Late Summer Hoop Grind

Some area boys hoopsters were putting in hard work and finding rewarding results during the final AAU tourney weekend of the summer.

Let's take a look at a few of the top efforts from the OC Baller contingent:

The OAA Select 17-U, a squad made up almost entirely of Oakland County cage studs, made it into the tourney championship game in the their bracket of the Adidas 64.

OAA Select 2013 roll call:

Nick Owens (Clarkston), Press Kampe (Clarkston), Jason Hugan (Milford), Noah Stinson (Waterford Kettering), Drew Swanson (Clarkston), Alex Trim (Clarkston), Mike Nicholson (Clarkston), & Luke Bauss (Orchard Lake St. Mary's). Owens and Kampe are practically household names in the area's prep scene (multiple conference and district crowns between them), however guys like Hugan, Bauss, Trim, Stinson and Swanson are all names to look for to have productive campaigns for their respective high schools next winter: Hugan is a potential beast in the paint in the KLAA and Stinson, a 6-5 forward able to go inside and out, will captain the newlook Kettering Captains in 2014 under Ben Kelso. Swanson, Trim, Nicholson and Bauss are each tenacious and valuable role-player types ready to do all the dirty work at the moment's nod off the bench.

Birmingham Detroit Country Day Maury Diane was a standout in the backcourt for the REACH Legends 17-U club that sliced and diced its way into the Gold Division finals of the Las Vegas Classic, held on the campus of UNLV. He dropped a 20-spot on Friday to spark REACH into the tourney quarterfinals.

Lake Orion's John McCarty and the BH Blackhawk priceless pair of Yante Maten and Khalik Gracey had a great "goodbye" run with the Michigan Mustangs over the weekend. The Mustangs 17-U squad collected a first-place trophy in Las Vegas this past weekend at the Fab 48 tourney. McCarty is a frontcourt stalwart for the Dragons who has been inflicting pain on OAA opponents for three years now, with one more in the tank (helped lead LO to the Class A Elite 8 in 2012 as a super soph). Maten and Gracey are 2/3s of the BH Big 3, winners of consecutive league and district titles in 2012 and 2013.

North Farmington sophomore-to-be Jacob Joubert was in HEAT CHECK MODE all weekend at the Summer's End Invitational out at Walled Lake Northern. An efficient and intelligent gunner on the perimeter, JJ tickled the twine for 36 in the tournament semifinals, popping in a 30-point outburst in the first half, and then 26 and 8 dimes in the finals, to lift the Judge's Court 15-U team to the title (grabbing MVP honors in the process)