Payton Pritchard didn’t have to come off the bench in Victoria, although he obviously does that very well in the National Basketball Association. The reigning NBA Sixth Man Award winner was the headlining starter here and did not disappoint.
Pritchard didn’t just light up CARSA Gymnasium. He set it on fire, throwing down a blazing 68 points, in the Ball Don’t Stop Pro-Am game played before a capacity crowd on the University of Victoria campus on Thursday night.
The performance set the record for the most points scored in the annual summer fixture, breaking the old mark of 61 points Pritchard set in 2023, when the Ball Don’t Stop Pro-Am was played in the Simon Fraser University gym.
The Ball Don’t Stop games, featuring NBA players and local collegiate players, began in 2016 and have previously been held on the Lower Mainland and in Toronto. They don’t feature a whole lot of defence and are known for their flashy and swashbuckling offensive outbursts. Pritchard, who is from Oregon and received a rousing ovation from the Island crowd, supplied plenty of that with gasp-inspiring dekes and gym-rattling dunks. He was presented with a boxing championship-like belt that goes to the game MVP, which he hoisted above his head post-game.
There were also more than enough rings to go around as the 2024 NBA champion Pritchard led The Grind team, which included Shadynn Smid and Ethan Boag from the U Sports national champion University of Victoria Vikes.
It concluded an eventful summer for Claremont Secondary Spartans grad Boag and Cowichan Secondary Thunderbirds grad Smid, who had just returned from representing Canada in the FIBA 3x3 Youth Nations League championship in Punta Arenas, Chile, the regional qualifier for the FIBA 3x3 Under-23 World Cup next month in Xiong An, China.
Also playing on The Grind squad were David Finch from the Camosun College Chargers and Zach Stone from SFU.
NBA players Jaylen Wells of the Memphis Grizzlies, named to the NBA all-rookie first-team this season, and Atlanta Hawks centre Mouhamed Gueye co-captained the PNW Sports Group team that included Renoldo Robinson and Oak Bay Secondary Bays grad Griffin Arnatt of the UVic Vikes. Robinson and Arnatt, along with UVic teammates Smid and Boag, represented Canada in June at the 2025 Americas’ university 3x3 championship in Brasilia, Brazil.
They placed fourth after reaching the semifinals and playing in the bronze-medal game of the 13-team championship.
Meanwhile, the players, led by head clinician Pritchard, conducted a Ball Don’t Stop youth basketball clinic over the weekend at UVic.
NBA players who have appeared in previous Ball Don’t Stop games include Canadian guard Shaedon Sharpe of the Portland Trail Blazers, Canadian Chris Boucher, Isiah Thomas, who was fifth in NBA MVP voting when with the Boston Celtics in 2016-17, Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors, Bones Hyland, Jamal Crawford and former Golden State and 76ers guard De’Anthony Melton.
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