After a week of mostly close contests, Team Takeover perhaps saved its best performance for last as it took down Vegas Elite, 76-61 in Sunday’s Peach Jam championship game at the North Augusta Recreation Center.
Although 4-star prospect and Duke-commit Darren Harris paced Team Takeover with a game-high 28 points, a particularly strong second half for the squad was fueled by a surge from Syracuse-commit Donnie Freeman who scored 11 of his 13 points after halftime to help his squad erase a one point deficit after the first two quarters.
Freeman, a 6-foot-9 power forward, is also a 4-star prospect, and was one of the most dominant players on the Peach Jam circuit, averaging 13 points and almost six rebounds per game as he helped lead Team Takeover to a 7-0 record during the Nike EYBL Circuit’s finale tournament.
Harris, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound small forward from Paul VI Catholic in Fairfax, Va., He was the team’s leading scorer through the Peach Jam, averaging 22.3 points per game throughout the week. Team Takeover overcame a 20-point performance from Vegas Elite’s 4-star Ohio State commit John Mobley.
Pharaoh Compton chipped in with 12 points for Vegas Elite. Compton is an undecided 4-star prospect from Compass Prep in Chandler, Arizona. The 6-foot-6, 215-pound forward with offers from the likes of Iowa, Arizona State, LSU and Ole Miss.
Though this year’s Peach Jam didn’t feature the vast contingent of Augusta-area players the last couple of years saw, the event was just as popular and well attended as it’s always been, thanks to the usual collection of elite high school basketball talent that was on hand, along with major NBA stars, scouts and blue blood college basketball recruiters and coaches.
Beyond the tournament’s top-level title game, many eyes were also on the E16 Division’s championship game that featured arguably the top two prospects out of the Class of 2025 in Cameron Boozer (son of former NBA star Carlos Boozer) and Cooper Flagg.
Boozer, of the Nightrydas Elite squad met head-to-head with Flagg and Maine United in Sunday’s hotly anticipated E16 Division title game, with Nightrydas Elite taking home the hardware with a 58-50 win. It was Cayden Boozer’s game-high 23-point performance, though, that stole the show as Cameron finished with just five points on 2-of-6 shooting.
Meanwhile, Cooper Flagg paced Maine United with 18 points while Landon Clark and Cooper’s brother Ace Flagg adding 12 points apiece. It was Nightrydas Elite’s second straight Peach Jam crown.
In the PIT division, Team Whynot prevailed 73-67 over the Oakland Soldiers in that division’s championship game, while Team CP3 — a squad belonging to NBA point guard Chris Paul — defeated City Rocks 61-49 in the E15 Division championship game.
Gabriel Stovall is a freelance sportswriter and columnist for The Augusta Press. He can be reached at gabrielcstovall@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Threads: @GabrielCStovall.
