Anaheim, CA – 275+ teams played in one of Open Gym Premier’s bigger events of the year, the Winter Challenge, in search of ending the 2018 year on a high note by earning some hardware and recognition. Although most went home empty handed, they at least got to see a glimpse of the “Black Mamba” Kobe Bryant sitting court-side for his 8th Grade Mamba Academy girls team.

Here are the teams that made of most of their opportunity to move up the G365 rankings.

• RC Bulls Black 14U may have a suffered an early pool play defeat to #10 SD Republic, but the team bounced back and look very much like a team that will compete for the #1 ranking this spring. Aaron McBride and Isaiah Salazar earned co-MVP honors.
• The California Stars Black 14U made their G365 season debut and had an impressive victory over #10 SD Republic. Although the team suffered two losses to the RC Bulls, they played well enough to earn a Top 10 G365 ranking. Dusty Stromer and Devin Curtis earned All-Tourney honors.
• California Elite Athletics 13U took home the 13U Championship and will be considered for a G365 Top 25 ranking. The team had victories over #9 SoCal region, Team Eleate and over #5 Mountain West region, Loyalty Vegas Panthers. Noah Williams (California Elite Athletics) earned MVP honors.
• IEBP Blue 12U finished 5-0 in an event that featured several of the top ranked teams in the SoCal region. IEBP Blue will finish 2018 ranked #16. Evan Nayback and Tristan Partida earned co-MVP honors.
• IEBP Blue 11U took home a championship over a field that included #7 SBA and #8 YouBall. IEBP Blue team will finish 2018 ranked #7. Justin Kayode earned MVP honors.
• Team Veritas 10U will finish 2018 in the G365 Top 5 after defeating #4 The Truth and #5 G1 Elite.
• Bakersfield Elite Ballers 9U and Hoop Is Life 8U continued their success as the top ranked G365 teams by taking home OGP Winter Challenge hardware to end the year as #1.

View this post on Instagram 🔥🔥🔥🔥 #OGPWinterChallenge You wish you were there. A post shared by Grassroots 365 (@grassroots365) on Dec 18, 2018 at 6:16pm PST

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View this post on Instagram 🎄‼️ #OGPWinterChallenge off to a GREAT start ‼️🎄 A post shared by Open Gym Premier (@opengympremier) on Dec 15, 2018 at 1:54pm PST

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PT 1 #OGPWinterChallenge Tournament Champions 🎄🔥

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