’22 Queens Of The Hardwood-1st Team-All Tournament-Elite

I headed to San Antonio to cover my 4th or 5th The Queens Of The Hardwood Tournament because of a number of reasons, first of all, some teams don’t travel a lot or travel far, so this was a great opportunity for players to not only be seen by someone that actually knows what they’re looking at but it was also a chance to get on the map because PLATFORM doesn’t matter if no one is looking you, like many other things I say, that will go over the heads of many but one more time, talent is everywhere, again, if you know what you’re looking at so here are my first five from the top division <strong>Kastyn Young-6’1 SG/SF (Harlan HS) SAHE GOLD JK [2023]</strong> Young left me somewhat dazzled by her performance on the weekend, unofficially she dropped 6 three pointers in a game I believe, if I’m wrong, I’m close yet so were her misses, close that is yet she scores off the dribble and finishes after contact or she can put the ball on the floor and drop the midrange. I didn’t open it up with "she’s long and athletic" and say that’s the base and start adding along the way yet her defense, on the ball was good, so was her playing the passing lane but one play dropped the mic for me, in the open court, she showed the stutta, aka stutter-step <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="204186" first="Avari" last="Berry"]-5’6 PG (Pflugerville HS) Austin Elite RFW [2023]</strong> Berry continues to elevate her game and status and I keep going back to watching this 5th grader with NBA range and can’t believe how time has flown and how she continues to expand her game, it’s all about progression on the court but yeah, she still has deep range yet the midrange is pretty impressive as well but I just get off to acrobatic stuff and off the dribble, her ability "defy gravity" is second to none, even better, she finishes but stop the presses because she sees the floor so well and those pinpoint passes through traffic on the money sets the stage <strong>Olivia Parra’5’9 PF (Los Fresnos HS) STX Lady Hoops Elite [2023]</strong> Parra gave me a good opening day look and showed me on day 2 I wasn’t seeing things as her powerful attacking of the basket and finishing after contact had me going. That same power was shown as she rebounded, on both ends, even finished on putbacks yet she also dropped the midrange and her handling the ball in the open court and letting me see the stop and pop from mid-range, in transition, was also very nice <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="206973" first="Averi" last="Aaron"]-6’1 PF/C (Boerne HS) Boerne Bears [2024]</strong> Aaron put on one of the most dominant performances of the event, on both days and she opened it up by sending messages as she scored inside with players literally hanging on her yet her stepping outside and dropping the midrange was even more impressive, well so was her scoring off the dribble yet with her size and physique, she definitely has elevated her status and her sheer desire to grab the ball off the rim whichever way it came off, had me smiling as she did damage with her school team who are going to make a deep run again next season, well this season <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="392661" first="Endia" last="Stigall"]-5’5 PG (Barton MS) State Elite [2026]</strong> Stigall definitely made a case to be on that initial 2026 Watchlist, you know, when you drop 40 in the 17U Division against next-level players and you’re still in middle school, cased closed in fact as others run to phantom camps to grab erroneous National Rankings, it’s always good to see someone "show me on the court" but her explosiveness off the dribble is going to create several problems over the next few years, she has a solid pull-up jumper yet her "on the ball" defense is one of the best in her class, but let me also mention her ball-handling and court vision also stood out