The second Pangos All-Euro Camp is now in the books and after two days of competition and evaluation, a trio of players stood out from the pack, although choosing the camp’s top performer proved to be difficult. Competitive Best of the Best All-Star Game also featured tri-MVPs.
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There was little doubt at the conclusion of the second edition of the Pangos All-Euro Camp that top honors among the 65 campers would go to one of the big men in attendance. That was clearly evident throughout the camp’s three round of games for each team and at the conclusion of the Best of the Best All-Star Game reserved for the camp’s top 24 standouts.
The competition was close enough that camp director Dinos Trigonis named a trio of big men Pangos All-Euro Tri-Most Outstanding Players: 6-foot-10 15-year old (2028) Mohamed Sylla of Athens, Greece via French Guiana, 6-foot-8 17-year old (2026) Swann Penda of Paris, France and 6-foot-8 18-year old (2026) Dimitris Ntapsis of Athens, Greece. All of them dominated at various intervals of the two-day event and finished strong in the event’s top all-star game.
Sylla was a member of the winning Blue team and made his presence felt with his rebounding and activity level down the stretch in his team’s 56-47 victory over the Yellow-jersey wearing club Thursday at the AEK BC Academy Sports Center in Ano Liosia, Greece. Sylla (No. 62 in photo) finished with four points and eight rebounds. Penda (No. 42) and Ntapsis (No. 80) played for Yellow club and made an impact in attempting to lead their team back from a 32-24 halftime deficit. The Yellow club got to within three points in the second half, but could get no closer as the Blue club led wire-to-wire.
Penda did not score, but made his presence felt with his board work and nifty passes, as he finished with nine rebounds. Ntapsis was working and as the most physical player in camp, basically forced Trigonis to award him for his work at the conclusion of the event. He finished the game with eight points and six rebounds.
Matchups Highlight Best of the Best Game
We knew the big men matchups were going to be one of the highlights of the Best of the Best game, but Trigonis and his assorted stable of coaches wanted to match up the best wings and lead guards to get a better idea of whom were the camp’s best players at those respective positions. The Best of the Best Game created some clear separation, and when the dust settled, another trio of players were named game Most Valuable players.
Six-foot-9 17-year old (2025) Georgios Tsipourlianos of Athens, Greece quickly established himself as one of the top overall players in the camp and was the MVP off the victorious Blue club. Tsipourlianos proved to be too quick for the big men in the Yellow club’s lineup and too strong and agile for the wing forwards. Trigonis felt he has some Andrei Kirilenko in his game, and Tsipourlianos finished with six points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Tsipourlianos’ nose for the ball, effort and skill level made him one of the top five performers in attendance.
The other two game MVPs came off the Yellow club: 6-foot-9 19-year old (2024) Nikolaos Papalexandrakis of Athens, Greece and 6-foot-3 18-year old Noel Emile-Lewis of Novi Sad, Serbia, a 4.0 student who is a member of the 18U Great Britain National Team. Emile-Lewis’ mother is Serbian and his father is from the United Kingdom. The athletic Papalexandrakis finished with nine points and seven rebounds, while Emile-Lewis scored a game-high 15 points.
Emile-Lewis proved to be the camp’s best overall shooting guard prospect with the Blue club’s 6-foot-4 16-year old (2028) Jeanalix Junior Guede of Stockholm, Sweden not far behind. Guede was arguably the camp’s best overall scorer during camp games and hit three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points in the Best of the Best Game. Another good shooting guard with a wicked pull up game was 6-foot-3 17-year old (2027) Leo Dexter Regan of Stockholm, Sweden. He has some bounce to his game, knows how to play and is keenly aware of how important pull up jumpers are to his offensive arsenal. Regan scored 12 points for the Yellow club.
“I think the game-changer was defense,” Emile-Lewis told Ballislife. “I wanted to focus on playing the right way, finding the open man and talking.”
Unfortunately, the camp didn’t contain any top-shelf lead guard prospects. It not as if there weren’t a few talented ones, but a couple of younger prospects weren’t quite physically ready to play in the top all-star game. It makes one appreciate just how good the best American high school point guard prospects are, especially ones that dominate at 6-foot-2 and under. That’s why the ones with the combination of explosiveness and the know-how to run an offense are so coveted by NCAA programs.
When the dust settled, the nod as the top lead guard went to the Blue Club’s 6-foot 18-year old (2026) Trestin Quaron Davis of Cooper Academy in California via Las Vegas, Nev. His game contained a nice blend of play-making, quickness and shot-making. He finished the Best of the Best Game with eight points.
Ballislife Camp MOP Analysis
We never have ties in our player honors such as Mr. Basketball USA and in our player rankings, whether that be for a class of players or specific to an event. We wanted to take a deeper look at the top performers at the camp.
Sylla clearly outplayed Ntapsis in their head-to-head matchup, but Sylla was also outplayed in a camp game by fellow French man 6-foot-10 18-year old (2026) Sidy Kandji of Biller, France, a solid prospect in his own right chosen for the Best of the Best contest. Sylla had an opportunity to break away from the pack, but wasn’t quite able to although, based on his movements, presence and age, showed the most long-term potential in the Best of the Best Game.
Ntapsis is the most impactful of the MOP trio right now. He is physical and can punish defenders with his back to the basket game. Ntapsis, the starting center on the 18U Greek National Team, struggles at times against lengthy defenders, but is smart and savvy enough to adjust. Going to the right program after a year at Veritas Prep in SoCal will be key.
Penda played mostly inside for his club team last season and it showed at times at this camp. He has to work on the mechanics of his jump shot, but Penda is a terrific prospect because of his physique, skill level and rebounding prowess. He also needed to show a bit more assertiveness on each possession.
Based on his performances and potential, our solo MOP pick would have been Sylla.
“I liked the camp and the organization was good,” Sylla said with his friend Kandji doing most of the translating from English to French and vice versa. “As far as my performance goes, it was nothing special. I am trying to get better everyday. This is my life.”
Ronnie Flores is the national Grassroots editor of Ballislife.com. He can be reached at [email protected]. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter: @RonMFlores
