2023 AAC All-Star Day Summary
2/25/23: Tapestry Charter played host to the 2023 All-Star games and activities. It was an exciting and fun end to the season for all the players, coaches, and families. Before the games took place the girls and boys took part in a partner skills/shooting competition, the classic 3-point showdown, and boys dunk contest.
Lady Cougar Celeste Jeoffroy paired with Lexy Erera from Howard and won their first-round shooting skills competition but lost in the semifinals. TCS Cougar Finley Love paired with Nya’Jae Love from AASD and had a first round bye. They then won in the semi-final and made it to the championship round to take on top seed Ava Beck from Howard who was paired with Elaina McNight from Mill Springs. The shooting competition went down to the wire and the Love sisters won the girls skills competition.
On the boy’s side, Andrew Dorsey of the Cougars paired with Makhi Miller of Tapestry, and they made it to the finals, losing in a shooting skills competition tie break sudden death round to Luke Thatcher of Cumberland and Austin Alman of CORE Community.
The boys continued with the 3-point contest. 2022 champion, Braden Kramer made it to the finals again earning a chance to repeat. Teammate Jackson Barnes also competed but lost in the first round 9-7 to Austin Shelton from Tapestry.
Braden took out Jake Benosky from Howard in the semi-final 12 to 11 in a great shootout to move to the final to take on Braswell of MSA and it also went down to the final second. Both boys were tied at 7 a piece in the final two seconds and Jack made his final shot whereas Braden’s last heave did not go in. The 2023 new 3-point champion was crowned and went to Jack Braswell of Mill Springs Academy.
On the girls’ side, Ana Mills and Alyssa Briggs both moved on to the championship round, defeating their opponents. In the all-Lady Cougar final, Alyssa defeated teammate Ana 4-1 to take home her first 3-point contest trophy!
The boys then did a dunk contest but only two entered. Willie Poole of the Tapestry Titans threw down a two-handed dunk to earn the honor of 2023 dunk champion.
We had an extra thirty minutes to kill before the girl’s game would start so the four Lady coaches started trash talking about who would win in a 3-point contest. So sure enough we made it happen. Our own Cougar coach, Lauren Soares made it to the final and took on Maritza Silva of the MSA Mustangs. Coach Soares proves her shooting talent as the first ever Coach 3-point Contest Champion defeating Coach Silva 9-3.
On to the girls’ All-Star game. The 3-Peat Cougars had four make the teams. Ana Mills and Finley Love teamed up on the dark jersey team and took on Coach Lauren Soares, Alyssa Briggs and Celeste Jeoffroy who wore white. The dark team jumped on the white team in the first half ahead 31-12 at the intermission break. Mills and Love went on to aid their team in the win but not before Briggs and Jeoffroy made a valiant second half comeback. Alyssa took over the half in scoring, while Celeste did it on the defensive end ,
but the effort was too late, and their team fell short in a 48-41 loss. Ava Beck of the Howard School won MVP with a game high of 22 points and 19 rebounds.
Game Notes:
Ana Mills finished with 3 boards, 2 points, 2 assists, and a steal.
Finley Love added a basket, blocked shot, and rebound.
Celeste Jeoffroy corralled 6 boards, 4 steals, and scored 6 points.
Alyssa Briggs had a team high 20 points to go with 9 rebounds and 3 assists.
Before the boys game began, the AAC Co-Commissioners wanted to honor official Ben Pickens with a gift of appreciation. Mr. Pickens is The Cottage School assignor for home soccer, basketball, and flag football games. He is also owner of Refs for Life, the officials’ organization TCS uses but also several other AAC schools use for over a decade. He and his colleagues do an outstanding job calling the games, but more importantly care for the safety and growth of our kids. Coach Briggs spoke on the honor, “The least we can do for Ben. So many officials just call games and have no relationship with the kids or coaches, nor do they care to. Ben and so many others within his organization are patient and tolerant and speak to the kids and coaches in our league with respect. The mutual relationship is key to why the AAC can have contests with minimal disciplinary issues. Ben believes in our mission and vision of our league and therefore Rodney Carlock and I want to show our gratitude.” The gift is a box with an engraved appreciation message along with a golden whistle.
In the boys’ game, Braden Kramer and Andrew Dorsey teamed up on the dark jersey team to take on Coach Richie Briggs and Jackson Barnes wearing white to represent the Cougars.
What turned out to be one of the top three All-Star boys’ games in the 14 years of starting this event, the white team won a nailbiter 56-54! Both teams battled back and forth in the first half with the dark team leading all the way until the white team scored in the final second to take a 24-23 lead.
In the second half, the white team made a third period run and held a slim 43-36 edge to begin the fourth frame, but Dorsey and Kramer helped guide a comeback and found their team down just two points in the final thirty seconds. Braden drove right towards the baseline and made a great find to teammate Luke Thatcher of Cumberland. Luke made the game-tying layup at 54 each. The white team threw the ball in and turned it over, but the dark team missed a long outside shot with ten seconds left. That led to a long rebound and fast break for the white team. With just five seconds left a two on one break resulted in a white team layup for the 56-54 lead. The dark team called a timeout for one final shot. A full court long pass was intercepted as Coach Briggs and Jackson of the Cougars held on for the win.
#15-Jake Benosky of Howard capped another great end to his fine senior season. Not only did he lead his Hawks to a 2023 AAC title as MVP of the tournament he also led the white team with 12 points and captured MVP of the All-Star game.
Game Notes:
Andrew Dorsey finished with 6 points, 3 rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot.
Braden Kramer added 11 points and 3 rebounds.
Jackson Barnes was in the MVP discussion for a game high of 10 boards. He also added 4 points, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, and 0 turnovers.
*The boys game was not recorded as I was coaching, so no other boys pictures can be added. Thanks to Principal Laura Finnell for taking these two bench shots during the game or we would have had no other pics.
