Sha-Business!

New England Recruiting Report | Saturday, March 6th, 2010

The latest chapter in the Lawrence Academy/St. Mark’s rivalry belongs to Lawrence. 
After falling in last year’s semi-finals, Lawrence Academy recaptured the NEPSAC Class C title by knocking off last year’s defending champions. 

After the score was netted at 20 going into halftime, Shabazz Napier took over to start the second but not as you might expect.  Known primarily for his ability to score the ball in a variety of different ways it was Napier’s ability to make plays with the pass that led LA to a 55-43 win. 

With St. Mark’s playing a 2-3 zone, Napier (23 pts) was consistently able to drive the ball into the paint and force the defense to collapse, which exposed plenty of open receivers. 

The primary beneficiary for LA was senior big man Sarkie Ampin who finished a variety of plays around the rim including a powerful dunk plus the foul to put the exclamation point on the victory in the last minute of play.  Ampin finished with 13 points while Dan Giovacchini had 10. 

LA also got it done on the defensive end as they pressured St. Mark’s young backcourt for a variety of steals and other forced turnovers.  Napier, Denzel Brito, and Marcus Grant were relentless on that end of the floor as St. Mark’s wasn’t able to get the ball inside to their primary scorers with anywhere near the type of consistency they needed. 

Nate Lubick did his best given his limited touches, scoring off the dribble as well as with his back to the basket.  Alex Murphy and Melsahn Basabe also had some opportunistic buckets, but ultimately St. Mark’s “big three” simply couldn’t get the numbers of touches they needed for the team to be successful. 

For Lubick, today’s loss ends what has been an absolutely tremendous high school career, filled with honors and accolades in both the high school and travel seasons. 

For Lawrence Academy, the championship was the culmination of what can now officially be called a perfect season after finishing with an unblemished 28-0 record. 

The Class B championship is up next as Tilton and Marianapolis meet for the third consecutive year.  Stay tuned to the New England Recruiting Report for the most up-to-date results.