A Look at 3 of the CIAC’s Best Junior Guards

NewEnglandBasketballServices.com | Tuesday, December 26th, 2006

There is little disputing that Chris Prescott, B.J. Monteiro, and RJ Evans are three of the best guards the CIAC has to offer in the junior class. The interesting question occurs when you try to compare the three.

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to see all three play, including a mid-day battle that featured two undefeated teams in Evans’ Norwich Free Academy and Prescott’s Northwest Catholic.

When the game tipped off a variety of college coaches were on hand to check out the prospects including Fordham, Vermont, Sacred Heart, Pennsylvania, Trinity College, Eastern Connecticut, Salve Ragina, and Mitchell College. NFA led virtually throughout the game behind their tough 1-3-1 zone defense and hot outside shooting. But in the fourth quarter Northwest Catholic picked up full court defensive pressure and made a valiant run before NFA was eventually able to fight them off en route to a 69-56 victory.

As for Evans and Prescott, they were rarely matched up against each other on either end of the floor. Regardless, Evans was very productive scoring 25 points while Prescott was off his game on this particular day and finished with 15 points. Evans was aggressive the entire night and showcased his outside shooting prowess as well as a nice one dribble pull-up. He did a nice job of utilizing screens to free himself and had a quick release that allowed him to get his shot off despite defenders flying at him. Conversely, Prescott struggled to find an offensive groove this afternoon. His normally deadly outside jumper was off the mark for most of the afternoon and the NFA zone instantly collapsed on him when he would put the ball on the floor.

Garvin McAlister a 5’9 senior point guard was also very impressive for NFA matching Evans with 25 points while also running the team. After the game McAlister said he is receiving interest from some division II programs as well as a wide variety of division III schools.

Later that night we traveled to Waterbury to see a battle of two unbeaten local teams as Holy Cross visited B.J. Monteiro and Crosby. After an average first half by his standards Monteiro put on a performance to remember scoring 24 points in the second half to finish with 34 for the night. Monteiro was absolutely unstoppable draining three-pointers off the catch or the dribble and from as deep as a couple of feet beyond the three-point line. After that he showed a nice dribble drive game where he was equally comfortable going left or right, elevating for a mid-range pull-up, or taking it all the way to the rim for the finish. The bottom line was Monteiro did whatever he wanted despite a good defensive effort from Holy Cross. Not only that but he did it when it counted. Perhaps the play of the game occurred when Holy Cross erased a 10 point deficient behind the strong play of 6’2 junior guard Jerome Mitchell (22 points) to take a one point lead late in the third quarter and ignite their fans in the student section. Crosby immediately got the ball into Monteiro’s hands, who brought the ball up the floor against pressure, smoothly pulled up off the dribble from a few feet beyond the three-point line to knock down the shot despite a hand in his face, then calmly turned around and raised his finger to his lips to let the visiting crowd know that he was still in control. When it was all said and done Monteiro led Crosby to an 82-73 victory and showed that he is a dynamic scorer who can put the ball in the basket in a variety of ways. Monteiro who is currently ranked 8th in Connecticut and 18th in New England is bound to move up when our next set of rankings are published following the completion of the high school season.

---