rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
IN THE PAINT — For AJ Dybantsa, the shortest distance between two points is over a basketball superstar.
During the slam dunk contest before Tuesday night’s McDonald’s All-American Game, the BYU signee and No. 1 overall recruit went up and over Angel Reese, the 6-foot-3 WNBA star for the Chicago Sky.
If he’s proven nothing else, the 6-foot-9 18-year-old from Utah Prep showed he has some serious hops and isn’t afraid of a big moment.
“I’m going for the hard dunks; if I miss, I miss. I’m about to pull out stuff I’ve never done before,” Dybantsa said in practice before the dunk contest. “If I miss, it is what it is. You’ve never seen it before.”
And check out Reese’s reaction.
The McDonald’s All-American Games will feature two games between the nation’s best boys and girls basketball prospects in one of the country’s top all-star games held annually. All 24 players in this year’s boys’ game rank among the top 28 of the ESPN Top 100.
In addition to Dybantsa, who hails from Brockton, Massachussetts, before spending his final season of high school basketball at the Hurricane-based Utah Prep Academy, Wasatch Academy’s Isiah Harwell — the four-star guard who has signed with Houston — will also feature in the boys’ game.
Harwell will join the East roster against Dybantsa’s West team Tuesday night (7 p.m. MDT, ESPN).
Ridgeline’s Emilee Skinner, the No. 7-rated girls basketball recruit in the ESPN Top 100 who has signed with Duke, will highlight the girls’ game (5 p.m. MDT, ESPN2).
