Summer Ball: Mercy Round-Robin Standouts (Part 2)
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Last week was the first full week of summer games for Kentucky’s high school teams. While I wish I could’ve made it to more games, I was fortunate enough to catch a lot of great hoops being played across the…
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Continue ReadingLast week was the first full week of summer games for Kentucky’s high school teams. While I wish I could’ve made it to more games, I was fortunate enough to catch a lot of great hoops being played across the Bluegrass last week. Last Thursday night at Mercy featured some of the state’s top teams in Mercy, Sacred Heart, and Meade County. Here are some additional standouts from those games.
Reagan Bender Reagan Bender 5'9" | SF Sacred Heart | 2024 State KY | Sacred Heart | Class of 2024
Bender is always so solid. When she’s hitting, she can drop an insane amount of points on the best of them. When she’s not hitting, she still finds ways to get buckets. She is a phenomenal and consistent shooter. She can shoot from anywhere on the floor and she doesn’t need much space to get her shot off. She catches ready to pull, but she can also shoot off of the dribble or drive. When she drives, she uses her strength and can finish difficult shots through contact. Bender has good handles and always seems ready to go. She isn’t afraid to be aggressive and bring high intensity on the defensive end either.
Katie Durbin Katie Durbin 5'11" | PF Meade County | 2023 State KY | Meade County | Class of 2023
Durbin came up really big for Meade County. She is tall, long, and works! And I mean she really works from the first buzzer to the last. She has excellent touch on the offensive end and she can knock down shots. She can put the ball in the basket from just about anywhere on the court. Durbin does a great job of elevating over defenders to get her shot off as well and her length makes it extremely hard for the defense to block her. However, what I found really impressive about her game was her floor vision. Despite being a great scorer herself, she was always ready to kick to her teammates if they had better looks. She gets a ton of blocks on the defensive end, and she grabs a ton of rebounds on both sides of the floor as well.
Emma Barnett Emma Barnett 6'2" | PF Mercy | 2023 State KY | Mercy | Class of 2023
Barnett has really good length and size. She uses that length so well when it comes to grabbing rebounds, finishing around the rim, and defending. She also creates a lot of mismatches with her ability to score at all 3 levels. If there is someone smaller on her, she can get her shot off by elevating over them or posting them up and scoring at the rim. If there is someone bigger on her, she can either knock down the 3 or bring the defense out to the perimeter and drive around them. Barnett also crashes the boards so hard that I would expect nothing less than a double-digit rebounding average throughout next season.
Triniti Ralston Triniti Ralston 5'7" | PG Sacred Heart | 2023 State KY | Sacred Heart | Class of 2024
Ralston’s defense was already impressive, but she somehow found a way to make it even better. She makes it nearly impossible on the offense and is definitely one of the top defenders in the state, if not the top defender. She gives ball handlers very little space and doesn’t let them get a step on her. She has so much speed and quickness. As a ball handler, she’s also tough. Ralston handles the ball with pressure, she makes great passes, she sees the floor, and she can put the ball in the basket. She made a lot of really good drives and she was finishing with a lot of contact. Really a complete all-around player that was already playing at a high level and she’s raising that bar even higher for her Junior season.
Mattie Clanton Mattie Clanton 5'4" | PG Meade County | 2023 State KY | Meade County | Class of 2023
Clanton ran point for a good majority of Meade County’s games, which already speaks volumes to her skills as a floor general seeing that she has multiple teammates that can really handle the ball well. But she was handling heavy pressure like a pro. She does a great job changing speeds and staying composed. She also has good speed in general. Clanton was distributing the ball well, always hitting the open player as soon as they became open so that the defense wasn’t able to steal the anticipated pass. However, the most impressive part of Clanton’s game, in my opinion at least, is her ability to defend. She is one of the best on-ball defenders in the state and she stays ready when she’s defending off-the-ball as well.