A1 Sauce Adds To Flavor #PGHTexasFreshmanShowcase

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I have been seeing A1 Sauce squads listed at several of the large tournaments I have covered in Texas yet due to time constraints as well as hundreds of teams participating, our paths had not crossed. I had a chance to catch up with their head coach Anthony Griffin and he told me this was a perfect opportunity for me to catch them, he was correct and since he already "gets it", I decided to do something on the 9 incoming freshmen from his squad</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Sahar Masud -5'6 CG Plano West</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Masud is heady, plays within herself, and understands how to get hers in the flow. She plays solid defense and did a good job setting the defender up with a deceptive first step. I also liked she could attack the basket with either hand and finish with either hand</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='486467' first='Christine' last='Cua']- 5'2 PG Plano East </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cua was picked by my PGH Texas colleague Andrew Phipps @APhippsNBA as a Top Performer before I even saw her and observed her dazzling ball-handling performance, I could see why. The crossover was just part of it as she created opportunities for herself and her teammates. Court vision was also on point, blistering on the money passes always makes me happy but she played the passing lane and dove for loose balls </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='486415' first='Alaina' last='Ngo'] 5'2 PG Plano Williams </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ngo also was caught diving on the floor for, well everything but her "on the ball" pressure was nice, yes baseline to baseline and she saw the floor very well. She also attacked strongly and finished after contact, plus she knocked down the outside shot a few times</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='486446' first='Hailey' last='Reed']- 5'4 SG Plano Williams </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Reed was another player that grabbed my attention immediately by playing the passing lane, I love things you can't teach, all it takes is desire yet she did a good job of creating her shot to get it off, as well as knock it down from outside. Solid upside </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='486460' first='Jordyn' last='Cole']- 5'4 PG Plano McMillen </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cole was COOL under pressure and her defense and rebounding stood out. She understands how to read the court defensively, and help force the trap and her nice hands helped create turnovers. She also plays within herself, meaning she doesn't force shots but her solid first step helped her attack the basket in the set</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='486469' first='Jorgianna' last='Rogers']- 5'6 F Plano Williams </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rogers outrebounded taller players, #THROWBACK hashtag is dropped because she understands "positioning" which is somewhat of a lost art. I also liked that she enjoyed playing defense which made me smile but she was yet another of the squad's players who dove for loose balls. Nice first step to attack the basket and she finished strongly</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Nariah Witherspoon-5'9 CG/SF Plano McMillen </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Witherspoon is a long and athletic guard that scored off the dribble constantly, yeah "long and athletic" is also the base for guards so what she added was her ability to drop the mid to long-range, while being defended and she also did something which I love to see and that's "play the passing lane</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Gabriella Bennett- 5'6 CG Plano McMillen </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bennett is "long and athletic" as well, see above, and watching her defend both on the ball and using her timing to keep a hand in the offensive player's face had me beaming. I think I'll call her pressure on defense "smothering" because it helped create turnovers, directly or indirectly. She also scored off the dribble and finished after the lick</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Kayla Twitty- 5'8 CG Plano McMillen </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Twitty is, you guessed it, long and athletic and she created her shot as well as anyone at the event. She picks and chooses wisely, did a nice job attacking from multiple angles and her finishes were consistent but she also showed something else I love to see and that is dropping the midrange consistently, another lost art so I'll close with #THROWBACK on that as well</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->