A funny thing happened to LaMelo Ball's old high school team when he left for Lithuania
When Lavar Ball pulled his son LaMelo out of school last year, the Chino Hills men’s basketball team was left without its best player.
Apparently, that didn’t end up mattering a whole lot.
Lavar decided to take his youngest son out of school due to a disagreement with Chino Hills head basketball coach Dennis Latimore, who didn’t want LaMelo taking 50 shots per game. Eventually, LaMelo and his brother LiAngelo signed with a professional team in Lithuania.
After LaMelo’s departure, which was announced in October, Chino Hills did get off to rough start, as they were only 4-6 to kick off the season. In November, LaMelo even took to Twitter to mock his old team, predicting they were going to go “from the best to the worst.”
As it turns out, though, Chino Hills didn’t seem to need LaMelo down the stretch. On Saturday, the Huskies overcame a nine-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter and defeated Bellflower St. John Bosco to make it to the state title game.
Now, they’ll head to Sacramento to face Walnut Creek’s Las Lomas High School on Friday with the California state championship on the line.
“Everybody doubted us with LaMelo leaving,” senior guard Ofure Ujadughele, who scored 20 points in the 67-51 victory, told the Los Angeles Times. “No one believed in us. We proved them wrong.”
“It was great resilience for our team,” Latimore said.
Interestingly enough, the Huskies leading scorer in the contest was Andre Ball, who had 32 points. He’s the cousin of Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball, and after 3 years of injury issues, it appears that he’s coming into his own.
Even Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant is impressed by Andre Ball’s recent performance.
“These are usually some of the best diamonds in the rough,” Durant said while watching footage of Ball’s high school highlights, according to USA Today. “Got overshadowed because of the Ball brothers.”
Durant was particularly impressed that Ball stuck around on the Huskies even after all three of his cousins left. He might not be a future NBA star, but Andre Ball certainly has potential, as evidenced by the basketball scholarship he received from Long Beach State.
“Long arms, can guard multiple positions. Everybody gonna need one of those type of guys,” Durant said. “And his game gonna get better and develop too.”
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