New England Challenge – Event Recap

NewEnglandRecruitingReport.com | Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

The first contest of the day was the public school game, and little more than twelve hours after claiming a state title Windsor head coach Ken Smith was on hand to coach the South team while his senior stars, Steven Samuels and Adrian Satchell, were suited up and ready to go as well.  The Windsor trio picked up right where they left off last night, leading the south to a 111-99 victory while with both players scoring a game high 19 points.  It was Samuels who came away with MVP honors in this one as he also contributed 6 assists and 5 rebounds.  But Satchell was equally impressive knocking down all three of his three-point attempts and pulling down 7 boards.  Also playing well for the South was Chris Evans who thrived in transition for 12 points, Billy Baron who had 13 including consecutive deep threes, and Eric Jean-Guillaume who made plays on both ends of the court for 10 points and 6 steals.  Nicco Demasco and Joe Sindelar did a lot of the dirty work inside finishing with 8 points, 7 rebounds and 6 points, 6 rebounds respectively.  The North utilized a balanced attack as six players scored in double figures: Ike Azotam 14; Thomas Knight 13; Louis Montes 12; Danny OKeefe 11; and Kyle Stockmal 11.  Knight led the way on the glass with 7 boards while James Morse handed out a team high 5 assists. 

The three-point contest was up next and featured a number of local marksmen.  Robert Harrigan, Cory Stockmal, Scott Tavares, and Austin Carroll advanced to the semi-finals with Harrigan and Tavares knocking down 11 of 20 each to move on to the final.  Both stepped their game up a notch in the last round as Harrigan opened with 12 but Tilton’s point-guard hit his final two shots at the last rack to score 13 and win the title. 

The dunk contest brought perhaps the most entertaining portion of the day.  Highlights from the first round included: Kyle Casey jumping over 6’9” Thomas Knight; Chris Evans bouncing the ball backwards through his legs, then catching it off the glass for a hard one handed flush; Preye Preboye giving us a Harold Miner flashback with his double clutched reverse dunk on the baseline; and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel catching it off the glass and then cocking it back with one hand.  Casey and Evans advanced to the final, but this one belonged to the future Harvard star as he stole the show by pulling 8 youngsters out of the audience, placing them together inside the paint and then jumping over them to catch the ball off the glass (aided by a Coombs-McDaniel pass) for a two handed dunk.  When you combine the athleticism, creativity, and timing it was truly an incredible dunk.  

The prep school game was a shootout as a total of 13 players scored in double figures.  But behind 21 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals from Worcester Academy’s Sam Martin, the West was able to come away with a 107-100 win.  Martin picked up MVP honors as he was slashing to the basket and finishing both in the half-court as well as in transition.  Chris Flores was also thriving in transition as he scored 14 for the West while Preboye had 13 and 8 boards showing his strength and athleticism around the rim.  Austin Carroll connected on four three-pointers for 12 points, while Casey and Ben Crenca just missed double-doubles with 12 & 9 and 11 & 9 respectively.  Coombs-McDaniel led the way for the East, doing a little bit of everything as usual with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists.  Greg Jacques also scored 16 for the East while Brian Fitzpatrick had 14 points and 7 rebounds, Tavares 13 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds, and Allen Williamson 13 points on a number of impressive mid-range moves.  Andrew McCarthy and Rashad Wright scored 10 each inside while Wright also had 8 boards.