Boston's AJ Dybantsa Returning Home for One Night

Boston-born and Brockton-raised AJ Dybantsa — the consensus No. 1 high school basketball recruit in the country, and presumptive first pick in the 2026 NBA draft — is returning home for one night to play at Emmanuel College.

This Wednesday, November 6, Dybantsa and his high school team, Utah Prep, will face Virginia’s Highland School and its No. 4-rated prospect, Nate Ament.

The highly-anticipated Grind Session “Ranked Matchup” will tip-off at 7:00 p.m.

“It will be exciting to watch two of the best prep hoopers in the country get after it,” said Grind Session co-founder and CEO Scott Waldrup. “These boys are absolute studs and could very well be future faces of the NBA.”

The game will be a homecoming of sorts for Dybantsa who hails from the Boston suburb of Brockton. He attended St. Sebastian's School in Needham as a freshman, after which he was named Massachusetts Boys’ Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year. He then transferred to Prolific Prep in California, where he led the Napa-based program to the Grind Session World Championship this past March. This summer, he helped Team USA win gold at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup, before announcing his transfer to Utah Prep for his senior year.

The presumptive first pick in the 2026 NBA draft has received dozens of scholarship offers and recently narrowed his list to seven schools – Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, BYU, Kansas, Kansas State, and North Carolina. He plans to make his college decision in February.

Ament was one of the summers’ fastest risers and is currently the consensus No. 4 recruit in the country by all four of the major recruiting services. He stuffed the stat sheet during his junior season at Highland School, averaging 19.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.0 blocks and 3.7 assists per game. This included a berth in the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISSA) Division II State Championship game. In June, he earned a gold medal with the 2024 USA Men's U18 National Team at the FIBA U18 AmeriCup.

Like Dybantsa, Ament has scholarship offers from a Who’s Who of schools, including Duke, UConn, Kentucky, North Carolina, and “hometown school Virginia. He says he should have a later commitment date than some others, but isn’t certain of any timetable at the moment.

Tickets to the game will be available at the door at the Emmanuel College Gymnasium, which seats roughly 1,400, and via Humanitix.com, where they are $15 plus fees.