Waynes Word on Hoop

Waynesword on Hoop—December, Part 2

CBA’s New Regime Comes To North Troy…Dec. 7, ‘07

Even though Christian Brothers Academy of Albany finally (& narrowly) lost their Section 2 AA Crown last March, I don’t know any knowledgeable fan of local hoop who doubts their prowess at staying at or near the top of the Big 10—which means being predominant among most, if not all, Section 2 teams.

True, they finally graduated two of their excellent 3-year starters— 6’8” Greg Holle (off to college at TCU, for baseball), and 6’4” clutch shooter Luke Weaver—plus two more sharp-shooting guards, John Cahill and Joe Zappone. But others always wait in the wings in the Brothers’ scheme of things, and two players in particular awaited their chance at stardom after serving their time as key role players for prior Championship teams.

I’m talking about DeAndre Kennedy-Ebron, whom I described as the Charles Barkley of the Big 10 last year, and Malcolm Austin, who was essentially CBA’s sixth man sparkplug during their last campaign—good for a couple of steals and buckets each time he came in a game.

DeAndre was often a difference maker last year, playing as a 6’2” or 6’3” power forward who posed match-up problems when the biggest opponents had to focus on Holle. He is solid, strong, mobile, and more agile on spin moves than you want to believe, and few dudes around here want to stand in his way.

But Malcolm is the prime performer for CBA this year—and is capable of being the best player in the area on a given night. He was certainly all of that in the game I saw, and others agreed with me. Anyone who hits 40 points in a fully competitive game—that speaks for itself. But the way he did it was impressive—all within the flow of the offense, never forcing a shot, hitting a high percentage, a mix of threes, drives, mid-range pull-up jumpers, and punctuated his night with a final dunk for emphasis. He went to the line 21 times, and hit 16. DeAndre added 10 of 12 on free throws, so between them, 26 of their 64 points were from the line. Add the 14 points of James Mantas and there were 78 of their team’s 89 points. CBA won over CCHS at their place, 89-73. As of late December, with the boost provided by that 40 point outburst, Austin was leading the Big 10 in average scoring at just over 20 per game.

(As a statistical aside: Devin Grimes and Jordan Gettings of Catholic Central were right behind him at 19.8 and 19.2 respectively, but Grimes’ average would be over 20 if two Tip-Off Tourney games were included in the T-U HS Hoop page—he had 50 in those first two games. Next is Isaiah Duke of Albany High at 19.1; DeAndre at 18.8 is fifth in the league as of late December; then Bishop Gibbons teammates Zach O’Brien (18.1) and junior Brian Hamor (17.4). In all of Section 2, that means there are 7 Big Ten players so far in the top 22 of the scoring average list, as related on the Times-Union webpage. Last season, only Talor Battle of Maginn, and Greg Holle of CBA were ranked that high.)

Two weeks later, CBA finally lost a regular season game to Bishop Maginn, 54-45, in a more defensive battle. It was the first loss they’d had in the Big 10 in almost two full years. As in the past two years, anytime those teams do battle, it is the pre-eminent hoop entertainment in the area. Stay tuned.

Bishop Maginn at Bishop Gibbons, 12/18/07

On a Tuesday the week before Christmas, however, the best game in Section 2 was in Schenectady, at Notre Dame/ Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady.

Gibbons was picked to be third in the Big 10 in some pre-season polls, though others thought Catholic Central would be in that position. Gibbons had the advantage of playing Maginn at home in the first meeting of the year, and their home crowd, while not overflowing, was deafening. Something about the echoing acoustics of that gym, makes it the loudest I can remember sitting in.

Gibbons rode that crowd momentum for all it was worth.
Their team was highly regarded because three of their four highest scorers from last year were back, seniors Zach O’Brien (a CBA transfer a year ago) and Avery Mitchell, plus junior Brian Hamor, who’s been starting since he was a skinny freshman on an undermanned team. One of the players who graduated from that 3rd place team last year, however, was clever point guard Brenton Horne, and in this game the loss of his ballhandling and stamina would be felt, toward the end.

