"This is so different from school basketball," the 15-year-old Bartner said. "There was more free play. This is all about your skills. It's your time to shine. You get to show coaches how bad you really want it."
Playing with older girls at her first showcase, Bartner said, would benefit her in the future.
"Being in a showcase is another avenue to play basketball and get exposure," Bartner's father, Steve, said. "It's a good experience. Something new. Morgan would like to play in college. Before, if you were here and you were a freshman, you were young. Now you're not. This is a chance to play with different girls and be looked at."
Fifty girls took part in the event presented by KJ Basketball. Keith Jefferson coordinated the showcase, which consisted of warmups, games, drills and seminars. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Care for the Cure Foundation.
Aubree Udell, a sophomore at Mendham High School, was participating in her third showcase. Udell has known since fifth grade that she wants to play college basketball.
"There's a different feel to games like this," Udell said. "You get to show what you do best."
Udell also relished the opportunity to expand on her college choices.
"You may find out about colleges you've never heard of," she said. "You may get contacted by one of them. By being here, I'm expanding on where I might go."
More than 100 college coaches attended. Among the schools represented were Cheney University and Texas A&M International University, a pair of Division II colleges.
Rutgers University-Newark coach Kevin Morris was in the stands taking in the action.
"We have coaches here still looking and players here still looking," said Morris, a resident of Boonton. "We have a mutual need."
Morris, previously the head coach at Fordham and an assistant at Harvard and Princeton, is unable to offer scholarships for RU-Newark because it's Division III. Therefore, he has to deal with unusual circumstances at times.
"At our level, you're not there until you're there," Morris said. "We've lost top recruits in August because we're not giving them anything. If someone gets a scholarship, they're gone."
The showcase was packed with guards. They appeal to Morris because his squad plays fast and does a lot of running. However, he was seeking the best players he could find.
Because the event was small, it wasn't overwhelming. Morris liked that he could watch games on one court and drills on another at the same time.
Udell found the clinics and seminars helpful. She especially liked the academic seminar which addressed courses required for college.
Bartner, of Florham Park, benefited from learning more about dynamic stretching.
"It's very important," Bartner said.
She also enjoyed the drills that worked on "little details." She worked on her screens and helping out.
"I think I did pretty well today," Bartner said. "Hopefully, the coaches noticed."
Players traveled from as far as Long Island and Amherst, N.Y. Others made the trip from Burlington County.
In addition to Bartner and Udell, other Morris County players displaying their skills were Brianna Mott, a sophomore from Morris Knolls, Brielle Colgero, a sophomore from Hanover Park, Jackie Endres, a sophomore from Villa Walsh, and Sierra Armstrong, a freshman from St. Elizabeth.
