City of Palms Sunday: No. 1 sophomore Charles Bassey impresses

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Sunday was to be all about the bigs at the City of Palms Classic. While the highly anticipated matchup between 2017's No. 1 player DeAndre Ayton and No. 4 Mohamed Bamba didn't produce the fireworks hoped for, 2019's No. 1 player Charles Bassey lived up to his reputation.

Earlier this season, 2019's No. 1 player Charles Bassey -- and a handful of teammates of San Antonio (Texas) St. Anthony was ruled ineligible by the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS). When TAPPS denied their appeal, St. Anthony decided to leave TAPPS and join the Texas Christian Athletic League. Now in the TCAL, Bassey and his teammates are eligible and it worked out to the benefit of those watching Sunday's action at the City of Palms.

St. Anthony couldn't complete a furious comeback against Putnam (Conn.) Science Academy, but Bassey was very impressive while scoring 18 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and blocking three shots.

The 6-foot-10 power forward has started to fill out his long and lean frame and is very comfortable in the low, mid- and high post. His turnaround jumper, jump hook and passing ability are all big-time weapons and he can dial up the athleticism when needed.

For now, Bassey is still feeling out the recruiting process and listed offers from Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Texas, Baylor, Mississippi State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Washington, Houston, TCU and Memphis among others. So far, he's seen the campuses of Houston, Western Kentucky, Texas A&M, Baylor, Memphis and TCU.

With five-star big men Mohamed Bamba and DeAndre Ayton effectively canceling each other out in the nightcap between Westtown (Pa.) School and Phoenix (Ariz.) Hillcrest, it was Westtown's wing duo of Arizona-bound four-star shooting guard Brandon Randolph and five-star junior Cameron Reddish that went off.

The 6-foot-5 Randolph and 6-foot-8 Reddish attacked the basket one time after another to combine for 34 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in Westtown's 53-42 win.

Ranked No. 6 in the class of 2018, Reddish looked the part of a top five'ish player in the country. He played point guard most of the game and used his size to get in the lane, crashed the glass and made smart decisions with the ball. According to Reddish, he will set up a few official visits in early 2017 and discussed Duke, Arizona, Syracuse, Miami, Villanova, Connecticut as potential destinations for visits.

Randolph, ranked No. 52 in the senior class, has been known more as an outside shooter in the past but it was his ball-handling and driving that stood out. The future Wildcat had one of the highlights of the day when he lost a defender with a series of shake-and-bake dribbles before driving to the rim for a big dunk.

Rivals150 junior point guard Jordan Walker was very impressive for Elizabeth (N.J.) Patrick School in their rivalry game win over Hudson (N.J.) Catholic. The Patrick School is loaded with options and Walker was tasked with getting them all involved and did so while scoring 10 points and handing out five assists. He listed Seton Hall, USF, Georgia, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Saint Louis and others among those interested. Walker will graduate in the spring of 2017 but is currently planning to attend prep school for a year and stay in the class of 2018.

Two others that we noticed for the Patrick School on Sunday were sophomore shooting guard Al-Amir Dawes and five-star senior center Nick Richards. Dawes can really shoot the ball and has a toughness about him that will serve him well down the road. Headed to Kentucky, Richards' job is to control the glass, protect the rim and throw down intimidating dunks off of dump-offs and inbounds plays. That's exactly what he did, and he did it very well while scoring 15 points, grabbing nine rebounds and blocking a pair of shots.

Hudson Catholic slowed down after a hot start to lose to The Patrick School 65-53 but the junior tandem of four-star point guard Jahvon Quinerly and four-star wing Louis King both played well. Quinerly controlled the ball and used changes of speed and skill to rack up 23 points and a pair of assists. King mixed transition slashes to the bucket with some improved jump shooting to finish with 16 points and eight rebounds.

Class of 2017 power forward Alexis Yetna of Putnam (Conn.) Science Academy continued his strong senior year on Sunday. Slightly undersized at 6-foot-6 or so, he's got long arms, a solid frame and a non stop motor. He embraces the role of hustle and energy guy and makes plays on the glass and at the rim. Sunday he had 12 points and 13 rebounds while making 5-6 from the field. He listed offers from Nevada, Oregon State, Pittsburgh, Duquesne, Temple and Georgia to go with interest from Iowa State, Oklahoma and UNLV.

There were plenty of college coaches in attendance on Sunday and we spotted head coaches from Texas, Michigan and Saint Louis. Assistants were on hand from Arizona, Villanova, Seton Hall, Minnesota, Wake Forest, USF, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.