The Westwood Draft League had it’s opening night last night, and since I already failed trying to do a recap of the draft, I’m revisiting the first round to see how the eight top picks performed to start the season.

Disclaimer: I was made very aware that Chris McLaughlin was the second pick of the draft, but I’m going off the final draft board that was posted in UH Boston after the draft to remain consistent.

Easy Money

Kerry Weldon

Easy Money is the most talented roster in this league one through eight, and the performance of the starting five in a 73-72 Week 1 win was proof of that. Every one of their starters scored between 11 and 15 points, and Weldon was the one starter that scored 11. He was incredibly efficient, shooting 4-6 from the field and grabbing 24 rebounds, with six coming on the offensive end. Weldon doesn’t need to be a go-to scorer, and last night’s game was a perfect example of why he was the 1/1 pick in the draft.

AllStyle

Stephen Prescod

Prescod was the player that was traded for McLaughlin, and while AllStyle lost its opening game 70-68 to Legacy, it was to no fault of Prescod. He scored a game-high 27 points on 10-19 shooting, adding five rebounds and six assists. It’s not the start to the season that AllStyle wanted, but the trade for Prescod so far looks like a positive.

Ruff Ryders

Shane Coleman

The battle between Easy Money and Ruff Ryders really feels like it was between two teams that are going to make deep runs in the combined state playoffs. Coleman had a similar performance to Prescod, having a good game but just coming up short of getting a win. Coleman put up 30/13/5 with four steals. They lost to Easy Money by one point and were able to compete without second-round pick Mario Payne, who would’ve had a massive impact.

Pippen Aint EZ

Raheem “Radio” Singleton

Clearly captain Mike James did the right thing by taking Singleton with the fourth-overall pick, as he led Pippen Aint EZ (formerly the Spartans) to a Week 1 75-62 win over BRED Honchos. He put up a game-high 28 points on 12-20 shooting, adding five rebounds and eight assists. It can be risky spending a first-round pick on a rookie, but Singleton had a brilliant UH debut and certainly looks like he belongs in this league.

Ballaz Club

Chris Flores

Flores struggled in Week 1, as he scored 12 points on 5-15 shooting from the field, 2-9 shooting from deep and no free-throw attempts. Much like the Ruff Ryders, Ballaz Club was missing its second-round pick, Isaiah Duke in this game, which was one of the reasons they lost 68-54 to Beast Mode.

Beast Mode

Chibunna “Chib” Belonwu

Belonwu was one of the three rookies taken in the first round, and much like Raheem Singleton, he had an impressive UH debut. He scored a game-high 27 points on 9-17 shooting with nine rebounds. He was the main reason Beast Mode was able to start 1-0, and a risk that has paid off for captain Octavio Cruz.

Legacy

Ace Gouch

Legacy held on to get a two-point win, and it was team captain Ty McCray who stole the show, getting a double-double of 20 points and 18 rebounds, with 12 of those points coming from the free-throw line. Every starter scored at least 11 points for Legacy, and that included Gouch, who contributed 12 points and five rebounds.

BRED Honchos

Terrance “Sleepy” Favors

Nothing to say here as Favors didn’t play last night. We’ll have to wait another week for him to make his UH debut.