Redemption Christian wins Gold at Tarkanian Classic

by John Kibbe | Thursday, December 24th, 2015

Despite only having a Western Massachusetts campus for a couple of years, Redemption Chris-tian Academy is already representing New England prep basketball well. Their High School Gold Team won the Championship this past weekend at the prestigious Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas. In doing so, they won five games in four days, highlighted by a 61-49 victory over Lynwood (Los Angeles) in the Gold division final. RCA’s impressive stretch also included vic-tories over Villa Park (CA), Clark and Sierra Vista (NV), and CI Gibson (Bahamas).

They were led by by 6-5 junior shooting guard Chris Duarte, who was named the MVP of the Gold Division. Duarte’s week was highlighted by a 27 point performance versus Villa Park, 17 versus Sierra Vista, and 13 versus Lynwood. His 13 point performance in the final was supplmented by 9 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocks.

Redemption also received strong tournaments from a pair of sophomores in 6-2 guard Joel Bailey and 6-10 Joel Mensah. Bailey was named to the All-Tournament team after finishing with 22 points and 5 assists in the final while Mensah impressed with his combination of size of athleticism. Gary Sylvester, a 6-2 junior guard, also made strong contributions in capturing the championship.

 

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