Week 3 of the 2026 Summit Summer League takes place this Wednesday, August 19.
Last week, it was Team Riikonen using a pair of comebacks to finish 2-0, but those teams are gone and a new set of teams are here due to the weekly SSL shake up of teams and coaches. Want to check out games this week? They start at 6:30 p.m. at PSM Fieldhouse.
Click here to see the league’s program with a schedule, rosters and rules for week 3.
ANOTHER SHOOTOUT?
Last week’s hour two game between Team Riikonen and Team Prokop proved to be the best game we have see so far in this year’s Summit Summer League, with Team Riikonen pulling off the 77-75 win.
It was a game mostly dominated by Team Prokop with a lot of guys doing a lot of things for them to build up to an 18 point lead. In the closing seconds, it was some of the more unlikely heroes that pushed the game open heading into the Elam Ending as East Noble freshman Zekiah Lewis with a huge offensive rebound and a quick assist to a cutting Owen Poulson (Huntington North) for a floater that had Team Prokop up 70-65 before Team Riikonen missed two foul shots with little time on the clock. But then Team Riikonen went to work in the Elam Ending, outscoring Team Prokop 12-5 to get the win. Team Riikonen – before the finish – only led at 2-0 and 4-2, and late tied the game at 74 during the Elam Ending before winning it on Camden Keyser’s three pointer.
So what has the best chance to steal the show this week?
The 6:30 slot with Team Deming and Team Bloom certainly has the chance to steal the show and it will certainly have a marquee clash: more on that below…but the rebounding battle could be one of the best ones of the month.
While the teams change every week, the coaches are the same and coach Josh Deming has recorded a 3-1 mark across the first two weeks and had Team Riikonen on the ropes last week before a comeback surge.
First off it will feature the league’s top scorer with Team Deming and Bishop Luers’ Tayvon Stidams (18.5 ppg). Stidams has hithit big shots and led his teams well through the first two weeks. Team Deming has plenty of depth too for this battle. Titus Schultz (Huntington North) was an all around beast last week, something that Team Deming is going to have at their advantage this week too with guys like Collin McAtee (Heritage), Brody Bolen (Huntington North) and Zen Szaferski (Bishop Luers), who have made themselves comfortable doing a lot of every little thing through the first two weeks.
Team Bloom will counter with double double machine Camden Keyser (Huntington North) and Schultz’ Weeks 1 and 2 partner in crime Carson Waltke (East Noble). It will be interesting to see those two go at it considering how well they work together. Last week, there was a lot of rebound (or steal) by one, leading to the outlet to the other for a score. That said, the duo who have played AAU together as well over the last several years, are both capable of getting their own and are likely to square off more than once on Wednesday night. Wyatt Schroll (Manchester) has been a standout with several facets of his game as well in the first two weeks and Landon Kralis (Warsaw) gives Team Bloom three physical rebounders.
Expect the 6:30 showdown between these two teams to have plenty of firepower.
THE HUNTINGTON NORTH EFFECT
Nine of the 41 players in the league this year are Huntington North Vikings. That is a huge numbers, but these guys haven’t been in the SSL this year just to take part.
Camden Kesyer (Junior), is averaging a double double through the first two weeks of the league and leading all SSL players in rebounding. It is not unheard of for a player to average a double double in this league, but it is extremely rare.
Titus Schultz (Senior) had a sensational Week 2. His 18 point first game was great, but in his second game he scored 12 and pulled down a 2026 league best 17 rebounds – while teammate Keyser was on the other court at the same time pulling down 15 – and Schultz added four blocks in that second game as well.
Juniors Brayden Freiburger, Andrew McCutcheon and Brody Bolen have been models of consistency for their teams. Freiburger finished Week 2 with his best scoring game at 14 points, but these three are each good for an average of around or above double digit scoring no matter how the game is going, with length that makes them both dangerous on the boards. Junior Owen Poulson hasn’t produced massive numbers yet, but he’s a strong shooter who can make an impact at any given moment.
There are three Huntington North freshmen playing as well in Cohen Sorg, Maddox Baker and Bentley Bolen. The younger Bolen has shown some real flashes of intensity thus far, while Baker found a scoring rhythm in Game 2 last week that he had yet to showcase coming off a strong summer. Sorg has been a bit of a standout, hitting big shots from deep but also finding ways to get to the rim and weave up his shot in traffic despite being one of the shortest players in the league.
If August is any indication, the Vikings have a lot to work with this winter because they certainly have made a mark on the Summit Summer League.
FINDING A FLOW
In the second hour of games last week, there were 13 double figure scoring efforts and three double figure rebounding games. Game 4 was the trick, so was the second game of the night and its showing that the 7:30 games are possibly the biggest ones to watch even though you’d think there would be some fatigue on the back end of the back-to-back.
There have been 42 double figure scoring games so far this year in the SSL, but no week and hour has been as fruitful overall as last Wednesday’s second hour so we have a lot to look forward to by the time we get to 7:30 on week 3. Players are getting very comfortable and that isn’t just a sign of the top scoring games either. 36 of the 41 players have reached double digit scoring in what may very well be the most balanced offensive SSL in the league’s history.
Last August through two weeks, there were seven games of double figure rebounding through two weeks and this year there are eight. So it isn’t just the scoring that people are getting more comfortable with.
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