By: Boots Giblin and Mikael Desta
Capitol Hoops Summer League at the storied DeMatha Catholic High School is finally here. This marks the sixth year of the summer league and what is known to the DMV community as “June’s best bump,” with a record number of 50 teams, including Spring Mills High School from West Virginia, and Chambersburg High School, from Pennsylvania. There will be a vast number of future college basketball players gracing the hardwood this summer.
There will be no shortage of talented players this summer. The defending summer league champions, Jackson Reed Tigers will be led by 6’6 forward, Jayden Fort, who averaged 16.8 points and 10 rebounds per game and was a first-team all-summer league selection last year.
Adrien Stevens, a class of 2025 guard, has received offers from multiple power five programs and is coming off a 13.2 points and 2 steals per game season. Stevens, alongside 7’0 center, Eric Reibe, will look to help avenge Bullis’s semifinal loss to Jackson Reed and earn another first-team all-summer league selection.
The 4-star duo of Qayden Samuels and Prince-Alexander Moody will look to continue McNamara’s upward trajectory, as the two top-100 teammates were upset by Saint Stephens and Saint Agnes School in the quarterfinals last year.
Numerous other future division one players will be featured on the hardwood this summer and we will continue to highlight those individuals throughout the season.
As previously mentioned, this summer marks the most expansive year of the summer league in terms of geographical diversity among participants. Chambersburg High School and Spring Mills High School will both raise the competition level even higher as Chambersburg was a 6A playoff team in Pennsylvania and Spring Mills was the 4A runner-up in West Virginia.
Game one featured the Bruins (Broadneck) and the Brook (Springbrook), with the Bruins pulling it out at the end, 57-53. Broadneck jumped out to an early lead but Springbrook would rally back and tie the game 24-24 midway through the first half. The game was close for the majority of the game until the Bruins were able to create some separation with six minutes left in the second half. Springbrook would attempt to make a late push with two minutes left but Broadneck’s Kamari Williams would close it out with a demoralizing and-1 layup. Springbrook’s Roman Redder would finish the game with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals but his effort was not enough to change the outcome for the Brook. The player of the game was Bruins forward, Ashton Sellman, who would finish the game with 25 and 8 on 9/17 from the field and 5/7 from three.
The second game of the day was between Greenbelt (Eleanor Roosevelt) and the Trojans (Gaithersburg), with the Trojans being able to close it at the end, 62-52. Before the break, Trojans guard, Ayden Kirkland closed the half with a tough and-1 layup to tie the game at 29. With four minutes left in the game, Greenbelt was able to get within striking distance at 54-53. That gave them some momentum but the Trojans strung together multiple stops and pulled away from Greenbelt. Eleanor Roosevelt’s Dione Wells finished the game with 16 points and 9 rebounds but it just wasn’t enough to get Greenbelt its first win of the summer league. The player of the game for the Trojans was Matt Bradford, who finished the game with 18 points and shot 7/13 from the field going 3/8 from behind the arc.
Full-court pressure proved to be the key factor in the Bengals’ (Blake) win over Severn in game three, 55-36. Severn was missing three of their players to injury this afternoon and were consistently sped up by the Bengals and were down 14 at the break. This lead was too big a hole for Severn to climb out of as their errors mounted and the Bengals ended up turning Severn over a total of 22 times when the final buzzer sounded. George Comer led the charge for the Bengals, tallying 15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals, all team-highs for the day.
Three-point shooting and a “player of the week”- type performance from Jaylen Wills was too much for Sandy Springs, as St. Albans defeated Sandy Springs, 89-70, to close out day one. Both teams played at a high pace on both ends and it was 10-6 after five minutes when Wills and the St. Albans offense exploded and went on a 36-20 run to close out the first half. Sandy Springs tried to apply more pressure on the bulldogs in the halfcourt, but the bulldogs’s hot shooting continued. Jaylen Wills was the most outstanding player from day one finishing the night with 33 points and going 7/12 from three.