By Ruben Alcaraz
February is the time for National Prep Showcase Invitational that arrived at 14th edition this year. On Groundhog Day started this crazy four days after game between best preps teams of United States, Canada and Spain. Some Europeans prospects took part on the event and well known Canarias Basketball Academy (Spain) -at the pic- met a lot of scouts, recruiters and college coaches. Most impressive European was Latvian Oskars Reinfelds (’94), from CBA, that was included on the All Tournament Team. CBA played four games in four days winning a pair of them. Reinfelds was named Player of the game against New Hampton (New Hampshire) helping his team to win in an overtime thriller (84-77) behind 19 points and some key baskets. In the loss (56-40) against Bridgton Academy (Maine) the Latvian sensation scored 13 points with 4 threes. Reinfelds was not the only ‘Spaniard’ that shined in CBA. Dutch Shane Hammink (’94) was named Player of the game scoring 20 points to beat NIA Prep (New Jersey) in the opener. Latvian forward Aleksejs Rostov (’92) was either impressive with 12 points and 8 rebounds in the same game while Slovakian center Boris Bojanovsky (’93) was a wall grabbing 11 boards and blocking 4 shots.
Other Latvians who outstanding at NPSI were Arturs Bremers (’92) and Arturs Vitins (’92) from Westwind Prep (Arizona). Bremers scored 23 points including 6 three-pointers to edge Maine Central Institute (73-72).
We cannot forget William Howard (’93). French wing helped New Hope Academy (Maryland) in a tremendous effort of four games in four days to win two games, especially last one of the weekend against Worcester Academy (Massachusetts) with 28 points (78-74).
Lithuanian center Laimonas Chatkevicius (’93) showed his skills to help South Kent School (Connecticut) to win both games. Chatkevicius scored 15 points against NIA Prep.
Let’s see other European prospects that took part at NPSI:
-Lee Academy (Maine) brought some European flavour with Croatian Andrija Naglic (’93), Lithuanian Arturas Makovskis (’94), French Baila Sow (’92), Czech Jiri Kaspar (’91) and English Barry Webster (’92) to win both contests.
-Brewster Academy (New Hampshire) brought Latvian Rudolf Arnicans (’94) to beat St. John NW Military Academy (Wisconsin) and continue their perfect season.
-Wilbraham & Monson (Massachusetts) brought German Maodo Lô (’93) and Spaniard Alex Ramon (’93).
-La Jolla Prep (California) cannot dispose of Serbian Strahinja Gavrilovic (’93) in all the games but they brought Lithuanian Povalis Dambrauskas (’93) and Latvian Ronalds Elksnis (’94) to help, but they lost all their three games.
-Phelps School (Pennsylvania) have some European on their roster like guard Bounda Ndiaye (’92) from Norway, Michailas Bedulskis (’92) from Lithuania, Spaniard Daniel Busto (’92) and Swedish Jakob Batycki (’91). Bedulskis is averaging 11.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game this season according to school website. They lost both games at NPSI.
-Another team from Pennsylvania is Mont Clare Academy. They brought a pair of Serbians: Ivan Grcic (’94) and Luka Samardzic (’94).
-Winchendon School (Massachusetts) played with the elder brother of Maltese Falzons: Tevin Falzon (’92).
-Marianapolis Prep (Connecticut) lost their only game of the tournament against St. John NWMA. They brought Russian guard Alexander Dubovitskiy (’94).
-Northfield Mount Hermon (Massachusetts) played with English Lucas Van Nes (’93). According to MaxPreps this season is averaging 1.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per game.
-Powerful Tilton School (New Hampshire) have in his roster Spaniard Nacho Ballve (’93) and German Evandro Bildau (’93). They beat Canadian REDA (66-47).
-St. Andrew’s (Rhode Island) made their only appearance in the NPSI with a good win against MCI (58-49). Montenegrin Nikola Vukosavovic (’94) is one of the players of St. Andrew’s.
Twitter of the author: @filipy09
Photo: Netscouts Basketball
