This past weekend took part in New Haven (Connecticut) the National Prep Showcase. As always, this kind of unofficial start of the prep basketball season was held at Albertus Magnus College.
The number of European prospects that take the prep school way to pursue their college dreams is growing every year and for the second time in the history of the tournament a European team took part of the event.

After their first presence two years ago with Matz Stockman (’95) and Michal Cekovsky (’94), Canarias Basketball Academy (Spain) returned to show their best prospects.
The Spanish team got two victories with Spaniard Ivan Aurrecoechea (’95) as the most outstanding player. The 6’9 big man averaged 15.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. Other intriguing prospect of the team is Sergii Pryimaak (’96) -at the picture-. The Ukrainian forward averaged 9.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per contest.

A rookie team in this tournament, Spire Institute (Ohio), brought some interesting European prospects. Croatian Marko Cuze (’97), recently committed with Seattle University, had a good game against Vermont Academy with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Recently UIC bound Jordan Blount (’97) averaged 12.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals during the tournament. Lithuanian Aidas Kavaliauskas (’95) had not his best performance and averaged 2.5 points and 3.0 rebounds. Kavaliauskas committed with Fairfield in May. Who is still uncommitted is Danish Mathias Kelly (’96) who did 11 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals in the loss against Brewster Academy.

For Brewster Academy (New Hampshire) Lithuanian Rapolas Ivanauskas (’98) averaged 12.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in winning efforts. The 6’8 forward will play next season for the Northwestern Wildcats in the Big Ten. Semih Say (’98) was born in Houston but has Turkish passport and played 10 minutes against Spire scoring his only field goal attempt.

Although some European prospects are on IMG Academy (Florida) roster, only one appeared at National Prep Showcase, Ivo-Van Tamm (’96). The Estonian averaged 12.5 points and 3.5 rebounds during the weekend.

Other academy from Florida that was at Albertus Magnus College was Elev-8 Sports Institute. Danish Kasper Christiansen (’97) did not play his best game and scored 4 points in the win against New Hampton Prep. In the same game Israeli Mohamed Abu Arisha (’97) made 6 points and 3 rebounds.

Kristers Zoriks (’98) did not play that game for New Hampton Prep (New Hampshire) but he did it the day before against DME Academy where he scored 10 points and dished 2 assists.

Swedish Marcus Larsson (’97) showed high productivity during his limited time on the court averaging 5.0 points per game for Fork Union Military Academy (Virginia).

One of the classic teams at NPS with a lot of international prospects is Lee Academy (Maine). They only played one game that was a blowout loss against Northfield Mount Hermon (Massachusetts) but they showed good prospects. Ukranian stretch forward Vitaliy Shibel (’97) scored 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds with 3 of 4 from three point line. Serbian Stefan Radosavljevic (’96) got 11 points and 4 rebounds. Montenegrin Gordan Glomazic (’97) added 9 points and 2 rebounds. Poland 7-footer Marcel Kliniewski (’96) that just committed with Seattle University barely played. Another D1 bound of Lee Academy Serbian Nedeljko Prijovic (’96) that will play at Texas State next season did 6 points, 3 rebounds and 4 dimes in the losing effort.

Montverde Academy (Florida) did not show his full potential but showed David Didenko (’00) an interesting prospect from Russia. Didenko was starter in the loss in front of South Kent and scored 3 points and got 2 boards in 8 minutes on the court.

Sunrise Christian Academy (Kansas) lost their two games. Estonian Maik-Kalev Kotsar ('96) averaged 10.5 points and 5.0 rebounds. Spaniard Jaume Sorolla (’97) scored 4 points and grabbed 3 boards against Brewster Academy. Serbian Luka Zivko (’96) had a similar contribution with 4 points and 2 rebounds.

Not only the European players are increasing their presence in prep tournaments, Asian are doing also. Big man Aziz Sultan Essa from Kuwait enjoyed some minutes with South Kent and he helped them to beat Montverde Academy with 4 points and 3 rebounds. Japanese Ryogo Sumino (’96) scored 5 points and got 2 steals in the victory of St. Thomas More (Connecticut) over Fork Union. Bridgton Academy brought three Asian players: another Japanese, Kai Toews (’98), that averaged 6.5 points, 4.0 assists and 2.5 steals, Taiwanese Webber Liao that played a few minutes in both contests and Chinese Danny Yu (’97) that only enjoyed 8 minutes of game time against IMG Academy. Lee Academy used one Taiwanese player, Lewis Wang, who barely played 5 minutes. South Korea was represented by Henry Woo that played 11 minutes in two games for IMG Academy and scored his only field goal attempt.
 
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