12d ago basketball Edit

Recapping Aaron Rowe's weekend at Nike EYBL Session 2

Drew King • PowerMizzou

Basketball Writer

Missouri commit Aaron Rowe took part in the second session of the Nike EYBL circuit over the weekend in Atlanta. It was an up-and-down few days for the MOKAN Elite guard as Rowe had some solid individual performances but couldn’t lead his team to a victory going 0-3 at the event.

Here’s a recap of how Rowe played in each of his three contests.

GAME 1 VS. NW ROTARY REBELS

The Columbia, Mo. native seemed a bit timid in MOKAN’s first matchup Friday evening. He did have some success making plays for other. Early in the first quarter, Rowe had a pass get intercepted, but hustled to steal the ball back and threw an alley-oop dime in transition to forward A’mare Bynum. A few possessions late, Rowe drove to his left, then swung the ball back to the top of the key to Tristan Reed. Late in the period, the team ran a “Horns” action that resulted in Rowe assisting Reed again, this time cutting to the basket for a layup.

Rowe himself only took three shots, though, missing on of them and drawing fouls on the other two. The point guard went 3-4 at the line to end the first half with three points and four assists with the score tied at 32-32.

He became much more assertive in the second half. Rowe began finding his way to the hoop, dropping in two layups during midway through the third quarter. Soon after, while on defense, Rowe’s man used a spin move to get past him and dart to the rim. Rowe managed to get back in the play and challenge the layup, forcing a miss. MOKAN went on to score on the next possession. Another few minutes later, the team came up with an offensive rebound and passed it to Rowe at the top of the key, who knocked down his first triple of the season.

Still, by the end of the quarter, the Rebels held a two-point lead. While MOKAN would score 20 points in the final period, it’d give up 21, falling 69-66. Rowe finished the outing with 12 points, six assists, one rebound and two steals.

GAME 2 VS. OAKLAND SOLDIERS

This was an interesting game to evaluate for Rowe. It was clear from the first few possessions MOKAN’s bigs would have trouble with the physicality of Soldiers forward Tyran Stokes — Bynum and Reed both got into foul trouble almost immediately and Stokes would shoot 15-20 from the free throw line for a game-high 28 points. With the team’s two leading scorers on the bench, Rowe had to put the offense on his shoulders and be much more aggressive in hunting his own shot.

He got them by early on, scoring twice in the opening four minutes of the game to give MOKAN a 9-8 lead when he went to the bench for a breather. When he returned, however, the Soldiers had gone on a 7-0 run to go up by six. Rowe continued to impress. In the final minute of the period, the four-star recruit sized up Soldiers wing A.J. Dybantsa — the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2026 — at the top of the key, drove to the right elbow, dribbled behind is back, used a step back to create separation, darted down to the right block, spun left and hit a fadeaway jumper in the middle of the paint.

Rowe beat Dybantsa off the dribble again on the next trip down to finish the quarter scoring eight of MOKAN’s 13 points.

The team still trailed by 10 at the start of the second and only saw the deficit continue to grow, unable to keep the Soldiers off the foul line. The opponent started pack in the paint to keep Rowe from driving in, forcing him to settle for mid-range pull-up jumpers. While Rowe was able to get his shot off from there virtually at-will, his consistency waned throughout the rest of the game.

The Soldiers took the victory 87-68. Rowe had a season-high 17 points to go along with four assists, but did so shooting 7-18 from the field and 1-5 from deep.

GAME 3 VS. TEAM HERRO

After two standout games, Rowe wrapped the weekend up with a relatively quiet performance, logging just 16 minutes. The point guard came away with a steal in the first minute of the matchup and was fouled on the fast break, going 1-2 at the free throw line. In the next quarter, he used a screen from Reed to get all the way to the cup for a right-handed layup. By the end of the first half, he was up to seven points on 3-6 shooting.

Rowe was held scoreless the rest of the way and was not credited with an assist. He finished with two steals and two turnovers in a 71-55 loss.

TAKEAWAYS

Rowe had some of his highest highs and lowest lows of the season over the three-game stretch. He exemplified real leadership in his first two outings, stepping up when his team needed him the most and doing it against high-caliber defenders like Dybantsa. But without the requisite size to impose his will, offensively or defensively, and a bit of a hesitancy to fire from deep, Rowe struggled in some spots to take over the game like a player ranked as highly as he is would be expected to do.

MOKAN is now on a four-game losing streak, falling to 2-4 on the year, and Rowe shares some of the blame. But if the team ends up turning things around, Rowe will likely have a big part to play in it.