WEST HARTFORD — Corey McKeithan was the pick-up that coach Donald Herring Jr. needed to win his fourth championship in the Basketball Capital Pro-Am, and the first with a $20,000 prize on the line.
The former Windsor High guard, who wrapped up his senior season at La Salle in the spring, scored 22 points and was named MVP for guiding the Zach’s Basketball Team to a tightly contested 109-104 win over Soul Bowls in front of a classic, standing-room-only crowd at the University of St. Joseph’s Friday night.
“Being able to put on in front of my city, it’s everything, it’s great,” McKeithan said. “I go away for school all the time, I did five years away from everything and now I’m here playing for the city. The intensity changed (with the $20,000 prize being offered for the first time). … I’m used to this, I love the energy, I love the crowd, it kept me going. The best part about this is we get to bring the whole city along.”
McKeithan kept his composure as the game got chippy down the stretch and made the critical plays as Soul Bowls, led by former USJ guard, East Hartford native Tyree Mitchell (32 points), came back from an early deficit and made it a nail-biter down the stretch.
Zach’s Basketball’s Doug Herring shows off his 2025 Basketball Capital Pro-Am championship ring. (Joe Arruda/Hartford Courant)
“End of games, I might have lost weight and gained a bunch of years because end of games have been insane. But shout out to Corey, the MVP, he was big, big, big. He had two game-winners this year, he’s been clutch all year for us,” said Herring, who drives about two and a half hours from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to coach.
Hartford native EJ Crawford, who played at Iona, was Zach’s leading scorer with 23 points and Mike Anderson, a pro-am veteran, added 18 and sealed the game at the free throw line. A three-time pro-am champion, Anderson presented his teammates with a giant check before they each received a championship ring from their sponsor.
The pro-am, which was founded as the Greater Hartford Pro-Am by Windsor native Pete Higgins in 1997, is a true community event. The parking lots were full 30 minutes before tip-off and it wasn’t long before every spot on the bleachers inside Jim Calhoun Gymnasium was taken.
“It feels a little different because I think the competition stepped it up this year and I played with a great group of guys, they put the egos down and just played together, so it was pretty dope to see,” said Anderson, a Hartford native who played at the University of Washington before a brief international career and a stint in the G League. “As soon as the playoffs came, everybody just locked in because the eyes were on the prize. You know I was getting the money.”
Originally Published: August 9, 2025 at 11:03 AM EDT