New Way Tip Sheet from Space City Jam
ROESHONDA PATTERSON
I love action and excitement not to mention good, smart basketball rolled in as well as players getting after it and the finals of this year’s Space City Jam had all of that and then some. New Way came to town with only five players, one just a 7th grader, Taz Valencia who showed plenty of promise in her young career by being out there in heat and competing with players as much as five grades older
Azaria Stewart was also a pleasant surprise, she defended inside and on the perimeter, plus she rebounded on both ends as well as shot the three ball well throughout the tournament and her three long balls in the championship were definitely huge
CHERLEE COLLINS &NIA SMITH (far left)
Cherlee Collins like Stewart is a junior and although she’s small in size, you can’t teach heart and I saw that three years ago in this talented young lady because she simply backs down from no challenge placed in front of her. She dropped 4 threes and had 25 points but she ran the one with precision and brought heat on defense
Nia Smith impressed me years ago with her ability to catch and shoot the long ball, she dropped 5 threes in the finals and had 16 points but what she also did was help open things up for her teammates with those early bombs so the defense couldn’t cheat. Patterson was definitely a college player however she’ll attend UTEP next season and join the team as a manager
Roeshonda Patterson was called a mid to BCS player by me four years ago, it didn’t take me long to realize what I was looking at as she has “the package” and by that I mean an athlete that can play basketball. She’s a nightmare to hold and be held by, she’ll excel at UTEP, you can archive that comment and her 27 points on variety of ways scored is only a preview