White Station claims Classic Title over Westchester, 65-41


White Station's Curtis Phillips drives to the basket against Westchester. Greg Yamamoto | SL

White Station (Memphis, Tenn.) claimed the 'Iolani Classic title by blowing out Westchester (Los Angeles), 65-41, on the final night of the tournament on Saturday.

"We had a bunch of fun, we felt like it was a great tournament we had a lot of great competition and tests and I hope we use this to help us win the state championship," said Leron Black, who had a game-high 22 points and 10 rebounds.

White Station took a 13-7 lead after the first quarter. Leron Black scored five of the team's 13 points in the quarter, while Elijah Stewart was 4 of 4 from the free throw line for four of Westchester's seven points.

In the second quarter, the Spartans outscored the Comets, 22-11. Black had nine of his team's 22 second-quarter points off of put backs and post moves in the paint. Davell Roby threw an alley-oop to Black to put the Spartans up 24-17 and they went on an 11-1 run to end the quarter. Dalvin Foster had a tip-in before the buzzer and the White Station went up 35-18 at halftime. White Station out rebounded Westchester 15-7 in the first half and 32-20 for the game.

"I feel like we focused in on defense and rebounding, that's our main focus right now," Black said. "If we can play defense and rebound, we can win because offensively we have many tools and everybody can score. We just pressured them and we knew that they had some leapers and athletes so we made sure we boxed out and rebounded to the best of our abilities and we just made sure we didn't give them easy shots."

In the third quarter, Dillon Mitchell hit a 3-pointer to put White Station up by 20-points and the Spartans outscored the Comets, 13-11 in the period.

White Station started the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run and the outscored the Comets, 17-12. Reserves from both teams played in the final minutes.

The Spartans Chris Chiozza was named Most Valuable and Black was named Most Outstanding Player. White Station's Davell Roby and Westchester's Myles Stewart and Elijah Stewart were named to the all-tournament team.

White Station's Nych Smith added 10 points and Curtis Phillips had eight. Layon Gooden led Westchester with 11 points and Cameron Young chipped in eight.

"It was a great experience, this is my first time coming to Hawaii. We got to see a historical site like Pearl Harbor, it was a big historical event and to see all that it, it was a humbling experience," Chiozza said. "It was great competition, you have to beat the best to be the best. We played a team from China, I never played against an international team before. They play a lot different than us an they're very fundamental than any team you'll find in America and it was real tough to play them." 

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Noa Kinimaka, Kamehameha
Anthony Mathis, West Linn
Jamaal Willis, Moanalua
Brandon Martin, Mount Vernon
Charles Matthews, Saint Rita
Kevon Looney, Hamilton
Zach Buscher, Iolani
Davell Roby, White Station
Jiawei Feng, Fuxia
Payton Pritchard, West Linn
Elijah Stewart, Westchester
Dominic Matthews, Westchester
Miles Stewart, Westchester
Shep Garner, Roman Catholic
DeVonte Banner, Mount Vernon

Most Outstanding Player: Leron Black, White Station
Most Valuable Player: Chris Chiozza, White Station



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].