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SATURDAY AT THE DAN FINN CLASSIC

by Matt Whitfield

It was a great day of basketball on Saturday at the Jersey City Armory as the Fifth Annual Dan Finn Classic was held. Once again this event saw some of the top teams from New Jersey gather for a great cause in the memory of Dan Finn.

With the great teams of the Garden State, you have many great players, here is a recap of the boy’s action and some of the players that stood out in the action…

St. Peters Prep Holds Off Seton Hall Prep 48-43

A battle of two of New Jersey’s parochial powerhouses kicked off the action Saturday afternoon at the fifth annual Dan Finn Classic. Seton Hall Prep, led by Stephon Treadwell and Sterling Gibbs faced off against a youthful, but slightly larger, St. Peters Prep, the alma mater of Dan Finn, a team led by the frontline duo of Keith Lumpkin and Ronald Roberts and guard Myles Davis.

Despite being full of high-major caliber talent, the game itself was rather slow and un-eventful compared to the other games later on in the day. Neither would ever score more than 15 points in a quarter and neither team would ever get or give up a big lead.

Going into the 4th quarter St. Peter’s had a 38-35 lead, but a three point lead didn’t mean anything as these marginal leads had come and gone all game long. This game came down to the team with the hottest hand and the best big men. St. Peter’s rode the services of Keith Lumpkin and Ronald Roberts, who both were stand over 6-foot-6 in the paint. The two would make the difference for St. Peters Prep down the stretch as St. Peter’s closed the game on an 8-0 run. Lumpkin did his work defensively with a key block on a Gibbs three-point attempt and Roberts would score the key buckets.

The sophomore Davis led St. Peter’s with 19 points as he was ‘money’ from the perimeter and displayed fancy footwork getting into the paint.

Roberts would finish with 14 points on the day Lumpkin chipped in 9 points for the Marauders. Lumpkin would swat several shots and used his 270 lbs to be a physical presence in this game. Roberts displayed again he is the most college-ready player in the contest. He is good at using his size around the basket and shows good court awareness.

Sterling Gibbs led Seton Hall Prep with 13 points and played aggressively on both ends of the court, sometimes forcing a poor shot in the tight contest. Just a sophomore, he is depended on a lot by SHP.

Mack, Edwin Power Paterson Catholic to a Win

Later that day a matchup featured upstart Trenton Catholic versus predominant North Jersey power Paterson Catholic. This game featured two different styles of play, one in Trenton Catholic with a team full of speedy, versatile players versus a seasoned Paterson Catholic team with players that knew their role and fulfilled it.

Trenton Catholic would come hustling and playing hard early on. They would jet out to a 9-0 lead, only to see the link shrink by the end of the opening quarter because of the play of Paterson Catholic’s Fuquan Edwin and Trevor ‘Animal’ Clemmings. Trenton Catholic ended the first quarter only holding a three point lead, 15-12.

The second quarter was full of hard fought play and defensive jockeying. Neither team would put up much offense this quarter as each team would only score six points, however the point of this game became clear as Trenton Catholic wasn’t going to leave Jersey City without a fight.

Down 21-18 at halftime, Paterson Catholic would come out flying in the third quarter. Myles Mack, who looks like a surefire college PG, came out on fire after the intermission. Mack would score nine of his 16 points in this quarter and Edwin would add another four. Trenton Catholic spread out their scoring with five players scoring keeping the Iron Mikes very much in the game. After three-quarters, the game was all knotted up at 35-all.

It was more of the Mack and Edwin show in the fourth quarter. Myles would hit a three-point shot to give Paterson Catholic a 40-37 lead, a lead they would never relinquish. Mack had several flashy plays this quarter where he’d display his superior offensive skills and ball-handling ability.

Mack is real quick and has a knack for passing in transition. Can take some careless shots from time to time, but he keyed the PC run late leading to a 52-42 win.

“The more haters talk the better he plays,” Myles’ Mom would comment to NBE following the game.

Mack already has an offer from Fordham and he indicated that Syracuse and Georgetown are showing early interest.

Edwin also came up with big plays for Paterson Catholic down the stretch, and he also finished with 16 points. Edwin has a wiry build and used a smooth offensive game to score his points. The junior has a good court awareness which put him in the right place at the right time to make plays.

According to Edwin, Seton Hall, UMass and LaSalle have offered and Providence is hot on his trail.