The first quarter was played even—ending at 17-17. The surprise for ND-BG was Joe Gallagher, the fourth returning scorer from last year, and a 12.9 scorer so far this year. The lefty hit an early 3 and had an inside 3-pt play as well. O’Brien also hit an early swish from 3, and Chris Buskey off the bench contributed another late in the quarter. For Maginn, Taran Buie was 0-4 in the first stanza, though he had 2 steals and a dish. Shimeek Johnson hit for 9 pts however, and Terron Victoria had a couple of sweet moves for 4. The second quarter is when BG had their crowd-fueled spurt, and began to believe they could win—Zach O’Brien led the charge, and impressed me the whole game. He hit another 3, two deuces, grabbed 4 rebounds in the quarter, had a steal and a dime as well. Hamor had three hoops on nice drives, and Avery Mitchell calmed down and finished the half with 5 quick points. They went to the locker room ahead 37-31 on the reigning AA champs, who looked grim and pissed off as they stalked off to the locker room. Without Shimeek’s 14 1st half points, it would’ve been worse.

The difference for Maginn in the 22-12 surge they rode in the third quarter was James Torres, a powerful inside force off the bench for the Griffins. Exploiting Gibbons’ lack of inside depth once Nick Sarchioto picked up his 4th foul and sat down, Torres hit ten points including two 3-pt muscle plays, and Shimeek moved outside to hit one of his first threes of the year, and Maginn was up 53-49 by the end of that period.

The fourth quarter seemed inevitable—without bench depth or anyone who wanted to handle the ball against the press other than O’Brien (also their best big man), Gibbons ran out of gas and faded in the stretch. Gallagher had three hoops, Hamor a couple of nice dishes, and Buskey had two steals, but it wasn’t enough as they lost by 10, 73-63. O’Brien missed two deep threes at the end, and went down with a bad ankle after the last one. His effort was inspiring and gallant, as was Mitchell’s with 15 points, Gallagher with 14, and Hamor with 13. For Maginn, Buie ended up with 14 even with only 6 for 19 shooting, Victoria had 10, and James Torres 12.

Overall, the lack of a match-up defender with 6’7” Shimeek Johnson was the difference, as he scored the quietest 28 points you’ve ever seen, on 9 of 14 shooting, and 9 of 10 from the free throw line. As luck would have it, I was sitting nearby a well-dressed, professional-looking observer who turned out to be the assistant coach from Central Connecticut State—a guy named Steve Curran-- who helped recruit Shimeek to that D-1 school over in New Haven. When I asked what his interest was in showing up for an early season league game when the Maginn star forward had already signed a letter-of-intent for his school, he laughed and said, “You still have to show a kid some love…” He admitted he had not seen Shimeek stroke a successful 3-ball up till that night, and then saw him hit one shortly thereafter. Once an assistant coach at Siena in the brief Rob Lanier era, he seemed very familiar with the Capital District hoop scene, and knew many local coaches. He seemed like a great student of the game, and the more D-1 coaches taking notes at local games, the better, I’d say. Keep your eye on that program once Shimeek is there, or before—they are playing against UAlbany in the near future, I believe.

This 10 point win was the closest margin Maginn had experienced in Section 2 this year (their only loss so far coming at the hands of a Section 3 powerhouse up at a cold Glens Falls gym), until they beat CBA by 9 three days later.It’s somehow reassuring that they are not necessarily going to beat every other team in the Big 10 by 20 or 30 or more, though that is always a possibility.

Post Script Hoop Notes:

As of that night, I believed that Bishop Gibbons was indeed the third best team in the Big 10, and by definition, easily the best team in the Class A division of Section 2. But as of the post-holiday weekend when I’m catching up on my hoop writing…they have just suffered a close loss to Mohonasen, a Suburban Council A team with a 1-5 league record, 4-5 overall.

CBA just barely got past Guilderland, 63-59, in a Tournament game at Columbia High, albeit playing without Malcolm Austin. DeAndre Kennedy-Ebron responded with 24 points, and Brett Marfut scored near his average with 21 for the Dutchmen. That makes Guilderland the only Suburban team to have tested themselves against both Maginn and CBA in the month of December. The only losses they have in a 7-2 season so far are to the two best teams in the area.

