Boston Spartans Tournament Gets 2011 Travel Circuit Under Way

DORCHESTER, Mass. – Our first look at travel team competition came at UMass-Boston at the Boston Spartans Tournament 300 Shootout. A trip there on Saturday allowed for a look largely at younger high school talent, and our attention was naturally focused on the high school age groups.

Here are some quick hitters on what we saw at the Clark Athletic Center.

• The host program’s 15-under entry has some good prospects on it, fresh off a lot of success last year. Leading the way was Markus Neale (6’1” Fr. PG-SG, West Roxbury (MA) High), who was in double digits every game. He’s very fundamentally sound, has solid scoring tools like a nice hesitation move, and a very good feel for the game. His body still has some maturing to come, and he rebounded well in part from boxing out well. A couple of areas that weren’t so strong were his jumper, as he was long on several from long range, and he was also a bit of a spectator defensively in his first game, though he got better at that end later.
• Teammate Freddy Oliveira (6’4” Fr. SF, West Roxbury (MA) High) had some good moments playing inside, which isn’t where he projects at the next level position-wise. The lefty is not a baby physically but has some baby fat, and while he did score 14 points in one game his contributions came more from his passing and rebounding. He made several long outlet passes off rebounds and also had a nice cross-court bounce pass with some good zip on it. Although he rebounded well, he was inconsistent with his box-outs.
• Mike Rodriguez (5’9” Fr. PG, West Roxbury (MA) High) makes this team go, and although he played a bit too much for show at times he had a knack for getting the ball to a teammate for a basket. He drove the baseline often to make things happen and looked better finishing near the basket, scoring 15 points in each of two games.
• Kahari Beaufort (6’2” Fr. PG-SG, East Hartford (CT) High) was a solid role player alongside the aforementioned Spartans, driving and finishing and also getting some rebounds. Late in their last game, he showed some bad body language when the opponent tied the game, but he proceeded to score the next four points to give them the win.
• The Spartans got a big test in their last game of the day from the West Springfield Terriers, as the game was tied late before the Spartans pulled out a 67-62 win. The Terriers had a few players who impressed in nearly pulling this off.
• Chief among the Terrier contributors was Kevawn Lord (Fr. SG, Amherst (MA) High), who was seemingly ever-present, especially when they rallied. He was active and in a lot of plays, attacked the basket on offense while knocking down jumpers out to long range, was often in transition and nicely followed a missed pull-up jumper. He’s athletic, competes and did a nice job of playing help defense, and he’ll be worth watching over the next couple of years.
• Justin Crosby (So. SG-SF, Westfield (MA) High) is a young sophomore who already has a body that’s close to college-ready. He’s well-built with a good frame, and he showed some good tools on the perimeter including a pull-up three-pointer.
• The Terriers also had a nice complementary player inside in Andrew Scace (Fr. PF, Pittsfield (MA) Taconic HS). He scored inside, including on stickbacks, while showing decent ball skills for a post player and making a nice cut to the basket to get the ball and score on another play.
• Johnnie Spears (So. PG, Georgetown (MA) High) is a quick diminutive point guard who drove fearlessly to the basket and also showed he can be a pest on the ball defensively.
• Kenny Reed (Jr. SG, Reading Memorial HS) led his All For One team to a win in their final game of the day with 10 points. He showed he’s a capable scorer, with a little range on his jumper.