KC youth teams stand atop basketball world

Legendary announcer Gus Johnson courtside calling play-by-play. NBA stars present and past milling around with players and fans. Elite teams and players from across the nation and the world.

Pretty heady stuff for any 13- or 14-year old.

And after all the hype and hoopla of the inaugural Jr. NBA World Championship was over, two teams from the Kansas City area stood on top of the world.

Drive5 Power Elite, an Overland Park team representing the Central United States, won the boys championship with a 60-50 victory over the Africa and Middle East team Sunday at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. That was after KC Prodigy 2022, the Central girls representative, routed Europe 68-38 in the girls final. Both games were televised live on Fox Sports.

Sunday’s finals capped a busy week for both teams that saw them battle through pool play and an eight-team bracket to reach the finals. And in this first event put on by the NBA’s youth basketball participation program, the league pulled out all the stops. Along with the NBA and WNBA greats on hand, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was even there to give out the championship trophies.

“It’s probably a little surreal for these 14 year-olds,” Drive5 Coach Allen Skeens said. “They probably don’t understand the magnitude of that. But it’s always cool when Dwayne Wade shows up at your hotel and sits down and talks with you.”

Drive5 qualified for the 16 team U.S. field by winning the Central Region tournament earlier this summer and seemed to handle the hype well in Orlando. The Overland Park-based team went undefeated in pool play and beat the Northwest, South and Southeast champions in bracket play for the U.S. championship and a shot at the world title.

But early on against the Africa and Middle East team, which emerged out of the 16-team World division, Skeens thought his team looked nervous as it struggled to find its footing. Drive5 needed an 8-0 run to take a 27-21 lead at halftime, and its lead never reached double digits until the final score.

“The overall environment was not conducive to being real calm,” Skeens said. “But we’re playing for a lot. And when you’re playing for something that’s that important, it’s OK to be a little bit nervous. You just have to play through it.”

Drive5 got another big game from its front-court duo of Taj Manning and Mark Mitchell Jr. in the final. Dubbed “The M and M Brothers,” Manning, from Grandview, finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds while Mitchell, from Lansing, Kan., scored 15 points and also had 14 boards. Cooper Jackson from Overland Park also reached double figures with 10 points.

Mitchell and Manning averaged 19.3 points and 16.6 points, respectively, throughout the seven-game tournament.

“Those kids have been great for us all year,” Skeens said. “We have confidence with those two on our team that we can play against almost anybody in the world.”

KC Prodigy had an easier time in the girls final but traveled a tougher road getting there. The Kansas City-based team dropped its first game in pool play, overcame a 20-point deficit in another game and won its bracket games by two, three and four points.

But after finishing the first quarter tied 15-15 in the final, KC Prodigy outscored Europe 20-8 in the second quarter and 33-15 over the second half. Europe committed 24 turnovers and made just 10 of 34 shots against KC Prodigy’s full-court pressure.

“I kind of knew our transition game was a little fast for the international level,” KC Prodigy coach Sam Johnson said. “With the pressure we bring to the table I thought we could get them there. We just said let’s attack their ball handlers and you saw what the outcome was.”

Sania Copeland, a guard from Kansas City, Kan., led KC Prodigy with 20 points on nine for 11 shooting. S’mya Nichols of Overland Park had 13 points and Tasia Johnson from Greenwood, Mo., finished with 12 points.

For the tournament, Copeland averaged 14.4 points a game, Nichols 11.4 points and 5.6 rebounds and Johnson 11 points.

After spending the summer playing in elite tournaments all over the country, Johnson didn’t think his players were awed by the big stage. But he thought they might be ready to step off of it for a while.

“Out of the last two months these girls have probably only had a week free,” Johnson said. “The biggest reward for them is winning a world championship and then getting back to reality and getting ready for school.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2018 at 6:19 PM.