Catholic Central won the opening game of the Troy High Christmas Tournament against what may be the second best Suburban Council team, Colonie High, also by a close 64-59 score. That was a great head-to-head match-up of two former Maginn guards (as sophs): Tashan Newsome of Colonie going against Jordan Gettings of CCHS. The played each other fairly even, with Gettings having a great first half (16 pts.) and Tashan a pretty good one too (13 pts.). Gettings hit a big three just before the half that proved to be important. Newsome just missed a three at the end with under ten seconds left that would’ve tied it; that’s how close the game was.

But the even bigger battle late in that game was watching junior Herb Tedford go against senior Devin Grimes.
Frankly, Tedford won the personal match-up with 24 points, but picked up 3 quick fouls late in the game and Grimes went to the line 8 or 9 times in the 4th quarter to contribute to his 16 points in the second half, and 19 overall. Tedford’s third foul looked to the Colonie crowd like a clean block up at the rim, and he bellowed in disbelief when the call was made. I was blocked on the view of the play, but will say that the game seemed to turn on that call. After a season or two of seeing foul calls go the other way, it seemed appropriate that Grimes got the benefit of a big whistle for a change. Also big at the end of that game was the play of junior Gerard Jacques for CCHS—he had two huge blocks, 3 or 4 rebounds in traffic, and hit the foul shot that pushed Catholic High ahead for the final time, breaking a 59-59 tie. Look for him to play a bigger role for this team as the season goes on, even though he is coming off the bench at this point. Kudos to Herb Tedford for his game as well—he definitely looked like one of the area’s 10 best players for the majority of this contest, and is likely to be a force in Sectional play for Colonie later this winter.

Meanwhile, like Guilderland, CCHS has a 7-2 overall record, with losses only to Maginn and CBA. They also have won two Tournaments, their own early season Tourney and that recent Troy Tournament, for a 4-0 record in non-league play.

Host team Troy High, however, lost both games in its own Tournament to Suburban Council teams. Surprisingly, they fell to previously winless Ballston Spa in a high scoring fest, 77-73, in the opening round on December 28th. In that game, junior forward Cody Robinson looked like a superstar, scoring 23 in the first half alone, and 44 overall, for the Scotties in the unlikely win. His previous career high was 20, when Ballston Spa lost a close game to Saratoga Springs earlier in the month. The next night he had only 8 points against CCHS in a lopsided Championship game—Ballston Spa lost that one by 31 points.

Troy High then proceeded to play Colonie very tough the next night, losing a close one, by 60-57. Donovan Johnson, a junior leaper for Troy, matched Tashan Newsome’s 27 points, but he did not have quite enough help, and Troy fell to 3-6 overall, losing their last five. So they lost to winless Ballston Spa by four, but they only lost to a multi-talented Bishop Gibbons by three, 69-66, so it shows how unpredictable comparative outcomes can be.

Colonie has only lost to Guilderland in the league, and to CCHS in this tourney, for a 7-2 record overall, 4-1 in the Suburban.

Speaking of Saratoga Springs, they lost by 27 points in the Championship game of the Hilliard Tourney in Schenectady to the host Patriots, 79-52. They are now 4-5 overall after a stellar season last year, now 2-3 in the Suburban.

Schenectady High had just beaten Niskayuna the night before by 14, and I feel they are a team that is getting stronger as the year goes on. Even though they have no single scorer in the area’s Top 100, they have at least 10 guys on their roster who can contribute points, and a lot of team athleticism which may prove to improve their winning habits as the season goes on. There are always new challenges developing in basketball, and especially in the upper echelons and big school leagues.

Speaking of which, let’s give Albany Academy’s ambitious new coach Brian Fruscio tons of credit for taking on something of a national challenge by booking his team in the so-called Houston vs. The Nation Tournament which took place the same final weekend of 2007 as I attempt to finish this recent re-cap. From the stats and game summaries on the Times Union webpage (noted below), it seemed that slashing, mature-soph guard Jamel Fields put up the best showing out there in Texas. Even though they got beat decisively in two games, Fruscio gave his players a taste of ultra-serious competition that will likely lift their confidence in the 2008 portion of the Class A season, both locally, and perhaps, regionally. To quote Kanye West again, without beating the point to death; Th-the-That that don’t kill me/ only makes me stronger…. A savvy quote like that applies to competition in business, in life, and def’nitely in Hoop.

