From NBE Basketball Report

The 16-U AAU National Championship was decided in Orlando on Friday afternoon as BABC out of Boston (MA) earned a 56-53 win over All-Ohio Red on the main court of the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.

All-Ohio Red held a 25-24 lead at the half with a balanced offensive attack led by Myles Hamilton with six points. For BABC it was the outside shooting of  Jaylen Brantley keeping them in the contest as the 6-foot point guard connected on four three-pointers to account for all 12 of his points.

In the second half BABC began to take control as Georges Niang continued his impressive performance in Orlando this week, scoring 12 points in the quarter, helping BABC to a 42-38 lead after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter BABC held on for the win. Brantley finished with 20 points, hitting six of eight from the foul line in the second half. Niang had 17, with 14 of those in the second half. Egi Gjikondi added eight.

Leroy Hamilton led All-Ohio Red with 11 and Hamilton and Deontae Hawkins scored nine each and West Virginia-commit Jalen Robinson had eight.

The title was the 13th national championship for the BABC program and avenged a semifinal loss to All-Ohio Red in the 16-U AAU Super Showcase earlier in Orlando. The boys from the Buckeye state were the 16-U runners-up in both the Super Showcase and National Championship.

Some familiar faces took in the action of the 16-U finale. Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin along with one of his assistants as well as Providence assistant Chris Driscoll, who was a coach with the BABC program as recently as last month, were spotted. Along with Pitt assistant Pat Skerry, West Virginia assistant Larry Harrison, Marquette assistant Scott Monarch, assistant from Georgetown, UMass head coach Derek Kellogg and others.

On Saturday the 17-U AAU National Championships will continue with quarterfinal action. The remaining eight teams begin play this morning with the following match-ups:

Connecticut Basketball Club vs. St. Louis Gameface
Arkansas Wings vs. LI-Lightning (Blue)
HCYP Elite vs. Old Gold/Dream Team
CP3 All-Stars vs. Carolina Ravens

The 16-U title game marked the end of NBE’s coverage in Orlando. Alex Schwartz checks in below with some final player evaluations, including his look at Nerlens Noel, Jalen Robinson and Brice Johnson and detailed recruiting updates on Archie Goodwin, Rod Days and Demarcus Harrison.

To read the rest of this article I contributed to for NBE Basketball Report, click Here. It is my player evaluations on Nerlens Noel '13, Brice Johnson '12, and Jalen Robinson '12 as well as recruiting notes I got from Demarcus Harrison '11, Archie Goodwin '12, and Rod Days '11.