By Ruben Alcaraz
Last weekend took place at Albertus Magnus College of New Haven (Connecticut) the annual National Prep Showcase that is a kind of kick-off for the prep school season. The NPS is a great event to check new European prospects that chose play in a prep school before play college ball. Let’s recap the best European performances of the weekend:
-Francisco Alonso (’96) Cushing Academy. Alonso -at the pic- was the best player of his team in a losing effort against Our Savior New American scoring 23 points (9 of 15 from the field) and adding 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. The Spanish guard is been recruited by Old Dominion and UTEP among others.
-Aaron Falzon (’96) Northfield Mount Hermon. We talked sometimes about his Maltese roots and his experience playing for the small European country. The Northwestern commit played great scoring 29 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals in the win against Lee Academy and 28 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists for beat Hargrave Military Academy.
-The most Europeanized team was once again Lee Academy (Maine). Loaded of Serbian like Utah State bound Dusan Majstorovic (’95), Illija Stojiljkovic (’95) that committed to University of Maine, Lee Academy lost both contest that they played. Majstorovic scored 27 points (7 of 10 from the arc) and Stojiljkovic 17 (3 of 4 from three point line) against IMG Academy. Other European prospects at Lee Academy are Bosnian Adnan Halilovic (’95), Latvian Rudolf Stradnieks (’96) that scored 14 points against IMG, Ukranian Anton Bilous (’95) that scored 10 points against NMH, Italians Federico Bargnesi (’95) and Alessandro Panzieri (’95) and Serbians Nedeljko Prijovic (’96) and Stefan Jevdjenijevic (’97).
-Jovan Grujic (’96) South Kent. Serbian 2016 class Grujic averaged 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in two wins for his team. His Lithuanian teammate Martynas Pacevicius(’97) also helped in the winning effort averaging 5 points and 2.5 rebounds. Montenegrin Lazar Pavicevic (’96) did not play.
-Bradley Jomard (’96) New Hampton Prep. French point guard outstanding against Max My Game scoring 15 points to get the win.
-Nikola Scekic (’95) Max My Game. Serbian center is been followed close by high major colleges and his 13 points and 6 rebounds against New Hampton Prep helped him on his track. Another Max My Game prospect is Danish Adam Heede-Andersen (’96) that finish scoreless.
-Tugay Efe Balyan (’95) Mount Zion Prep. Turkish player only played 2 minutes in the lost against Wilbraham and Monson.
-Cem Koyuncu (’97) Tilton School. He didn’t play the tournament because he was in home Turkey.
-Samuel Japhet-Matthias (’98) Vermont Academy. The English center had not his best game and scored 1 point, grabbed 7 rebounds and dished 1 assist in the lost against South Kent. Matthias is been recruited by Georgetown among other colleges.
Also a few Asian prospects were at NPS:
-Lebanese Sergio El Darwic (’96) and Chinese Lee Yafei played for Lee Academy. Darwic scored 8 points in two contest without a miss.
-Another Chinese, Chao ‘Bobby’ Xu scored 6 points against Fishburne. His teammate Shunto Murakami (‘96) from Japan played only one minute.
-IMG Academy brought his Indian giant Satnam Singh Bhamara (’95). Bhamara is 7’2 and averaged 6.5 points and 3.5 rebounds in two contests.
-Taiwanese Max Wu (’94) step on the floor with Blair Academy in the game against Tilton School.
Photo: malaga.eldesmarque.com
Twitter of the author: @filipy09
