AAU Hoops
Wallace Prather Jr. Memorial Classic
By Larry Williams & Rod Freeman - 4SHOT Hoops
May 18, 2006, 05:06 EST

Wallace Prather, Jr.  Memorial Classic

Georgia Tech - Atlanta, GA
May 12-14, 2006

Coach McCray presented a $5000 Scholarship check to Coach Prather’s daughter Jena Prather and wife Mrs. Jennifer J. Prather as Wallace Prather III looks on.

The 1st annual Wallace PratherJr. Memorial Classic held in the honor of former Atlanta Celtics co-founder Wallace Prather Jr. was played with the enthusiasm and toughness “The Chief” would have expected. The event put together by the Atlanta Celtics co-founder Carl McCray (President), Cory “Hulo” Smith (General Manager) and Wallace Prather III featured some of the top players in the country.

At the conclusion of the tournament Coach McCray presented a $5000 Scholarship check to Coach Prather’s daughter Jena Prather and an Atlanta Celtics jersey to coach Prather’s wife Mrs. Jennifer J. Prather with the number “0” in his honor.

As mentioned the event drew some top players like Senario Hillman (Atlanta Celtics), Terrell Bell (Atlanta Celtics), Chris Singleton (Atlanta Celtics), Renoldo Sidney (MBA Magic), Romero Osby (MBA Magic), Lance Stephenson (Juice All-Stars), Zach Graham (GA Hurricanes), Tracy Smith (GA Hurricanes), Eric Wallace (D-One), Jahaziel Howard (Atlanta Magic), Nick Murphy (Long Island Lightning), Rico Pickett (Southeast Elite), Jarvis Jones (GA Blazers), Xavier Gibson (GA Blazers), Austin Freeman (DC Assault), Julian Vaughn (DC Assualt), Gani Lawal (GA Stars) and Jeremy Price (GA Stars) just to name a few.

Murphy named MVP

The Long Island Lightning's Nick Murphy with his "MVP" award.

The finals in the 17U Championship game probably surprised everybody at the tournament except the Long Island Lightning and the Southeast Elite, who played in the title game. The Lightning squeaked by  DC Assault (less Michael Beasley and Nolan Smith) in the semis and SE Elite upended the Juice All-Stars.

It was hot and sunny outside the Alexander Memorial Coliseum but inside it was Lightning and I do mean inside as the Long Island Lightning in the form of Nick Murphy and Brian Williams took the ball strong to the glass to give their team the early advantage. The play inside helped open up the way for some three-point bombs by Marvin Roberts, Paul Scottland and Kaamar Lebrew.

Akeem Bennett didn’t score much for Long Island but he sure did a nice job defensively on the Elites top scorer Rico Pickett. Pickett, who went scoreless and seemed a little frustrated in the 1st half go some much need help from teammate Varez Word who picked up the slack scoring 10 points to help keep the Elite close. At the half SE Elite trailed the Lightning by a score of 29-21.

Courtney Fortson who played well for the Elite in the first half continued to play well, Cordell Pope picked up his play and Pickett scored a couple of baskets but it just wasn’t enough to cover them from all of the lightning strikes.

It just appeared that anytime Long Island wanted to score inside they did. In the 2nd half they shot 26 free-throws connecting on 15 as they pulled away and beat SE by a score of 60-46 to win the 17U Championship.

Nick Murphy finished with 13 points and was named the games MVP. Akeem Bennett, Marvin Roberts, Brian Williams each scored 8 points to lead a balanced Long Island attack.

Varez Word tied Murphy for game high scoring honors with 13 points to pace Southeast Elite. Courtney Fortson finished with 11 points.

16U Championship
DC Assault squeaks by the GA Stars 
Anderson named MVP

(No offical game stats of the game were kept.)

DC Assault's 6-7 Ron Anderson receives his "MVP" award from Wallace Prather III.

There were several good teams from Georgia in the 16U Pool so it wasn’t so surprising when 3 made it to the Final Four (Atlanta Celtics – Green, Atlanta Celtics-White and the GA Stars) in the 16U Division. The finals came down to the DC Assault and the Georgia Stars, who played the championship game without their 6-8 sophomore star Al-Faroug Aminu. 

Even without the talented Aminu the Stars were shining brightly as 6-9 Tony Woods and 6-7 Cecil Bent battled DC Assault and their active front-line that included 6-7 Ron Anderson and 6-7 jumping jack Marquis Simmons. In the end it was al little too much Anderson and DC assault as the pulled out a tough 54-47 win to claim the 16U Championship.

Ron Anderson of DC Assault was named the games MVP.

---

15U Championship

Celtics win one for the “Chief”

Favors named MVP

(No offical game stats of the game were kept.)