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Size was a big thing at last week's elite girls basketball camps, particularly the Adidas Top 10 All-American camp in Suwanee, Ga.
In Suwanee, 95 of the 220 campers were 6-2 or taller, including 6-7 junior center Jessica Oestricher of Liberty Christian (Redding, Calif.). Jayne Appel, a 6-4 center from Carondelet High in Concord, Calif., was named the top post player.
"College coaches want size," says analyst Dan Olson, a former college coach who rates players for the All-Star Girls Report. "It was the main selling point of the camp and gave coaches a chance to see those players go against each other."
The Atlanta area also was the site of another girls camp, the debut of the Best of the Best All-American Camp in Riverdale.
Two camps in the same town cleared up last summer's logistical challenge for coaches who had to travel to three sites: Adidas in Suwanee, Nike All America in St.Louis and All Game Sports in Charlotte.
Adidas Top 10: "The younger batch of players showed they could compete and excel against the older kids," says Blue Star Report analyst Chris Mennig, an assistant coach at Illinois last year.
The top underclassmen were 5-8 sophomores Nikki Speed of Marlborough (Los Angeles) and Shay Selby of Regina (South Euclid, Ohio), Oestricher and 6-3 freshmen Krystal Thomas of First Academy (Orlando) and Kelsey Bone of Dulles (Sugar Land, Texas).
St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.) guard Jacki Gemelos, the nation's No.4 player according to Blue Star, attended the camp but didn't play because of a sprained knee she hurt playing in a club tournament this month in Portland, Ore.
The top seniors were Appel, 6-1 Joy Cheek of South Mecklenburg (Charlotte), 5-11 Jordan Murphree of Brock (Texas), 5-11 Brittainey Raven of North Crowley (Fort Worth), 6-0 Amanda Thompson of Whitney Young (Chicago) and 6-3 Danielle Wilson of St. John the Baptist (West Islip, N.Y.).
Mennig says 5-7 point guard Sireece Bass of Pershing (Detroit) had a strong camp.
Best of the Best: Gameball magazine analyst Winston Kelly, who attended both camps. ranked Kellindra Zackery, a 6-0 senior forward from Shabazz High in Newark, N.J., as the camp's top player.
"She (has) a great handle on the perimeter and the ability to post up," he says.
Guard Epiphanny Prince of Murry Bergtraum (Manhattan, N.Y.) attended but didn't play (sprained ankle). Prince, 5-10, is one of the nation's top seniors and is considering Rutgers, Georgia and Connecticut.
Other top seniors were 6-2 Nicole Michaels of Notre Dame Prep (Fitchburg, Mass.), 5-11 Amy Horton of Haralson County (Tallapoosa, Ga.), 5-11 Amani Franklin of Redan (Stone Mountain, Ga.) and 6-5 Jessica Clark of Frederick Douglass (Manhattan, N.Y.).
Horton says she'll sign with UCLA.
The top underclassmen were sophomores, 6-2 Laura Broomfield of Riverdale (Ga.) and 6-0 April Sykes of East Oktibbeha (Crawford, Miss.).
According to camp director Guy Coleman, the top two campers from the Class of 2007 were 6-2 Jasmine Payne of Stringer (Miss.) and 6-0 Alex Montgomery of Lincoln (Tacoma, Wash.).
The camp at Riverdale (Ga.) High had 162 players. ... St. Michael Academy (Manhattan, N.Y.) 5-9 sophomore Anjale Barrett, one of the camp's point guards, is the sister of Orlando Magic guard Andre Barrett.
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