And this gets you, hoop reader, as up-to-date as I can be at the climax of 2007, with a week to get through before the next high school game to attend. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to devote to writing this column of observations in the next couple of months, but I’ll do my best to update this site as I can.

Meanwhile, for those of you who haven’t discovered it yet, there is a great blog by an energetic young guy named Kevin Whittaker on the www.timesunion.com website, under Sports and then Boy’s Basketball. There are excellent stats and standings and fairly complete scheduling information for all scholastic games on the webpage there as well. The “Comments” section on the Fan In Motion page represents some interesting viewpoints and insights into local games and personalities of those involved.

For local next-day reporting in actual newsprint, I still think The Daily Gazette out of Schenectady is the best local paper for hoop reporting, with the T-U and the Troy Record also interesting at times, though not as detailed as the Gazette. During late-season Sectionals, State Championships, and the Federation Tournament, however, all focus shifts to the Glens Falls Post Star for the most complete coverage.

I admittedly only follow Class AA and some Class A ball, as I just don’t have time to see much else, and I remain selective about the quality of the games I watch. If that makes me an urban hoop snob, I half-heartedly apologize, but I prefer the word connoisseur.

Catch you in 2008.

*Copyright Wayne Perras 2007

Second Posting Sunday, December 30, 2007

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WaynesWord on Hoop, Late 2007

The Maginn Machine, & The CBA Regime: a Brutal 1-2 Punch
(A belated blog on the Big 10 Scene…from a fan & interested observer)

THE MAGINN MACHINE BEGINS…

Back on December 4th the Big 10 League games started in a big bad way, with an away game for Catholic Central HS at the gym of newly crowned Section 2 AA Schools Champion Bishop Maginn.

After beating CBA for the Big School title at the Times Union Center last March, Maginn had lost its famous fearless leader Talor Battle (who is starting now at Penn State as a freshman), but had reloaded in other ways. Get this—the best player on LaSalle’s Varsity last year, Khaliq Gross—the third highest returning scorer in the Big 10 (after CCHS’s tandem of Devin Grimes and Jordan Gettings)--transfers to Bishop Maginn, and does not crack their starting line-up. He becomes likely the best sixth man in the league automatically, and will still be the 3rd or 4th leading scorer on that team by year’s end, no doubt. But he has already learned to defer to Talor Battle’s younger half-brother, Taran Buie, a true sophomore who now leads the team. After Maginn beat a strong CCHS team by a score of 77-57 that first night of league play, Gross was quoted in the T-U as saying something to the effect of “Taran is the spark that lights our fire…” which shows the respect Buie has from the upperclassmen in that vaunted program.

T. Buie showed why, within the first quarter of their first home game. Their Varsity squad comes running out on the floor to a nasty tribal rap beat thundering thru the sound system, an awesome spectacle for a Tuesday night game in upstate NY. The crowd is nearly full and hopping right from the start this year, what with last season’s success etched in their minds. They rocked like it was an urban hoe-down, making a far more raucous ruckus than I’ve seen at any other Big 10 gyms since the days of Jason MacKrieth and Rashaun Freeman at Schenectady 6 or 7 seven years ago. Schenectady High still has the hippest cheerleaders in the Big 10 (and thus all of Section 2), but Maginn now unofficially has the baddest, loudest fans…at least in their own gym.

Having seen Taran in AAU action in previous years, I knew he almost always scores within the first minute. I asked my wife how long she thought it would take for him to rack up some points, and the answer was: 14 seconds. He broke out of a trap in the deep right corner and slipped baseline, was fouled, and converted 2. Hits a deep three cleanly a minute later on his first long attempt. On defense he had a steal or two with lots of harassment out front, misses a thunderous dunk off one break, and the crowd cheers him madly, knowing there will be other such opportunities to come. They are right. He tomahawks one down about halfway thru the quarter, and hits another right wing 3 right after that. He finishes with 12 of the team’s 22 in the first stanza, and could’ve had 16 if two of his dunks didn’t bounce out.

