Saturday Week #1

September 19, 2009  

Hoop Magic capped off a busy first weekend of basketball with eight varsity basketball games beginning Saturday morning. Several local high schools and AAU teams makeup the field of teams for this years High Hoops league.

The opening week of the Fall High School Basketball League kicked off with a great early morning game between Stonebridge High School (Ashburn, VA), looking to improve on their 2008-09 season and VA Elite AAU basketball team that had a really good showing on the AAU summer circuit. As both teams were without several players from their team rosters, the game still featured some of the best ballers in the area.

Because of illness Stonebridge high school was without talented junior guard Nik Brown, but senior guard Richie Berry played an excellent floor game and led the charge from start to finish. Stonebridge Freshmen Jimmy Paige provided the needed play inside keep Stonebridge in the game.  

When the high school season kicks off in a few months Westfield High Sr. point guard Rashad Gadson and Chantilly High School Jr. point guard Devin Ballem will be competing for Concord district supremacy. But on Saturday they combined their talents to provide the high octane offense and defense that pressured Stonebridge stay on their heals. South County High School (Woodbridge, VA) Senior Swingman Antonio Butler, was getting back into the swing of things during the first quarter but as the game got into the third period Antonio begin will show his competitiveness that has been a staple of his success throughout the summer season.  

This was a good game between two very different teams as the coach for Stonebridge stated that he would like a rematch.  

Osborne defeated McLean in a battle of schools that would not see each other during the regular high school season. Both teams are looking to improve on their records from last year by getting an early look at the players that will make a push to capture their respective district championships.