind current FAB 50 No. 28 O’Dea (Seattle)...
After the Hoophall West event, it was announced on Monday that Hillcrest Prep (Pheonix), which was touted as a top five team nationally in rankings in which the Bruins are eligible for, parted ways with head coach Mike Bibby. Hillcrest Prep has a talented roster but were out of sync and unfocused at the event....
No. 23 Moeller (Cincinnati, Ohio) saw its 50-game winning streak snapped in a 65-59 loss to St. Vincent-St. Mary (Akron, Ohio), which barely missed out on a preseason Midwest Region Top 20 rankings spot. St. Vincent-St. Mary will be in the national spotlight this weekend when it faces FAB 50 No. 6 Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.) at the Ohio Play-By-Play Classic at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on December 14. SV-SM, of course, is the alma mater of two-time Mr. Basketball USA LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and his son is a rotation player as a freshman for Sierra Canyon. The Trailblazers will be without Ziaire Williams until December 30, but with B.J. Boston playing terrific, were no match for No. 47 Millennium (Goodyear, Ariz.) at Hoophall West. James led "St. V's" to the No. 1 FAB 50 ranking in 2002-03 with an unbeaten on-court record....
Two major developments for high school basketball fans to keep an eye took place over the last four days. It was announced Sports Illustrated will take a deep dive into collegiate recruiting in both football and boys basketball with the creation of SI All-American. The company has already announced a director of recruiting whose expertise is college football. It will undoubtedly announce a director of college basketball recruiting at some point in the future. It will be interesting to see how SI creates national player rankings as the industry continues to evolve and move away from traditional journalism work...
Speaking of traditional media and journalism, we learned USA Today will close its high school department and many people who covered high school sports for the nationally circulated newspaper are out of a job. It was known in industry circles that USA Today would be moving away from high school human interest and news content, but the slashing of the entire department still sent shockwaves through the industry. No word yet on how or whom will spearhead USA Today's Super 25 team rankings, which have been around since the fall of 1982. They were most recently spearheaded by Jason Jordan, and previously by Jim Halley, Chris Lawlor (who currently does a Top 25 for Blue Star Media) and originally by Dave Krider. Krider began weekly national rankings for Basketball Weekly in 1974-75 and actually wasn't able to complete them that first year due to a disagreement or misunderstanding with management. He compiled them from 1976 to 1983 and then switched over to USA Today, which helped grow the popularity of national high school rankings. The first end-of-season national rankings were compiled by the late Art Johlfs, and the Minnesota multi-sport high school coach and official originated his National Sports News Service rankings at age 21. Those original national rankings continue today as the FAB 50 National Team Rankings, which originated as a weekly under the National Prep Poll in 1987-88 and have continued in its current FAB 50 format for the past 20 seasons.

Ronnie Flores is the national Grassroots editor of www.ebooksnet.com. He can be reached at [email protected]. Don't forget to follow him on Twitter: @RonMFlores

The post Cleaning Out The FAB 50 Notebook appeared first on www.ebooksnet.com.

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