High School 2024-2025 Season Wrap-Up: Part 1 - All Star Games and Events
Sienna Betts awarded the McDonald’s All-American Game MVP by Breanna Stewart. Photo Courtesy of McDAAG.
End of Year Events: All-Star Games and Tournaments
April 15, 2025
In this piece, the goal will be to put a wrap on the 2024-2025 high school season discussing the outcomes of The Throne, Chipotle Nationals and two all-star contests (McDonald’s All-American game and Nike Hoop Summit).
The Senior All-Star Games
McDonald’s Game (April 1 in Brooklyn, New York)
West 104-82 East
When the rosters were released, the immediate reaction was advantage West team. An 18-0 start confirmed that. Credit to the East reserves who closed the gap to single digits but in the end the West won 104-82. The game was certainly entertaining, and no player looked like she did not belong (obviously some had better nights than others). If competitiveness matters, some adjustments beyond geography may be necessary in some future years.
Some McDonald’s game player thoughts:
Sienna Betts, my pick for high school player-of-the-year for this season, was a worthy MVP posting 16 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists.
The play of the night (made ESPN Sports Center and available on YouTube) was Duke commit Emilee Skinner’s behind the back pass while falling out of bounds to Betts for a layup. Skinner is making a case to be the best point guard prospect in the 2025 class (posting seven [several special] assists) combining size, court vision/leadership with the ability to defend multiple positions in a strong body. When playing off the ball she can be less efffective as she would rather make the great pass than take a perimeter shot to win.
Emilee Skinner drives for a layup in the McDAAG practices. Photo Courtesy of McDAAG.
Kudos to Brynn McGaughy (headed to Washington) who scored the West’s last 10 points finishing with a game high 17 points. Having an injury plagued high school career, it was good to see her finish on a high note.
Give the edge to Tennessee commit Mia Pauldo (9 points, 7 assists) over Cal commit Aliyahna (Puff) Morris(10 points, 2 assists) in the latest chapter of competition between two of the class of 2025’s best small guards.
Jazzy Davidson’s fine two-way perimeter play (12 points; 6 rebounds) did nothing to dissuade me from thinking she is the best prospect in the 2025 class. She plays both ends, rebounds and can score at all three levels.
Whether LSU commit Grace Knox scores or not, she rebounds (game leading 10).
Three-point shooting was at a premium in this game as all players combined for 13/49 (not so hot 26.5%). Kudos to South Carolina commit Alya McDowell who went 2/2 from behind the arc and 4/5 overall from the field for an efficient 10 points.
Stanford commit Hailee Swain led the East with 13 points on 5/10 (two triples) from the field. Swain and Skinner were the two point guards on last year’s USA U17 team. Both are very good although I lean to Skinner for upside.
NIKE Hoop Summit (April 12 in Portland, Oregon)
Team USA 90-78 Team World
Held April 12 in Portland, Oregon, the third edition of the NIKE Hoop Summit was once again won by Team USA (3-0 all-time). Team USA were all graduating seniors while the World were U19 players with only four of the World players not in school in the USA or Canada this past year.
The biggest mystery might be the final score initially posted 90-78 but then changed to 88-78 on the post-game television wrap and on a box score screenshot to me by a contact at the game. In getting a release from USA Basketball, the initial score of 90-78 was indeed correct. It appears Sienna Betts of the USA scored 16 points when the initial box score released had her with 14. Kudos to USA Basketball for clearing this up. Hopefully, the McDonald’s All-American game will do an official online box score release soon after the game in the future.
One similarity with the McDonald’s game was the announcers featuring key players prior to the game and during the game trying to justify (not always successfully) those players as standouts. One needs to understand that those who announced the girls’ game are not prep girls’ basketball experts, but rather prepped off notes and maybe viewing a few clips of these proposed key players. To their credit, the announcers did get onboard in spotting the top players as the game progressed.
One major difference from the McDonald’s game was much more uneven playing time for the members of Team USA. The USA had four with 20+ minutes, five between 11 and 18 minutes and three players with under 8 minutes of court time while World had only two at 20 or more minutes, eight between 17 and 19 minutes and only one under 10 minutes (one injured and did not play). Overall, this contest felt more like a playoff game than an all-star game. The game was very competitive with the USA up 25-24 after one quarter, 52-49 at half and 71-68 after three quarters. Then the World team teamed to tire a bit and Team USA controlled the fourth quarter. Turnovers (23 to USA 15) and coping with ball pressure plagued the World team throughout the game.
Looking at player performances of note…
USA
Jazzy Davidson was again strong at both ends finishing with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks. My pick if a game MVP had been chosen!
Sienna Betts had some foul trouble issues in half one but finished strongly with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 5 steals. For this contest, the second star for Team USA if such was picked.
World
Ayla McDowell (6-2 Cypress Springs, Texas, headed to South Carolins but here representing Brazil) was productive throughout the game with 15 points and 4 rebounds in 19 minutes of court time. McDowell also stood out positively at McDonald’s game.
Other World players had moments in one or more quarters but longer periods of non-production.
End of Year Team Events
The Throne (March 27-29 in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
Well, I was close but as they say “no cigar.” Bishop Ireton narrowly defeated (43-42) my pick Bishop McNamara (which had beaten them three times) and went on to defeat (61-44) Sidwell Friends whom I predicted would finish second. Bishop Ireton was a very talented team this season and McDonald’s All-American (North Carolina commit) Nyla Brooks (6-1, senior forward) performed in MVP-worthy fashion.
Considering The Throne was not an official high school event with a major time gap since many of the teams had played, more than not the level of play was quite good. A number of polls with a “power ranking lean” appear to have considered results from The Throne even though teams were playing unofficially in “The Throne” jerseys. Hopefully, more of the top high schools will consider participating in this all-expenses-paid event next year. Just understand the team may have to be coached by a non-high-school-staff coach in order to chase the big first place prize ($10,000 to winning school this year).
Chipotle Nationals (April 3-5 in Fishers, Indiana)
Held Hamilton Southeastern High School in Indiana, the field was small, but the talent of the four teams present was quite good. Everything was going to form (IMG beat Westtown and Montverde beat Faith Family) until IMG Academy came back from a 17-point deficit to defeat favored Montverde Academy 80-78 in overtime and take the Chipotle Nationals.
IMG’s (UCONN commit) Kelis Fisher (5-9, senior, guard) led all scorers with 23 points. Both teams can start five future major Division 1 players. Thus, it was not shocking that an upset occurred, only perhaps how the lead was lost. In losing, Montverde lost its claim to #1 in all polls. With four losses, IMG was unable to gain enough traction to move to #1 in any published poll, probably blocked by an early season loss to Bishop McNamara. Having a MaxPreps strength of schedule of an eye-popping 35.2 (above 20 is generally good) did not help IMG with the pollsters.