The players who got to the bucket the most at this year’s Peach Jam went through the City of Palms first. Three of the top four scorers in the weeklong showcase, which serves as the championship of the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, played in the Culligan City of Palms Classic.

Lightning-fast Sharife Cooper lit up the scoreboard for 28.2 points per game, again showing the rare ability he put on display for McEachern (Powder Springs, Georgia) at the City of Palms. Entering only his junior year, he also led the Peach Jam with 8.6 assists per game, almost doubling the volume of table-setting he did at the City of Palms.

Fellow City of Palms alum Cole Anthony, who has been non-committal about returning to Archbishop Molloy in Queens, New York, was second in scoring with 26.2 points per game and ninth in assists at 4.8 per contests. The EYBL regular season MVP and son of former NBA player Greg Anthony has shown more consistent scoring ability than he did at the City of Palms, where he had totals of 12, 17 and 37 points in three games.

Vernon Carey, a 2017 City of Palms champion with University School (Fort Lauderdale) and a beast-like figure for opponents, averaged a double-double at the Peach Jam with 23.0 points per game, good for fourth in scoring, and 10.4 rebounds per game. He was kept off the boards in the City of Palms final, when he grabbed only four rebounds, but in his next-to-last Peach Jam outing, he owned the glass to the tune of 17 rebounds.