Syracuse Basketball: Chris Bunch’s team crushed by Chance Westry prep

In a match-up of a Syracuse basketball 2022 four-star commit against a former Orange 2022 four-star target, the former recruiting prospect’s team got the better of the ‘Cuse pledge.

Suiting up in the Hoophall West tournament at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Ariz., the AZ Compass Prep School out of Chandler, Ariz., soundly defeated the Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, by a final count of 79-41.

Chris Bunch, a four-star wing who committed to Syracuse basketball over Rutgers and Washington in October, is a top-60 prospect who competes for the Wasatch Academy.

Chance Westry, meanwhile, is a four-star guard and a consensus top-40 player in his class. He goes to the AZ Compass Prep School and had the ‘Cuse in his top 10 before picking Auburn.

The AZ Compass Prep School dominated its opponent on the glass, while the winning group connected on 55 percent from the field. The Wasatch Academy, conversely, was woeful in shooting from beyond the arc.

Syracuse basketball commit Chris Bunch fell to former Orange target Chance Westry.

In his team’s setback, Bunch logged 29 minutes of court time, according to a box score provided by the Twitter account of the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (“NIBC”), of which the Wasatch Academy is a member.

Bunch collected 10 points on 3-of-7 from the field, 1-of-5 from 3-point land and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line. Additionally, he registered three rebounds, two assists, three blocks, one steal and five turnovers. As a collective unit, the Wasatch Academy possessed 22 turnovers.

In the AZ Compass Prep School’s conquest of the Wasatch Academy, Westry was highly efficient. On the court for 15 minutes, he scored 14 points on 6-of-7 from the field, 1-of-1 from deep and 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.

Westry did a nice job of filling up the stat sheet, as he boasted three boards, six assists, one block and one steal. He did have three turnovers.

As we noted in a recent column, this encounter pitted top-15 teams against each other. In his latest top-25 national rankings on theseasonticket.com, analyst and scout Samad Hines had the AZ Compass Prep School at No. 9 and the Wasatch Academy at No. 13.

Last week, the Wasatch Academy went 1-2 at the Bob Kirk Invitational Showcase in Cumberland, Md., an event that kicked off NIBC competition in the 2021-22 stanza.

One of the Wasatch Academy’s losses there was to the La Lumiere School in La Porte, Ind., which is led by 2022 four-star guard J.J. Starling, a Central New York native who had Syracuse basketball in his top five before choosing Notre Dame.