Team Final dropped another tough one 75-71 to Team Penny on Friday night, bringing them to 2-2 for the tournament. Malachi Richardson continued to struggle shooting the ball, this time going 2-7 from deep.finishing with just 8 points. It was a different story for Ja'Quan Newton and Mikal Bridges (if only these two were talking package deal at Villanova!) as the former dropped 16 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds while the latter had 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 blocks. Bridges continued to show he can do it both inside and out, going 3-5 from beyond the arc.
USC, Miami and Minnesota are the schools under consideration for the proposed Newton/Whitehead package deal, but Villanova remains in the mix.
Robert Johnson and Boo Williams have now officially forfeited their fourth game because of an ineligible player, so their 62-56 win over Team Scan was nullified. Johnson was again leading the way for Boo Williams dropping 17 points on 7-17 shooting to go with 5 assists and 3 rebounds. If Johnson had a limited list of suitors before this event, that's going to change soon.
A disastrous showing from Trevon Bluiett and no Trey Lyles meant Spiece Indy Heat falling to Mokan Elite 56-54, but Jonathan Wilkins still doesn't appear much more than a defensive presence. In 26 minutes he scored 4 points, grabbed 2 rebounds and recorded 1 block and 1 steal. At this point, I think he's definitely go to be a plan C behind Ben Bentil and Martin Geben.
It was an easy win for Team Takeover, 69-46 over BABC and the playing time was really split up in this cakewalk. Phil Booth played just 18 minutes, dropping 9 points and 5 assists. The big men didn't have much to show for themselves in limited time either, with Marcus Derrickson dropping 4 points and 3 rebounds and Martin Geben finishing with 5 points and 5 rebounds.
Saturday morning brings the final set of Round Robin games. Team Takeover can clinch the #1 seed in their pool with a win over E1T1 Elite at 12:00 pm. Team Final is in trouble as they lost to Spiece, and will need to beat Mokan Elite as well as have Spiece lost to NY Lightning to advance. Boo Williams has been eliminated.