Day 1
SPRINGFIELD, Ma. – There were 2014 McDonald’s All-Americans candidates-galore on display throughout Saturday’s six games of the first day of the high school invitational portion of the Spalding HoopHall Classic in Blake Arena at Springfield College.
But one of them clearly stood out well above the rest, setting a standard for the rest of the candidates who will show up during the 11 games that will be played during the event over Sunday and Monday.
Six-foot-seven Daniel Hamilton, whose brother, Isaac Hamilton, was a 2013 McDonald’s selection, seemingly made every key play for the Bellflower (CA) St. John Bosco club during the second half of its eventual 63-60 victory over Baltimore St. Frances Saturday evening.
Hamilton, often matched against another of the class of 2014’s elite prospects (Dwayne Morgan), put up Saturday’s best individual stat line with 25 points (on 10 of 21 shooting from the floor, hitting his only attempt from behind the arc), nine rebounds, four assists, two blocks and two steals while playing all 32 minutes.
The Braves, just three nights after losing to unbeaten Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei (which plays Philadelphia Goretti here Monday night in the final game of the event) in a Trinity League game, also got a terrific jump shooting performance from sophomore forward Vance Jackson, who added 25 points while hitting 10 of 16 from the floor, including five of 11 attempts behind the arc.
Coach Derrick Taylor’s Braves were playing short-handed as junior Tyler Dorsey didn’t accompany his teammates east for what his father told Dorsey’s club coach (Dinos Trigonis) were reasons based upon his performance in one of his classes at SJB.
St. Frances stayed close throughout largely due to its own impressive jump-shooting effort, that turned in by sophomore reserve guard Michael Micklos, who scored all of his team-high 15 points (in 13 minutes of action) via a 5-of-7 shooting performance behind the arc.
In other games Saturday:
*Huntington (WV) Prep 52, Dallas Prime Prep 48: The West Virginia-based squad’s overall size – or, as analysts more frequently refer to it in this era, its’ “length” – played a large part in the narrow victory during the day’s final game.
Coach Rob Fulford’s team had a 10-rebound advantage and blocked seven shots, and continually challenged Prime Prep’s shooters, a large reason (along with poor selection) why the Dallas team shot just .304 from the field.
Thomas Bryant, a junior from Rochester (NY) who is listed at 6-10, was the most significant “shot alterer” for Huntington Prep, blocking two shots to go with 11 points and a Saturday-high 12 rebounds.
Emmanuel Mudiay, who signed with Southern Methodist University in November, did enough with the ball in his hands to show why so many folks – me included – believe he’s the top point guard prospect in the Class of 2014.
But he struggled with his jumper and Huntington Prep’s size (or, “length”, if you will), hitting just six of 17 from the field while scoring 20 points.
*Brooklyn Lincoln 90, Houston Yates 66: The team from New York overcame a large dose of sloppiness with its handling and passing (26 turnovers) to still win by a comfortable margin against a team from Texas that missed on 18 of 21 of its 3-point attempts and was continually beaten in transition.
Senior Elisha Boone (26 points) and junior Desi Rodriguez (25) combined to hit 20 of 35 shots for Lincoln and most of those where layups or dunks against little in the way of effective resistance.
Another of those McDonald’s AA candidates from the Class of 2014, Isaiah Whitehead, had 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Lincoln but was just five of 14 from the field and was credited with nine turnovers.
*Seattle Rainier Beach 65, Arlington (VA) Bishop O’Connell 60: The team from Washington was out-rebounded (42-31) but remained unbeaten via its balance and ability to hit at least some shots from behind the arc – 7 of 21 – during a game in which its opponent whiffed on eight attempts.
Left-handed guard David Crisp (a transfer from Clover Park in Lakewood in Washington who recently committed to the University of Washington), scored a team-high 20 points while hitting on four of nine from behind the arc for Rainier Beach.
Maryland signee Romelo Trimble scored a game-high 26 points for O’Connell but needed 22 field-goal attempts (he missed 15 of them, including six 3’s) and a 12-for-12 free-throw effort to run that tab. He also committed seven turnovers.
O’Connell stayed close throughout behind the post play of underclassmen Lewis Djonkam (a sophomore) and Oumar Barry (a junior), who combined for 22 points and 20 rebounds.
*Albany (NY) Academy 75, Springfield (MA) Central 73: The local squad led most of the way but took a lot of ill-advised shots down the stretch.
And senior Matt Knezovic hit a lot of big shots in the clutch for the New York team, including a score-tying 3-pointer with three seconds to go and the winning free throws after being fouled with .4 seconds to go after Central committed an inbounds violation after his 3.
