The Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. shakes up the Student Sports FAB 50 national rankings as No. 1 Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) and No. 2 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) both go down on MLK Monday. Both the Eagles and Oak Hill lose to top 10 ranked teams from Chicago with dominant big men.
Watching Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) this season take down some of the nation’s best teams so far this season, often times in convincing fashion, led us to believe a really good team was going to need to catch the Eagles on a good day in order to take down the No. 1 ranked squad in the Student Sports FAB 50.
Montverde Academy was coming off a big win over No. 3 White Station (Memphis) at the Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions on Saturday night in Springfield, Mo. and had a tough MLK Day foe in No. 6 Curie (Chicago).
The Condors caught Montverde Academy on the correct day to perhaps pull off an upset. Afterall, Montverde Academy was traveling to the Hoophall Classic at Blake Arena in Springfield, Mass. and on the same Monday last season, the Eagles lost their second straight game on a buzzer-beating shot.
This year, it wasn’t travel fatigue or a last second buzzer beater that did in Montverde Academy. It was a special individual performance that will go down as one of the signature performances of the 2013-14 season that was necessary to snap the Eagles’ 23-game winning streak.
Down double digits midway through the fourth quarter, Cliff Alexander wouldn’t be denied as he led his once-beaten Curie club to a 73-69 victory. Alexander, a 6-foot-9 power forward headed for Kansas, finished the game with 30 points, 12 rebounds, five blocks and two steals. It wasn’t so much his points that took down the nation’s top-ranked and most talented team, it was the sheer force of his presence underneath that on this day Montverde wasn’t able to handle.
Ohio State commit D’Angelo Russell (team-high 17 points) hit a jumper at the third quarter buzzer to give Montverde Academy (18-1) a 55-47 lead. Junior forward Ben Simmons also hit double figures with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Russell had 11 points in the third period, but in the final period is when Alexander simply took over.
Curie (16-1) tied the game at 62-62 on three straight baskets by Alexander. The Concors’ center had back-to-back rim-rattling dunks in which no Montverde player could either challenge him up top or would challenge him on the block. On a couple of put backs down the stretch, Alexander relaxed until his teammates shot went up and literally moved players out of the way for the offensive rebound and flush.
Guard Joseph Stamps also came up big for Curie. He gave his team a 64-62 lead on a jumper with three minutes to go. With 27 seconds remaining, his acrobatic lay-up gave Curie a 71-66 lead and basically sealed the win.
Alexander had 24 points and 10 rebounds in the second half and also came up big at the free throw line, making all eight of his shots. It will be his dominance on the block, however, that fans — and national rankings compilers — will remember for quite some time.
Alexander was No. 2 in the lastest Mr. Basketball USA Tracker behind guard Emmanuel Mudiay of Prime Prep (Fort Worth, Texas) and is ranked the No. 3 prospect in the Hoop Scoop Top 100 for the Class of 2014.
It’s going to be awfully hard for any credible scouting service to deny him the top spot in the next player rankings shuffle.
No. 7 Whitney Young (Chicago) 53, No. 2 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) 50
A game before the Curie Montverde Academy showdown at the Hoophall Classic, another team from Chicago with one of the nation’s best big men upset a team with national title aspirations. In this case, the circumstances of the upset win by the Windy City Club was quite different.
Whitney Young didn’t get a dominant performance from center Jahlil Okafor, last year’s Student Sports Junior Player of the Year. Georgetown bound forward Paul White and two other starters (Miles Reynolds, Rodney Herenton) stepped up and played 32 minutes to pick up the slack.
Oak Hill Academy (23-2) couldn’t overcome shooting woes in dropping its second game of the year. The Warriors shot 30.5 percent (18-of-59) from the field and made only 4-of-17 3-point shots. Oak Hill began the game missing its first 10 shots from the field.
Whitney Young (12-4) led 18-12 after one quarter, as White had 13 points for the Dolphins.
Oak Hill led 29-28 at halftime, as point guard Terrence Phillips (eight points, nine assists) hit a short jumper with two seconds remaining in the second quarter.
With 5:40 remaining in the third period, Okafor picked up two personal fouls within 20 seconds and Oak Hill leading 33-28. Junior Trevor Manuel (seven points) had an emphatic fast break dunk to make it 40-32 at the end of the third quarter in favor of the Warriors.
With Okafor on the bench, the Dolphins went on a 12-2 run highlighted by the play of White. With 2:37 remaining in the game, two free throws by White gave Whitney Young a 47-46 lead. With 1:13 remaining, White then drove to the basket, finished with a foul and made the free throw to give his team a 51-48 lead. With the game in the balance, White found Okafor for a dunk with 25.4 seconds remaining to give his team a 53-50 advantage.
With 14.7 seconds left Okafor missed two free throws, but Caleb Martin (nine points) missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer from the top of the key and twin brother Cody Martin (nine points) couldn’t get a clean look to end the game.
B.J. Stith was Oak Hill’s only double-digit scorer with 11 points.
White had a big game with 19 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. Okafor finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds. He missed five of his seven free throws.
“Paul White played like an All-American today,” Whitney Young coach Tyrone Slaughter said. “Miles Reynolds (13 points) also came on down the stretch.”
No. 16 Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) 73, Wesleyan Christian Academy (High Point, N.C.) 43
The Pilots totally overwhelmed Wesleyan Christian (13-7) in the second half after North Carolina commit and McDonald’s All-American candidate Theo Pinson kept his team in the game in the first half.
Findlay Prep led 37-33 at halftime as Pinson had 18 points, but Findlay Prep (21-3) closed out the third period on a 13-2 run to take a 52-38 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The score was 71-38 (making it a 22-2 run) before Wesleyan Christian Academy hit a 3-pointer with 1:30 left in the game. WCA scored five points in the final period.
Kansas recruit Kelly Oubre led Findlay Prep with 23 pts, making nine-of-15 field goal attempts. He also had five rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Unsigned senior Rashad Vaughn also hit double figures for the Pilots (12 points) in his first game in a month. Sophomore point guard Derryck Thornton Jr. contributed 10 assists.
Pinson finished with 23 points (8-of-18 from the field), but he had to handle the ball much too often for his team to win the game against an opponent the caliber of Findlay Prep.
So Who’s No. 1?
With the nation’s top two ranked clubs losing on Monday, and with No. 1 Montverde Academy defeating No. 3 White Station on Monday, there will be a new top-ranked club in the new Student Sports FAB 50 rankings published Tuesday evening.
No. 4 Rainier Beach not only won its game at the Hoophall Classic on Saturday, the Vikings returned to Seattle and defeated O’Dea (Seattle) 83-62 at the Unity in the Community Hoop Showcase at Garfield High School. Washington commit David Crisp had another big game for Rainier Beach with 24 points. Rainier Beach also owns a December victory over No. 7 Whitney Young, which will obviously move up in the next rankings but can’t be ahead of the Vikings because of the head-to-head result.
No. 5 Mater Dei (Santa Ana) won its MLK day game at the Hoophall Classic, defeating No. 25 Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia), 79-67.
Of course, there is also No. 6 Curie, which just knocked off the previous No. 1 club and deserves serious consideration. Curie does have one loss, but it comes with a big asterisk. It came in a road game in Michigan in which Alexander did not play. At some point in the post-season, Curie will likely run into No. 7 Whitney Young.
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