No. 7 McEachern takes home City of Palms Classic title behind dominant defense

FORT MYERS, Fla. – No. 7 McEachern (Powder Springs, Ga.) left no doubt who the best team was at the City of Palms Classic this week, trouncing No. 23 Imhotep Charter (Philadelphia) 68-47 in Saturday night's championship game.

The Indians never trailed in the final and won three of their four contests in Fort Myers by 20 points or more.

Tournament MVP Sharife Cooper finished with 20 points, five rebounds and four assists in the title game despite battling foul trouble. The 6-foot-1 point guard averaged 17.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per contests in the event.

Taking an 11-point lead into the fourth quarter, McEachern connected on all nine field goal attempts in the final eight minutes while holding Imhotep to just 3 of 13 shooting from the field.

Defense carried the Peach State squad through the powerhouse field at the Classic, limiting opponents to 44 points per game and just 35 percent shooting from the field.

"I thought defensively we were about as good as we have been so it was definitely nice," McEachern head coach Mike Thompson said.

Auburn pledge Isaac Okoro also earned All-Tournament team honors after averaging 17.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. He consistently proved to be the best defender in Fort Myers.

Northwestern commit Jared Jones did his part as well for McEachern, leading the tournament in rebounding with 38, averaging 9.5 per contest.

McEachern made its case for the top spot in next week's national rankings after picking up four signature wins. A challenging slate of games remains, including a rematch with Imhotep Charter in two weeks at the Cancer Research Classic in Wheeling, W.Va.

So where do the Indians belong?

"I've thought about that before," Thompson said. "I'm not really sure but we are a public school and we are a pretty good public school team."