By Ruben Alcaraz
Last weekend the famous National Prep School Invitational with 30 of the best preparatory schools of United States and the spanish Canarias Basketball Academy was held at Keaney Gym at the University of Rhode Island. During the event, some european prospects showed his talent but one stood out over the rest, montenegrin Nemanja Djurisic ('92). He played two games for South Kent School (Connecticut) with 10 points and 5 rebounds in the win against St. John’s NW Military Academy (Winsconsin) and impressive 20 points and 13 boards to beat Brehm Prep (Illinois) in an overtime thriller. Djurisic is uncommitted yet, but according to ESPN is considering North Carolina St., East Carolina, Arizona St. and Utah.
Besides Djurisic, other european shined like germans Martin Breunig (’92) and Franz Winkler (’92) that are members of St. John’s NW M.A. Lancers played three games with one win and two losses. In his best game, forward Breunig scored 13 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in the loss against Notre Dame Prep (Massachusetts). His teammate Winkler, a shooting guard, nailed key three’s to beat Wilbraham & Monson (Massachusetts). Breunig received a scholarship offer from Maryland, and here is his last highlight video with NPSI footage (link). Precisely, Notre Dame Prep threw into the ring with two europeans more, serbian Zarko Valjarevic (‘91) and montenegrin Luka Radovic (‘92) that contributed to three impressive wins and no loses. Radovic scored 6 points in 12 minutes against Canarias Basketball Academy (Spain) in his best game of the tournament.
Let’s see other Europeans at NPSI last weekend:
-Lee Academy (Maine) didn’t brought the lithuanian phenomenon Arturas Makovskis (’94) that currently are playing with the varsity team, but they brought the greek center Thanos Thodos (’91) that is a signee of University of California Irvine.
-Young latvian Rudolf Arnicans (’94) played for Brewster Academy (New Hampshire) winning two easy games.
-Lithuanian Osvaldas Gaizauskas (’92) helped Phelps School (Pennsylvania) to beat Vermont Academy (Vermont).
-Princeton Day Academy (Maryland) brought three european prospects, serbian Ljubomir Djokic (’91), czech center Jiri Stariat (’92) and serbian Ivan Arsovski (’92) that won their two games.
-Captain of Wilbraham & Monson Academy (Massachusetts) is the montenegrin floor leader Andrej Pajovic (’92). They lost their only game against St. John’s NW M.A. At beginning of the season, Wilbraham & Monson owned german center Enosch Wolf (’90), currently playing like freshman with Huskies of UConn.
-Maine Central Institute (Maine) have a extensive international roster. Besides promising brazilian center Rafael Maia (’91), dutch Ivan Filipan (’92) and english Adam Thoseby (’91) are significant players for the Huskies. Swiss Timo Kroker (’93) spends more game time at bench than his teammates. They won one of the two games that played at Keaney Gym.
-British brothers Vince Van Nes (’92) and Lucas Van Nes (’93) played for Northfield Mount Hermon (Massachusetts). In the only game for Hoggers, they beat Worcester Academy (Massachusetts) with 2 points and 1 dime of younger brother Lucas. Vince didn’t play. According to ESPN, Vince is considering Fairfield and Florida International to play next season.
-Another montenegrin prospect left good sensations, Aleksandar Dobrovic (’91). The forward of Bridgton Academy (Maine) couldn’t help his team to win neither of two games.
-More Greece power: Kostas Doxakis (’92) played for Summit Christian Academy (Michigan). And his compatriot Sergio Spassof (’93) played for Marianapolis Prep (Connecticut).
Deserve a separate mention the Canarias Basketball Academy. First day lost with his B team against Lee Academy, and beat them later with his A team, that lost the next three games that played at NPSI. With a full roster of europeans, we want to remark point guard Charli Klein (’90) from Netherlands that was the MVP of the only win of CBA, where latvian Harald Karlis (’91) and dutch Kadeem Pantophlet (’90) each scored 15 points. Klein was unstoppable for powerful Notre Dame Prep, and he scored 19 points (7 of 14 FG) and dished 4 dimes. The seven foot czech Marek Soucek (’90) played a good game too in the lost against Notre Dame Prep.
Photo: FIBA Europe / U18MenB LOC Segev HD
