Koa Peat-led Perry basketball loads schedule with potential matchup against Cameron Boozer

When you have one of the top prospects in the nation, a future NBA lottery pick in 6-foot-8 junior Koa Peat, Gilbert Perry can go places.

Next season, the defending Arizona Open state champions will be going to Springfield, Massachusetts for the Hoophall Classic and take off for Portland, Oregon, to play in the Les Schwab Christmas tournament where there is potential for the Pumas to face Cameron Boozer and Florida powerhouse Miami Christopher Columbus.

The brackets haven't been decided yet for the Les Schwab tournament, but Perry could potentially be placed in the same bracket as Columbus.

Peat and the 6-9 Boozer, along with Boozer's twin brother Cayden, were part of the gold-medal-winning USA U-16 basketball team in June in Mexico.

Cameron Boozer is rated the No. 1 prospect in the 2025 class by ESPN. Peat is rated No. 3 by ESPN in the same class nationally.

Both Perry and Columbus were in Section 7 in June at State Farm Stadium, but they were placed in different divisions.

According to a social media post Wednesday by national high school insider Samad Hines, Perry is expected to play Top 25 teams Harvard-Westlake (California), Archbishop Stepinac (New York) and Grayson (Georgia) during the 2023-24 season.

"We probably have the toughest schedule that one of my teams has ever faced," Perry coach Sam Duane Jr., said in a text. "With our in-state and Premier Region schedule, we have added two Hoophall West games and will also be going to Springfield, Mass to play in the Hoophall Classic over MLK weekend.

"We also are going to the Les Schwab xmas tourney in Portland, which is a loaded tournament. I think our success with winning, our strong showing in Hoophall West last year, and of course having a player such as Koa makes Perry an attractive opponent for elite teams.

"We want to challenge our team to be ready for the Open and I think our schedule will do that."

This Perry team will go through Peat, after graduating 6-8 guard Cody Williams, who will begin his college career this year at Colorado. Together, Perry lost only one game last season and won its second consecutive state title in dominant fashion, going 30-1.

And Peat's recruiting has only ramped up. He has his pick of which college he wants to go to. For Peat to stay at Perry during his high school career, is testimony to his loyalty to the public school and to Duane, who led Tempe Corona del So to four straight state titles before resigning in 2015.

It took a while for Duane to build Perry to the type of program he had at Corona del Sol. With Peat, there could be two more state titles, but it's going to take a lot of help from his teammates to do so with so many talented young players in the Valley making the competition that much tougher to accomplish such a feat.

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Koa Peat-led Perry basketball loads schedule against national powers