WELLESLEY, Mass. – The second straight weekend with a prep school event in New England had a little different focus than the prior one. Namely, the Scholar Roundball Classic featured some of the best academic schools in the region taking the court against one another. Some of the schools don’t usually get a stage like this, so it also offered us a look at some schools that may not get easily seen otherwise.
Sunday’s action had a couple of close games mixed in, though most of the day had blowouts. With that, we go to the scores and then the player notes.
Sunday Scoreboard
Chestnut Hill (MA) Brimmer and May 48, St. Lambert (Que.) Champlain St. Lambert 37
Blairstown (NJ) Blair Academy 65, Suffield (CT) Academy 58
Kent (CT) School 59, Marion (MA) Tabor Academy 49
Northfield (MA) Mount Hermon 105, Cheshire (CT) Academy 75
Wallingford (CT) Choate Rosemary Hall 62, Westport (CT) Greens Farms Academy 42
Meriden (NH) Kimball Union Academy 62, Andover (MA) Phillips Academy 29
Player Notes
- The improvement of Mark Gasperini (6’10” Jr. PF-C, Brookline (MA)) gets more noticeable all the time for Brimmer and May. He’s more aggressive and confident, and the results are showing as he’s scoring with post moves with good frequency.
- Another from there who has developed nicely is David Labossiere (6’3″ Sr. SG, Melrose (MA)). He’s always been very athletic, but his jumper looks better and he seems to have a better feel for the game.
- Kasheem Thomas (5’10” Jr. PG, Chateauguay (Que.)) has a body that has some to go, but he got to the hoop often to create for Champlain St. Lambert. The beneficiary of that a few times was Ahmadu Tijani Umar (6’7″ Sr. PF, Montreal (Que.)), who had 14 points and looks a bit rough around the edges.
- Blair Academy got a nice game from Elijah Burns (6’9″ Sr. PF, Troy (NY)), who had 19 points. The Notre Dame-bound lefty has a good body and moves well and has some ball skills, and has some room for growth there, which surely has Mike Brey excited.
- While Burns and Villanova-bound Tim Delaney (6’8″ Sr. PF, Pittman (NJ)) get a lot of attention for Blair, they also have good underclassmen to watch in Matt Turner (6’3″ So. SG, Trumbull (CT)), who led them on Sunday with 20 points, and Zedrek Farrell (6’0″ Fr. PG-SG, New York (NY)).
- Jamal Lucas (6’3″ Sr. PG, New York (NY)) has been Kent’s best player thus far, and that includes on Sunday where he scored 16 points and scored in several ways. He got good help from Romello Crowell (6’1″ Sr. PG, Lowell (MA)), who was steady in running the show all day long.
- Ian Sistare (6’3″ Jr. SG, Dublin (NH)) looks better every time out for Northfield Mount Hermon, and Sunday was no exception. He does a lot of things and competes at a high level when on the floor.
- Jackson Donahue (6’1″ Sr. SG, Stonington (CT)) has long established his shooting reputation, and on Sunday he just did what he does again with 26 points on eight three-pointers while playing with a mask after breaking his nose a few weeks ago.
- Josh Sharma (7’0″ Sr. PF-C, Lexington (MA)) is back in action for Northfield Mount Hermon, and while not impacting the game as much as he has before, it’s good to see him healthy again. He’s still just scratching the surface of what he can become.
- For a time, Cheshire Academy’s Ray Jerome (6’3″ Jr. SG, Latham (NY)) was matching Northfield Mount Hermon’s Chris Sullivan (6’3″ Sr. SG, Wilmette (IL)) with long range shots. Jerome finished with 22 points, including six three-pointers in an impressive showing.
- In leading Choate Rosemary Hall to a blowout win, Troy McLaughlin (6’3″ Sr. SG, Old Tappan (NJ)) impressed by being active defensively, though he also hit a couple of three-pointers en route to 16 points.
- Kahlil Garnes (6’2″ Sr. SG, Livingston (NJ)) had a very active game for Kimball Union and played off the lead from hometown kid Crew Ainge (6’0″ Sr. PG, Wellesley (MA)). Garnes was in transition seemingly all night and can be a pest on defense, and he finished in several ways.
