Casey Cantey has had a hectic two weeks. He attended the Alabama High School Athletic Association&8217;s North/South All-Star week in Huntsville two weeks ago and

the next weekend flew to Las Vegas to compete with his Huntsville based Amateur Athletic League basketball team, Southeast Elite.

Cantey, who plays forward for the Demopolis Tigers, said the two events combined for a great experience &8212; an experience that opened his eyes to what playing on the next level can be like.

Unfortunately for Cantey his team didn&8217;t walk away from the all-star match-up with a win. A competitor, Cantey seems to have blocked out the score of the game, but he said he does remember that his side lost by a good margin.

When he traveled to Las Vegas the following week, though, Cantey&8217;s team faired quite a bit better. The group won its pool play, the five games guaranteed to each team attending the tournament, and moved on to the single elimination phase of the tourney, where it did well as well.

And meeting basketball giants wasn&8217;t limited to promising high school athletes for Cantey and his teammates. He said they happened to room in the same hotel as the members of the United States Olympic team, who were in town for a scrimmage at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

He also mentioned running into another Demopolite basketball player, Terrence Ransom, who after playing high school ball at DHS went on to college play, the NBA and professional basketball in Europe before settling down as the head coach of a powerhouse high school team in California.

The meeting

Ransom, who coaches at Skyline High School in Oakland, was in Las Vegas to watch five of his own players play at the event. He said another player from Oakland was playing on the team that knocked out Cantey&8217;s.

Ransom said the two met after the game and talked about the area and the tournament.

Cantey and Ransom both said there were a number of scouts at the event, and Cantey said there were some at the all-star game as well. Ransom said the scouting reports on the game don&8217;t come out for a while, but said all of the scouts he talked to about Cantey wondered about his range with his size but noted he had potential.