Andy Smith admits he has been in demand during his 11 days back in England.

It is nothing, however, to the fuss over his basketball skills when he is in the United States.

Smith, the 18-year-old prospect from Littlehampton, lived up to his billing as star player in the Brighton team at Hoopfest, the top national junior tournament staged by Hosana sports wear at Crystal Palace on Monday.

He was the main attraction of a marathon eight-hour event, not least for opposing defenders, but made light of it to dominate his side's scoring, including the first 13 points of their defeat in the semi-final.

Smith has also been training with Bears' senior side and Worthing Thunder to help prepare for the crucial games he now faces with Kerr Vance Academy in North Carolina.

There was plenty of hype over Smith's outing at Palace and it proved to be fully justified.

Not that the star billing bothered him. He said: "It was nice to have the build-up and I thought I played well.

"We didn't have the strongest of teams but I enjoyed it. I played with Sam (Mead) when I was pretty young so it was good to get together with him again."

Brighton lost to Hackney and Select Ballers, the best two sides at the event, as well as Northants in a low-key third place play-off.

By contrast, Kerr Vance have gone 7-2 in their first nine games, though even that has not been enough to match some of the pre-season publicity they were given when Smith signed in the summer.

He admitted: "There was uproar when I changed school. We were made pre-season No. 1 to win the State championship.

"We are now ranked at three or four but really people are just guessing when they come up with these figures.

"We started pretty slowly. The team had come off two losing seasons and were just hoping things would change around.

"People have had to adapt to the way each other play but, in our last two games, we had our Christmas tournament and the coach was really pleased with how things were going."

Smith is only at Kerr Vance for one year and already has thoughts about his future at a top American university. He has several offers and is seriously considering St Joseph's in Philadelphia, whose list of of old boys includes Bears favourite Wilbur Johnson and London Towers star Terrell Myers.

He admits the intensity of the recruiting process can be bewildering at times, not least when he was told to go and show his skills one lunchtime because a coach had flown across from the University of Hawaii just to see him play.

No-one travelled quite that far on Monday, though the traffic jams of Croydon did offer some inconvenience to anyone heading to Palace later in the day.

By then the Brighton team, including Bears guard Bud Johnston and Worthing Thunder's Mead and Oli Roche, had suffered a wake-up call in losing 57-38 to a strong Select Ballers side before beating Ware 45-36 and Richmond College 59-46.

The semi with Hackney was an excellent contest and, when Smith guided home a three-pointer off the back board, Brighton led 13-6 with only one of their players on the scoresheet.

Hackney replied with a strong run, punctuated by a Johnston three, to lead 24-20 at the interval. A strong drive to the hoop by Mead dragged Brighton level at 24-24 and they had a narrow lead midway through the second half.

Smith finished with 23 points, Johnston had five and Tommy Duncan and Chris Brown four apiece in a 49-39 defeat while, for Hackney, centre Darius Defoe was outstanding.

Brighton then had just eight minutes to prepare for the third place game and led 25-23 at halfway as Smith and Duncan unleashed three-pointers.

Northants scored six unanswered baskets midway through the second half as their Anglo-German big man Rudi Perrin, looking like a throwback to the Seventies with his sideburns and head band, took command.

Hackney then overcame a barrage of threes from Select Ballers guard Dan Woodbridge to win a super final 53-49 but Brighton coach Phil Waghorn was not too disappointed by his side's showing.

He said: "This has been beneficial for us. It's always difficult to get this sort of competition locally.

"It's always a bit of a run and gun type game and our strong point is working as a team which is not something you are really going to get here."

Waghorn hopes other Sussex youngsters get an American chance though, for this weekend at least, going west means games for Bears' under-18s and 16s at Gloucester.

He added: "Sam and Oli almost had a chance to go to the States last year but nowadays it has got a lot more difficult.

"A few guys want to do it. When you are a little bit taller like Andy you get some opportunities.

"He has obviously gone out there and worked hard. I think it showed the difference between him and the other guys in terms of intensity and ability to make shots.

"That comes from getting in the gym every day."

Bears will be rejoined by another bright prospect this weekend as Josh Allison returns from an England training camp.

As for Smith, the next move in a blossoming career should be carefully mapped out by the time he returns to these shores in the summer.