Jayon James added 8 points for PC as the junior F/G still needs to round into better shape, especially if he hopes to land at a high-major school. Schools like Xavier, Seton Hall, Rhode Island, Fordham, LaSalle, Princeton and Brown have all showed varying levels of interest in recruiting him.

6-foot-7 Trevor Clemmings also played a big role in the PC win. Even though the ‘animal’ scored just 6 points, this big man can move along the basketball coach. Fast and athletic for a big man, you can definitely see him being a good football player even before seeing him in pads.

While Rutgers and Providence have shown interest in basketball, football could be his future calling as Duke, Maryland, RU and UNC have already begun to court him.

Leading Trenton was 5’9 junior lead guard Deondre Whitmore, who scored 14 points.

St. Benedict’s Prep Slaughters Linden

USA Today’s third-ranked St. Benedict’s Prep would face off against one of New Jersey’s better public programs in Linden High School. St. Joseph’s head coach Phil Martelli was on hand to see his 2009 commitment David Bruce and other top talent from the Garden State. Bruce and his squad were clearly outmatched and one bye-stander in the crowd put it, “[it’s] like a lion choking a kid.”

St. Benedict’s would more or less do that the first half. Tristan Thompson, a Texas commit, would show why many recruiting services rank him the top junior in the country as he would out score Linden in the 1st quarter all by himself.

It was more of the same the second quarter as good defense, blazing speed (especially from Myck Kabongo), and patented plays easily put the game out of reach and in the bag for St. Benedicts, as they entered halftime with a 30-11 lead.

Coming out in the 2nd half Linden played inspired basketball but it was if no one from St. Benedict’s really cared as they knew the game was already theirs. Linden would come out and score eight straight points before a clapping Tigers bench, but it never really fazed the Gray Bees as they sensed they could turn it on when they wanted to.

St. Benedict’s ended up winning by a final of 53-40 as Tristan Thompson would score a game-high 20 points. Aaron Brown would turn in a very good game as well as the 2010 prospect showed off his speed and he certainly passes the basketball player eye test in scoring 11 points. Pittsburgh-commit Lamar Patterson would add 10 with Tamir Jackson chipping in 6, the most recent St. Ben’s Texas-commit Kabongo adding 4 and sophomore Tavon Sledge rounding out their scoring with two.

Plainfield Edges Top Ranked St Anthony’s 51-48

The organizers of the Dan Finn Classic saved the best match-up for last Saturday. Third-ranked St. Anthony’s took on 16th-ranked Plainfield in a matchup that pitted Bobby Hurley’s finesse laden team versus the speed of Jeff Lubreski’s team, particularly in Tyrone Johnson and Isaiah Epps. This game would be a close one but speed can kill.

Anthony Baskerville and Epps would come out shooting early on. Two-thirds of Plainfield’s rugged backcourt would put Plainfield up by as much as 9 points, leading 12-3 over the Jersey City school. Bobby Hurley’s squad however would come right back with the play of Elijah Carter, Jamee Jackson, and Villanova-bound Dominic Cheek, cutting the Plainfield lead to 12-10 at the end of the first quarter

In the second quarter it was more intense play, but still relatively low scoring because of good defense and speed. With the help of Tyrone Johnson’s nine points Plainfield would continue their slight edge with 25-20 lead heading into intermission.

St. Anthony’s would make the game a real nail-biter for both head coaches in the third quarter. The Friars would mount a comeback behind the play of Jamee Jackson and take a slight lead 35-34 lead through three quarters.

In the fourth quarter 2010 Pittsburgh-commit Epps and sophomore his sophomore backcourt mate Johnson would make the mostly pro-Plainfield crowd happy. In the quarter that was full of lead changes, and by far the most action, Epps would hit for 13 of his game high-high 17 points, and Johnson would add in 7 of his 16. The Friars weren’t giving up though, Jamee Jackson and Cheek worked furiously to counter their Union County rival. However despite Cheek’s 8 points in the final quarter, the game was over when Cheek, whose team was down 50-48 with under 10 seconds left, intentionally missed a free throw and it landed in the hands of Plainfield’s Jabrial Elliot thus icing the game and giving Plainfield the victory by a final of 51-48.

Dom Cheek would lead the Friars on the day with 12 points, and teammate Jamee Jackson would add in 11.

Epps had 17 and was very efficient with good shot selection and ball-handling throughout. Johnson added 16 and played very good defense on Cheek at key situations that helped Plainfield pull out the win.