Eurohopes collaborator Antonio Gil sent us his recap of the Jordan Brand Classic. Gil followed on live the best world prospects at the Madison Square Garden of New York. Let's check what he saw.
Regional Game
The top city and suburban players in NYC showed to The Garden that New York got future. The game started with both teams trading baskets, but then the Suburban squad took a small lead, with South Kent and J.J. Moore leading the action. The City team worked hard and came back to tie the game in the middle of the first half.
The second half was almost as close as the first one. The City kids and the Suburban boys went hard to the rim and tried to kill from the three point line, but the score was 131-130 with 1 minute left. Finally, a couple of good defensive plays of the Suburban team got them the W (137-133).
Marcus Henderson and Mike Alvarado put the show, but the most notables players were Derrick Williams (19 points and 9 rebounds), J.J. Moore (26 points), Fuquan Edwin (26 points and 5 rebounds), Ryan Rhoomes (26 points and 10 rebounds) and Kadeem Jack (21 points). The MVP honors were for Derrick Williams (St. Anthony High School) and Ryan Rhoomes (Cardozo High School).
International Game
The second game of the night was a showcase of players from ten different countries in the World. The top 15-16 years old International guys played another tough game, with some NBA potential in the stage. Both teams put their A game in the court and they arrive in the last minutes with the score almost tie. The White Team was leading the game 72-71, and the Canadian guard Duane Notice stole a ball with 4 seconds to the buzzer and gave the win to his team, finishing the action with a monster (out of time) slam dunk.
The MVP honors were for Duane Notice (23 points and 8 rebounds) and the German guard Malik Muller (21 points and 5 rebounds). Other top players were the Puerto Rican flashy guard Carmelo Betancourt (14 points and 5 dimes), the Canadian forward Anthony Bennett (13 points and 7 rebounds) and the Lithuanian center Augustinas Jankautis (16 points and 13 rebounds).
National Game
The main event of the night had the best senior high school players of the country trying to show what are they going to do next season on college. Brandon Night and Josh Selby showed why they are two of the most skilled guards in USA, and made the oohs and the aahs in The Garden. Also Selby announced that he will sing with Kansas next season and a part of the crowd went crazy.
West Team took the lead soon and they put the score in 31-17 in the first 10 minutes of the game. But C.J. Leslie and Knight put the East in their shoulders and tried to come back… without success. West finished the first half up 75-56, with Harrison Barnes leading the team.
The player to follow in the second half was Duke’s Kyrie Irving. His court vision and ball handling made differences in the game, and East Team started to come back truly. The score was closer (88-77) with 14 minutes left and there was a new game in MSG. The east boys played defense and kept pushing to win a game that finally they couldn’t.
Harrison Barnes went to the rim in almost each opportunity that he got and kept scoring easy. Finally, the West won a close game (129-125) that put everybody on their feet in the last minute, when East tried hard to get a W.
Barnes (20 points and 15 rebounds) and Irving (22 points and 7 dimes) were named MVPs of the game. Other notable players were Tristan Thompson (19 points and 13 rebounds), Josh Selby (21 points), Terrence Jones (17 points and 9 rebounds), Jared Sullinger (20 points and 7 rebounds), C.J. Leslie (19 points) and DeShaun Thomas (14 points and 10 rebounds).
