Slam Dunk to the Beach returns to Lewes Dec. 27-29

The Slam Dunk to the Beach holiday basketball tournament will return to Cape Henlopen High School this winter after a one-year COVID hiatus. Thanks in no small part to a new partnership with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, this year’s edition of Slam Dunk – now called Hoophall East presented by Slam Dunk to the Beach – boasts one of the most talent-rich fields in the tournament’s storied history.

The Slam Dunk schedule, released Nov. 4, has been condensed to 12 games this year, but that guarantees fans a higher concentration of blue-chip ballers on display. Sixteen boys’ teams and two girls’ squads from eight states will take part in the three-day event, which runs Monday-Wednesday, Dec. 27-29. The boys’ slate features five teams ranked among MaxPreps.com's preseason Xcellent 25: No. 4 Camden (N.J.), No. 14 Gill St. Bernard’s (N.J.), No. 15 Roselle Catholic (N.J.), No. 16 Imhotep Charter (Pa.), and No. 25 St. Paul VI (Va.). Also competing will be Archbishop Wood (Pa.), AZ Compass Prep (Ariz.), Bergen Catholic (N.J.), Bishop McNamara (Md.), Bishop Walsh (Md.), Blair Academy (N.J.), Gray Collegiate (S.C.), National Christian Academy (Md.), Our Saviour Lutheran (N.Y.), Seaford (Del.), and Westtown (Pa.). The first girls’ matchup in Slam Dunk history will kick off the action, as the ladies from Westtown (Pa.) take on host Cape Henlopen at 3:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 27.

Slam Dunk has always brimmed with elite individual talent, and 2021 will be no different. Twenty-eight players ranked on 247Sports.com's database will take the floor at Cape, headlined by surefire pros Dereck Lively (Westtown) and D.J. Wagner (Camden). Lively, a 7-foot-1 center, is slotted in as the No. 2 player in America in the class of 2022 and has committed to play college ball at Duke. Wagner, an electric off-guard who was born to score, ranks No. 1 nationally in the class of 2023. His father, Dajuan Wagner, scored 100 points in a high school game and spent four years in the NBA. Other notable stars in attendance will include skilled swingmen Mackenzie Mgbako of Gill St. Bernard’s and Mookie Cook of Compass Prep, ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the class of 2023. Slam Dunk will also welcome America’s top-ranked sophomore, small forward Naasir Cunningham of Gill St. Bernard’s.

Tickets are available at slamdunktothebeach.com.

Schedule

Monday, Dec. 27

Westtown (Pa.) girls vs. Cape Henlopen (Del.) girls, 3:30 p.m.

Bishop McNamara (Md.) vs. Roselle Catholic (N.J.), 5 p.m.

AZ Compass Prep (Ariz.) vs. Our Saviour Lutheran (N.Y.), 6:30 p.m.

Archbishop Wood (Pa.) vs. Camden (N.J.), 8 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 28

Our Saviour Lutheran (N.Y.) vs. Seaford (Del.), 2 p.m.

Bergen Catholic (N.J.) vs. Bishop Walsh (Md.), 3:30 p.m.

Roselle Catholic (N.J.) vs. Gray Collegiate (S.C.), 5 p.m.

Gill St. Bernard’s (N.J.) vs. Bishop McNamara (Md.), 6:30 p.m.

Westtown (Pa.) vs. AZ Compass Prep (Ariz.), 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 29

Gray Collegiate (S.C.) vs. Blair Academy (N.J.), 5 p.m.

St. Paul VI (Va.) vs. Imhotep Charter (Pa.), 6:30 p.m.

National Christian Academy (Md.) vs. Westtown (Pa.), 8 p.m.