*Springfield (MA) Putnam 77, Woodstock (CT) Academy 45: Six-three senior David Murrell scored 15 points and grabbed as many rebounds while 6-4 sophomore Ty Malone went for 19 points and nine rebounds as the local squad was breezing at about the same time the snow starting falling outside early Saturday afternoon.
Day 2
If you managed to spend all 10-plus hours in Blake Arena Sunday watching the six games of the Spalding HoopHall Classic/High School Invitational, chances are your mind might have gone a bit numb by the time you stepped outside into the no-so-numbing chill.
OK, so I’m back in my hotel room and it’s time to commence with the “un-numbing” and sort out what we watched . . .
Some of the most gifted post players in all of high school were on display Sunday and were quite impressive, indeed.
And most of their teams lost, which illustrates nicely the point that even the best players – or, at this stage, prospects – can’t do it alone . . . figuratively, of course.
For example:
*Kentucky-bound Karl Towns Jr. went for 21 points and nine rebounds, while blocking a couple of shots.
In the meantime, however, a Hyattsville (MD) DeMatha squad with a roster bubbling over with talented non-seniors pretty much ran away from Towns’ Metuchen (NJ) St. Joseph squad, 73-45.
Mike Jones picked up his 300th victory as his alma mater’s head coach by way of multiple strong individual performances, most notably those turned in by sophomore Joe Hampton (23 points, six rebounds, three assists and a couple of blocks) and freshman Darren Harvey (10, five, two and three).
I’m looking forward to taking another up-close-and-personal look at Jones’ lads when they head to my neck of the U.S. of A. for a Feb. 1 Nike Extravaganza tilt against Los Angeles Westchester at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, CA.
*Six-eight Cheick Diallo – who migrated to the U.S. from Mali not much more than a year ago – had an impressive audition for the crown of “Top Prospect in the Class of 2015” for his Centerreach NY) Our Savior squad during it game against La Porte (IN) Lalumiere School.
Diallo, who has created a unique definition of “quick-leaping ability”, went for 18, 17 and 10 – as in points, rebounds and blocked shots – in mostly spectacular fashion Sunday.
But the Lalumiere lads finally caught on that it was wiser – and much more productive – to attack from the perimeter than it was to challenge Diallo anywhere within 12 feet or so of the backboard.
Junior guard Jalen Colemen – with 28 points by way of 10 of 17 shooting, including eight of 11 from behind the arc – was the biggest reason that approach worked so well as his team pulled away for a 65-55 win over Our Savior.
*Six-nine (or thereabouts) UNLV signee Goodluck Okonoboh collected 16 points, six rebounds and a couple of blocked shots for Wilbraham & Monson Academy.
Yeah, he’s going to have an immediate impact in the Mountain West Conference as a Rebels freshman a year from now.
But, Sunday night, Wolfeboro (NH) Brewster Academy has two too many big men of its own as Georgetown signee Isaac Copeland (25 points and 11 rebounds) and recent roster addition – from Australia by way of a brief stay in Las Vegas with Findlay Prep – Jonah Bolden (nine points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots) helped their team roll, 89-73.
And, in the other three games contested Sunday:
*Arlington (FL) Country Day got double-figure scoring from four players – led by impressive sophomore guard Lamonte Turner’s 16 points – in its 64-54 victory over Newark (NJ) St. Benedict’s;
*Junior guard Jalen Adams – yeah, it was a heck of a day for jump-shooting Jalens, wasn’t it – scored 32 points (with four of six from behind the arc) propelled Ashburnham (MA) Cushing’s 93-83 win against Worcester (MA) Academy.
Syracuse-bound Kaleb Joseph went for 17 points, five rebounds and eight assists to team with Adams in the day’s most impressive backcourt;
*And it was a dunking and jump-shooting frenzy for Mount Herman (MA) Northfield Mount Hermon School in its 80-51 pasting of Meriden (NH) Kimball Union Academy.
Six-10ish junior Josh Sharma played just a minute in the first half after picking up two fouls but then cranked in a couple of dunks set up by back picks early after intermission en route to a 13-points in 14-minutes effort while classmate Jackson Donahue flicked the right wrist and held his follow-thru for 26 points, 18 of those coming from behind the arc.
Day 3
It really wasn’t quite a case of “saving the best for last” during the final day of the Spalding HoopHall Classic/High School Invitational on Monday.
But it was close enough.
During the 16th of 17 games to be played Saturday-Monday it finally became oh-so-high-def-TV-clear as to the identity of the very best player in a field of a whole lot of exceptional athletes/college prospects.
If you’re reading this, I’m going on the assumption that you’ve read or heard the name “Cliff Alexander” once or twice already.
Get cozy and get ready to read about him a little more and how his extremely forceful performance rallied his squad to a stunning 73-69 victory over previously unbeaten Montverde Academy of Florida.
