Northeast Hoops Festival – Sunday u17 Recap

New England Recruiting Report | Sunday, April 10th, 2011

The fifth annual New England Hoops Festival came to an exciting conclusion on Sunday as the Pitt Center at Sacred Heart University was rocking.  Long Island Lightning Dingle came away the big winner in the u17 field, knocking off CBC and Mass Rivals on Saturday and following with a big win over the Juice All-Stars on Sunday 74-63. 

The interior duo of Kamari Murphy and Daniel Dingle proved to be the difference all weekend long for the Lightning as the high-major big men took turns asserting their will.  It was Murphy’s turn on Sunday as he took over in the final ten minutes of the game to lead the Lightning to the win over Juice. 

Juice was led by scoring guard Justin Jenkins, seven foot big man Jordan Dickerson, and freshman sensation Isaiah Whitehead, one of the top ranked 2014 players on the east coast. 

The headline New England match-up of the day saw the Connecticut Basketball Club meet the New England Playaz.  While all eyes centered on the match-up in the middle between Andre Drummond and Kaleb Tarczewski, Tom Bajda provided an unexpected first half spark for CBC with 11 points while Timajh Parker-Rivera anchored the team’s defensive efforts with his high motor. 

As for Drummond and Tarczewski, the Playaz big man got the better of the match-up early, using his size and power to establish deep post position and finish strong around the basket but the tides turned in the second half as a more focused Drummond utilized his quickness advantage to face-up and attack with good results. 

Here is a look at others who shined in the u17 bracket on Sunday:

Ryan Sutherland & Ben Pollack, CT Select – The Master’s guard got hot with his jumper, making a ton of shots including four three-pointers in the Round of 16 while Pollack went to work in the middle of the floor, picking apart BSM’s 2-3 zone with his mid-range jumper and high-low passing. 

Ryan Frazier, Samuel Dingba, & Garland Owens – The Salisbury duo continued to impress as Frazier locked up defensively and showed a good mid-range game while Dingba showed some offensive tools along with his patented shot blocking and second chance points.  Owens is an incredibly high level athlete from Baltimore who put on a dunking display on Sunday including Crusader 22’s Dunk of the Day which can be found on the NERR homepage. 

Tyler McFarland, Maine Mac – You’ve heard us say that Tyler McFarland is one of the toughest and hardest working players in New England but the proof came in the pudding this weekend as he had a tooth broken on Saturday night but nonetheless came back and played missing his front tooth all day Sunday. 

Brima Rogers, Bay State Magic – A new name emerged on Sunday as Rogers went for 36 points against CT Select, acting as a one man fast break by racing the ball up and down the court and weaving in and out of defenders for a variety of driving scores and free-throws. 

John Papale, New England Playaz – He had his latest explosion behind the arc, going five for five from three in the first half, mixing in 18 foot step-back jumpers and missing his only shot of the game at the 6 minute mark to finish with 25 points in the quarterfinals. 

Victor Joshua, East Coast Elite – As a team ECE made a collective statement this weekend with depth of talent and several quality wins, Joshua is the leader in the backcourt and proved it again on Sunday as the team’s primary playmaker. 

Michael Lofton, New England Ballas – A slightly undersized post who scored 11 points in the Round of 16 but did his most impressive work on the defensive end where he tallied 4 blocks in just the first half.