The Dick’s Nationals tournament kicked off on Thursday at Christ The King High School in New York and even though some higher seeds were knocked off, none of the results were considered big upsets. Findlay Prep will face Oak Hill Academy and Huntington St. Joseph Prep will face Montverde Academy in Friday’s semifinals.
Related: Dick’s National Semifinal Analysis | Dick’s Nationals Team & Individual Records | No. 1 Seed Montverde Academy | No. 2 Seed Rainier Beach | No. 3 Seed Northside Christian Academy | No. 4 Huntington-St. Joseph Prep | No. 6 Seed Oak Hill Academy | No. 7 Seed Findlay Prep | No. 8 Seed The Sagemont School | Dick’s Nationals Field Set
Huntington St. Joseph Prep (Huntington, W.Va.) 65, No. 11 La Lumiere (La Porte, Ind.) 63
(No. 4 vs. No. 5 seed)
In a nip-and-tuck affair, Huntington got the last good shot — and got the win — when Jaquan Lyle nailed a contested 3-pointer from the left wing with three seconds remaining to give the Irish a two-point victory in their first ever game in this tournament. La Lumiere (23-3) has now lost in the quarterfinals for the third consecutive season.
La Lumiere’s Jalen Coleman hit a 3-pointer with 13 seconds to give the Lakers a 63-62 lead. Huntington (28-4) jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead and led 15-5 before La Lumiere battled back.
Lyle was 1-of-7 from the field and and 0-of-4 from 3-point range before hitting the game-winner. Lyle was one of four players in double-figures for Huntington with 11 points. Gatorade State Player of the Year Montaque Gil-Ceasar led the way with 20 points while junior post Thomas Bryant added 14 points and eight rebounds. Jalen Lindsey added 11 points for Huntington.
Coleman led La Lumiere with 16 points. Sam Longwood netted 14 points while Alex Olesinski had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
No. 6 Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) 69, No. 4 Northside Christian Academy (Charlotte, N.C.) 60
(No. 6 vs. No. 3 seed)
The Warriors’ size proved to be too much for Northside Christian Academy (28-2) to handle, as Oak Hill got plenty of easy transition buckets and shot the 3-point field goal well. Oak Hill Academy (40-3) shot 52 percent (28-of-54) and 43 percent (6-of-14) from 3-point range while NCA shot only 33 percent (19-of-58) from the field.
NCA couldn’t slow down twin brothers and N.C. State commits Caleb and Cody Martin, who combined for 35 points and 14 rebounds. Caleb scored a team-high 18 points and had a thunderous one-handed dunk in transition in the final minute to put an exclamation point on the win for Oak Hill, which will take on Findlay Prep in a Friday semifinal (2:30 pm ET, ESPN2).
Desean Murray led NCA with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting. Keyshawn Woods was Northside Christian Academy’s other double digit scorer with 15 points, but he made only 4-of-17 field goal attempts. NCA’s only loss during the regular season was against Student Sports FAB 50 No. 1 and top seed Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.).
No. 14 Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) 67, No. 2 Rainier Beach (Seattle) 59
(No. 7 vs. No. 2 seed)
Rainier Beach was extremely motivated to put on a good performance as the event’s only public school team and one of three teams in serious contention for the mythical national title. The other two in contention are top-ranked Montverde Academy and No. 3 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.), which is not participating in the Dick’s Nationals.
Findlay Prep was also highly-motivated, albeit for a different reason. The Pilots had an up-and-down regular season, had its two best players play in the McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago on Wednesday night and only had seven dressed players. With its backs against the wall, Findlay Prep (31-4) responded with arguably its best performance of the season to hand the No. 2 seed its first loss and knock them from national title contention.
Rainier Beach (29-1) couldn’t stop Arizona-bound Craig Victor nor Kansas-bound Kelly Oubre Jr. on the boards and simply didn’t shoot well enough to play at its normal tempo. The Vikings wanted to score in the 90s or even triple digits, but scored only seven points in the first quarter and shot 31 percent (24-of-78) for the game.
A dunk by Victor (23 points, 11 rebounds) with 4:21 left in the third period gave Findlay Prep a double digit lead. Its lead got up to 14 points, but Rainier Beach battled back to get within 50-48 before a turnover by the Vikings’ Shaqquan Aaron with 1:30 to go led to a Oubre Jr. dunk that made the score 62-54 and essentially sealed the Pilots’ victory.
Oubre, who played in the McDonald’s Game on Wednesday, finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Rashad Vaughn, another McDonald’s All-American, added 14 points for Findlay Prep.
Aaron finished with 12 points on 5-of-19 shooting. De’Jounte Murray led Rainier Beach with 19 points and added nine rebounds and three steals.
No. 1 Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) 81, No. 7 The Sagemont School (Weston, Fla.) 63
(No. 1 vs. No. 8 seed)
The nation’s top-ranked team in the Student Sports FAB 50 had no trouble with a tall and talented team that came into the tournament unbeaten. Sagemont (33-1) hung with the Eagles for a quarter, trailing 20-15 after eight minutes. In the second quarter Montverde Academy (25-1*) took control with a 30-11 advantage and were never threatened the rest of the way.
Ben Simmons, a Mr. Basketball USA candidate as a junior, displayed his all-around game with good shooting, passing, and running the floor. The LSU commit finished with 25 points and 16 rebounds. McDonald’s All-American D’Angelo Russell chipped in 11 points while Makinde London nailed 3-pointers en route to 13 points.
UConn commit Prince Ali led Sagemont with 25 points.
Montverde Academy will face Huntington Prep in a Friday semifinal (4:30 pm ET, ESPN2).
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