City of Palms Classic quarterfinals produce pair of massive upsets

FORT MYERS, Fla. – After four days of action at the City of Palms Classic, four teams remain with a chance to take home the title at the premier high school basketball tournament in all the land.

Thursday's quarterfinals produced three thrilling finishes and two massive upsets. No. 3 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.), No. 7 McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.), No. 23 Imhotep Charter (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Mountain Brook (Birmingham, Ala.) are all still alive for the prestigious tournament title.

The first semifinal game will feature a high-powered offense (Oak Hill Academy) against one of the fiercest defenses in the nation (Imhotep Charter).

Oak Hill Academy enters as the favorite to take home the title. The Warriors have been dominant in their first two games in Florida and will look to continue that trend against an extremely talented and scrappy bunch from Philadelphia.

Led by the lethal guard duo of Cole Anthony and Cam Thomas, Oak Hill Academy has been unstoppable early in the season en route to a 16-0 record.

Imhotep Charter will need to dictate the tempo as it did against University (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) in Thursday's upset. The big question surrounding the Panthers is the availability of their senior leader Dahmir Bishop after a nasty ankle sprain kept him out for the majority of the quarterfinal game.

The second semifinal will feature two teams making a return trip to the Classic this year. McEachern finished third in the event last season while Mountain Brook lost in the consolation final.

McEachern picked up its biggest win of the early season in the quarterfinals, taking down No. 11 Paul VI (Fairfax, Va.) in a thriller. The Georgia power will need a strong game in the next round from big man Jared Jones, who will likely be tasked with containing Mountain Brook's national player of the year candidate Trendon Watford. Look for McEachern to push the tempo and use stellar guard play to its advantage.

Mountain Brook pulled off the biggest upset of this year's tournament and possibly of the young high school basketball season by taking down No. 2 IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) on Thursday night. The Spartans played a disciplined game against the Ascenders and followed the gameplan to perfection, limiting the possessions in the first half and feeding Watford throughout.

Watford went off for 38 points and 12 rebounds against a plethora of 5-star prospects that had no answers for the 6-foot-8, 225-pound senior forward.