But he’s not a one-man team either. Shimeek Johnson showed slinky athleticism with putbacks and a slam of his own off a baseline move on an out-of-bounds play. He has just accepted a D-1 Scholarship to Central Connecticut State University, and will be a well-adjusted senior as a result, it seems. He had three straight buckets at one point, and had 10 by halftime. Terron Victoria is one of the team’s leading rebounders as a 5’9” small forward, picks his spots as a shooter, and is deadly as a f/t shooter, hitting all four of his early attempts in this game. Bunduka Kargbo is the slashing point guard, built like the D-1 football prospect he might be, and tough as nails. He had two spinning dishes for dimes in the first period, and a couple of driving hoops of his own in the first half. Antonio Davis was the fifth starter, an interior defender with some size and bulk, though he got in early foul trouble covering Devin Grimes that night, and sat early. When Maginn went small, subbing in Khaliq Gross early, they still swarmed the boards, and their press was even faster. Gross had 5 first half points. When they went bigger, Raja Johnson, one of the older, taller (6’5”) sophs in the area, converted a 3 point play of his own. They go at least 9 deep in a normal game, with James Torres a beast off the bench, and T.J. Jefferson, another sharpshooter, getting minutes as needed…but they didn’t even need those two in the scoring column to end up with a 43-24 lead over CCHS at the half of that first game.

It wasn’t like CCHS was a weak team, either—the same team was essentially back from a squad that had taken Battle’s Section 2 champs to overtime in the final league game of last season, as I’ve reported before. They were coming off two impressive Tournament wins, a 32 point blowout of Schuylerville, and a convincing win over Nazareth of Staten Island. CCHS overcame 6 early turnovers against Maginn’s pressure to play almost even in the 2nd quarter (19-16), and still ended up down by 19 (43-24) at the break. Grimes had 10 with a sweet 3-ball and some inside spins, while point guard Gettings absorbed a Big 10 pounding on his drives, but hit 7 of 8 from the line, plus a contested hoop in traffic for 9 at the half. Gerard Jacques—a tough junior forward—fought inside for a bucket and a free throw, and quarterback Chris Bouchard hit two free throws. Speedy defender Zay’Quan Dupree had a couple rebounds, 2 steals of his own, and a dish. They did end up playing Maginn almost perfectly even in the second half, yet ended up on the short end of a 77-57 score.

Buie ended up with 27 that night, including four 3’s, which as others have pointed out, is the most improved part of his game. Khaliq Gross and Shimeek Johnson each had 14. Jordan Gettings hit 13 of 16 from the line to end up with 22 points for CCHS, while Devin Grimes kicked in 18 hard-fought digits, and lanky Gerard Jacques contributed 11. The next time they meet, at the CCHS gym, it will be interesting to see if Maginn is still undefeated. They have to play CBA and a strong Bishop Gibbons team before then.

After some of Maginn’s subsequent destructions of other Big 10 teams, a 20 point deficit didn’t seem so bad. (Note: they beat Albany by 60 and Schenectady by 30, and earlier had beaten downstate’s Kingston by 34 points. The Guilderland High team, considered at this stage of the season as the best team in the Suburban Council, played Maginn within 15, 74-59… so kudos to that experienced, talented squad as well.)

Then came the unexpected news that Bishop Maginn had gone up to an almost empty Glens Falls Civic Center on December 8th, only to lose to a great Class A team from Jamesville-Dewitt in a Coaches-Vs.-Cancer match-up that was NOT well-publicized, and drew meager crowds. The fact that they had been behind much of the game and never quite caught up I guessed to be due to the lack of crowd support and excitement in the stands. A team like that thrives on emotion, and in a cold, neutral, quiet environment they will perhaps be vulnerable—but those events and venues will be rare. Next time they appear in Glens Falls, whether this year or next—it seems almost inevitable—I believe there will be a bit more of a ruckus goin’ on in their behalf.

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(Next Episode—Stay Tuned…)

THREE NIGHTS LATER, FACING THE NEW CBA REGIME…

Page Posted Monday, December 17, 2007