The Chicago Curie senior seemingly flexed every ample muscle that is layered upon his 6-foot-8 frame Monday afternoon while helping his squad topple the Montverde team that had been sitting atop every national ranking and was on the verge of making its Chicago opponent its 19th victim 19th by way of a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
The jump shooting of Ohio State recruit D’Angelo Russell (11 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter) and the either-hand dunking demonstration put on by Australian import Ben Simmons (14 points, about 10 of them on slams, to go with 12 rebounds) seemingly had things under control for the Eagles.
The key word in that paragraph, of course, is “seemingly”.
And then, suddenly with about six minutes to go, it seemed as if Alexander was intent on re-arranging backboards – and any opponent who happened to be in his path – and trying to get both elbows over the rim each time he retrieved a missed shot.
Highlight dunks? Where to begin?
My suggestion, if you weren’t courtside or didn’t watch it via one of those networks in that “ESPN family”, hit up You Tube.
Those imagines will provide a pretty workable definition of the hoops axiom “playing big”.
Alexander finished with 24 of his eventual 30 points and 10 of his 12 rebounds after intermission, tying the score (at 62) with about three minutes to go on a third consecutive dunk.
Joshua Stamps, a left-handed junior guard who added 20 points, put Curie ahead to stay with a nifty mostly uncontested drive with three minutes to go.
And if Alexander’s physical dominance (at both ends; he blocked five shots) wasn’t enough, he didn’t miss a free throw in eight second-half attempts, most of those in the closing minutes.
By the way, I’m ready to surrender any debate I might have continued to argue on the subject:
Alexander, and not another Chicago big man (Jahlil Okafor of Whitney Young), a Dallas Prime Prep point guard Emmanuel Mudiay or one of two wings, Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei’s Stanley Johnson or Henderson (NV) Findlay Prep’s Kelly Oubre, is the No. 1 player in the national class of 2014.
Each of those gentlemen also had the opportunity to make his on-court argument this MLK Weekend.
End of discussion, though, thank you very much.
Alexander is that guy, simple as that.
In the other games played Monday:
*Santa Ana (CA) Mater Dei 79, Philadelphia Neumann-Maria Goretti 67: The Monarchs moved to 18-0 despite their best player – and one of the best in the national senior class – enduring a sub-par performance in the final game of the event.
Stanley Johnson picked up his third and fourth fouls barely two minutes into the third quarter and eventually fouled out with 1:11 to go in the fourth quarter after being whistled for his second charge.
Johnson, who signed with Arizona in November, finished with a season-low 12 points – while going just five of 15 from the field, including one of four behind the arch, and missing five of six free throws – and committed 10 turnovers to go with six assists and 11 rebounds.
Yeah, four more dimes and he would have rolled a quadruple double!
But Gary McKnight’s Monarchs, who play host to Chicago Whitney Young, are unbeaten for reasons other than the multiple things provided by Johnson.
Juniors Rex Pflueger and La’Vette Parker combined to hit nine of 14 shots from behind the arc, with Pflueger scoring a career-high 30 points and Parker adding 17.
Sophomore post Michael Cage Jr. snapped down a game-high 12 rebounds to go with 20 points for the Monarchs while senior point guard Ja’Quan Newton (who signed with Miami in November) led Neumann-Goretti with 23 points.
*Chicago Whitney Young 53, Mouth of Wilson (VA) Oak Hill Academy 50: Jahlil Okafor sat out 10 minutes of the second half after picking up his fourth foul.
But Whitney Young fought back into the game with him on the bench, getting to within a point (after trailing by nine) before he returned with three minutes to go.
Georgetown-bound Paul White played well in the lane with Okafor out and finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds while Okafor added 14 and six.
Junior point guard Terrence Phillips had eight points, nine assists, two steals and only two turnovers in 32 minutes for Oak Hill.
*Henderson (NV) Findlay Prep 73, High Point (NC) Wesleyan Christian 43: Theo Pinson had 13 points and two assists to help Wesleyan to an early six-point leader but Findlay Prep’s combination of skill, size and depth broke the thing open in the second half.
Kansas-bound Kelly Oubre Jr. went for 23 points including a mess of dunks for Findlay Prep while Rashad Vaughn, in his first game action in more than a month, added 12 points off the bench.
*Fairfax (VA) Pius VI 62, Jersey City St. Anthony 56: The Friars took a four-point advantage into the fourth quarter before the Panthers pulled away over the final four minutes to win reasonably comfortably (St. Anthony had a 3 near the final buzzer).
Four players, led by sophomore forward Tyler Scanlon, scored from 11 to 15 points for the winners.
Senior guard Tarin Smith led the Friars with 16 points but committed five turnovers.
