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LOUISVILLE -- Sideline Cancer recently sent five teams to Kentucky's Exposition Center to compete in one of the largest AAU girls basketball tournaments in the country.
The Run 4 The Roses features 1,600 teams playing on 104 basketball courts in front of more than 1,250 college coaches.
Sideline Cancer, led by Mike Reed and Charlie Parker (the coach of the Sideline Cancer TBT squad) led teams with talent from area high schools including Altoona, Hollidaysburg, Bishop Guilfoyle, Bishop Carroll, Williamsburg, Bellwood-Antis, Central Cambria and State College.
"AAU basketball is very important, because we get the opportunity to play in front of many college coaches," Altoona's Lanie Wilt said. "A few of our games this weekend had more than 30 Division I, II and NAIA schools watching."
Wilt's 17U team which included Hollidaysburg's Bella Vent, Altoona's Melana Eyer and Bellwood-Antis' Leigha Clapper, went 3-2 and won the Silver Bracket while Sideline's "Select Teams" played in the top bracket known as the "Aqua Division" and went 10-5 overall between three teams.
The standout performance of the weekend may have come from Sideline Cancer's 15U team however.
The squad, comprised of incoming sophomores such as BG's Anberlyn Petrecca, Altoona's Ajaycia Alexander and Raylin Eyer and Bishop Carroll's Ava Pablic went 5-0 and won the Gold Bracket.
With 11 seconds left to play in the final game of the tournament, Sideline Cancer trailed by a point against an Adidas Team (3SSB) affiliated with the Atlanta Hawks' Trae Young.
Raylin Eyer inbounded the ball to State College's Sheree Wilson, who came off a screen set by her twin sister, Sienna. Sheree faked out her defender and then kicked it out to a wide-open Pablic, who drilled the game-winning 3-pointer in a 45-43 win that sent Reed and her teammates onto the floor for a celebration.
"It was clear that Trae Young's team did not want Sheree to beat them," Pablic said. "When she dropped her defender and mine left to help, I knew it was my turn to step up. I'm happy Sheree found me, and the rest is history."
Sheree Wilson finished the weekend averaging 20 points per game, and Raylin Eyer averaged 13 points per game, most of those coming from beyond the 3-point line.
"Sheree took her game to another level this weekend," Raylin Eyer said. "While we are rivals during the high school season, we can both help each other get to the next level and earn scholarships. If teams don't help off of me, then Sheree scores, but when they do, I have to make the shots. We did that to perfection this weekend allowing us to win the tournament."
Other local players competing for Sideline Cancer in Kentucky over the weekend included Morgan Ruggery (BG), Levada Gorsuch and LeeAnna Royer (Williamsburg), Katie George (Central Cambria), Altoona's Zae Nguyen-Moore and Hollidaysburg's Clare Padamonsky.
"The girls basketball talent in our area is rich," Reed said. "It's an honor to watch these kids develop and guide them through the recruiting process while representing something bigger than basketball (the cause Sideline Cancer represents)."