Five finalists remain for Naismith Boys’ High School Player of the Year

By SAM LANCE

The list of 10 Naismith Boys’ High School Player of the Year semifinalists has been trimmed to five finalists, the Naismith Awards announced on Thursday.

The finalists are as follows:

• Darius Acuff Jr. — IMG Academy (FL)
• Nate Ament — Highland School (VA)
• Cameron Boozer — Christopher Columbus (FL)
• A.J. Dybantsa — Utah Prep
• Darryn Peterson — Prolific Prep (CA)

All five of these prospects were selected to play at the McDonald’s All-American game on April 1 in the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.

Ament remains the only uncommitted prospect on this list. Acuff is committed to Arkansas. Boozer is headed to Duke. Dybantsa will play at BYU next year. And Peterson will star for Kansas.

Naismith Awards also released its finalists for Naismith Boys’ High School Coach of the Year. That includes Kevin Boyle (Montverde Academy), Andrew Moran (Christopher Columbus), David Rebibo (Harvard-Westlake), Brandon Rosenthal (Bella Vista Prep) and Jason Smith (Brewster Academy).

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