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Elevate Hoops Memorial Day Hoopfest Notebook (May 27)

05/27/2017, 11:30pm EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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MANALAPAN, N.J. -- The brand-new Sportika indoor sports complex played host to Elevate Hoops’ Memorial Day Hoopfest, which featured play in 13U through 17U brackets on the facility’s seven courts.

Here’s a notebook from the opening rounds of the two-day affair:


Father Judge's Tom Quarry (above) helped Yellow Jackets to a win in its first-ever AAU game. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Quarry shines in Yellow Jackets’ debut
Those who’ve been to the Donofrio Classic lately are familiar with the Yellow Jackets jerseys, as a group under that moniker has played in the Conshy spring tournament since 2009.

WIth his son, Valley Forge’s Arion Lewis, looking for the right fit on the AAU circuit after April, Del-Val Charter head coach James Lewis got permission from VFMA and Yellow Jacket coach Francis Bowe to use the Yellow Jacket name  for the rest of the summer (and beyond), bringing on a few more Valley Forge players as well as several others who were looking for something different after the first few weekends of the offseason.

The new-look Yellow Jackets practiced throughout May and made their debut this weekend, winning their first-ever game 63-43 over Role Models (Del.).

“I feel like we still have to figure out some chemistry stuff, we don’t really talk to each other (defensively),” Father Judge wing Tom Quarry said after the win, “but we enjoy playing with each other, it’s definitely good.”

Their second game, against the Roadrunners, ended with a 56-43 loss, but the Yellow Jackets still qualified for Sunday’s playoff rounds.

Quarry was one of the stars in the opening-game win, as the 6-foot-6, 170-pound wing knocked down four 3-pointers en route to 17 points; that was bested only by Penncrest’s Tyler Norwood, the District 1 5A championship game star, who had 21 points and hit five 3s of his own.

While Norwood has already established himself as a big-time scorer during his sophomore and junior high school seasons, this has been a breakout offseason of sorts for Quarry, who served as the first or second man off the bench for Judge as a junior.

With Marc Rodriguez, Matt Power and Matt O’Connor, Judge’s three leadings corers, all graduating, it’s Quarry’s time to step into the starting lineup and assert himself as a big-time player. And he’s starting to look the part, playing more and more aggressive -- though his one dunk attempt was a little too enthusiastic, as he caught back iron.

Quarry’s got athletic genes, though not in basketball: his parents, Tom and Heather, were both high-level swimmers at Temple University, while his older brothers played hockey.

“They definitely were hard on me,” he said of his brothers, “and that’s why I’m real competitive, always competitive.”

A terrific student with a 4.0 GPA and 1500 SAT score, Quarry is already hearing from high-academic Division III schools as well as several D-IIs, including USciences; he took a visit to D-III NYU earlier this month. If he hits shots like he did on May in front of coaches in July, his recruitment could take another step up for his size and ability to shoot the ball alone.

No matter where he goes, Quarry intends on studying finance, and has his eye on working for a financial institution like Goldman Sachs after graduation.

Quarry and the rest of the Yellow Jackets will play heavily on the Elevate Hoops circuit in July, including the Summer Icebreaker events at Manalapan during the first week of the summer live periods (July 12-15) and then at the Summer Showdown (July 21-22) at Philly U the following weekend. With Quarry, Lewis and Norwood, plus D-I big man Abraham Deng (2018/Valley Forge) on the team, it’s sure to be a group that draws a mixture of coaches to its sidelines all month long.

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Capitano talks move to private school, reclassification
It was during the time that he spent out with a broken bone in his hand that Alex Capitano first thought about a potential move.

Capitano’s sophomore year at Great Valley certainly didn’t go as planned, as the 6-foot-4 wing missed three months with the injury, though he returned in time to help the Patriots into the PIAA 5A playoffs before a first-round exit at the hands of Archbishop Carroll. In search of a fresh start, he decided to make a move to the private school realm, settling on Episcopal Academy, while also deciding he’d repeat his sophomore season, which he can do as EA is not in the PIAA.

“The reclassifying came when transferring,” he said. “Why not reclassify, get an extra year, [get] bigger, stronger.”

Capitano said he chose Episcopal after also considering Westtown, and he’ll be a welcome addition to a Churchman program that’s losing two terrific seniors in forward Nick Alikakos (Navy) and guard Conner Delaney (Johns Hopkins) along with a class that also included sharpshooting wing Jack O’Connell (Catholic U) and more.

EA will otherwise rely heavily on rising junior Matt Wade, another 6-4 scoring wing who averaged 8.7 ppg as a sophomore.

Capitano said he’s hoping to use the extra year to “improve my handle, and (get) stronger, I’ve just got to get stronger.”

As for his recruiting, while the move to 2020 means that he’s now a year away from being able to be contacted directly by college coaches instead of just a few weeks -- prospects can still talk to coaches if they set up the call, but only on June 15 of a prospect’s rising junior year can the coach reach out directly to the player -- Capitano will still play with the Jersey Shore Warrior’s 16s, and isn’t relaxing a bit with the additional time added to his recruiting cycle.

“I’m not going to think about it as holding back or anything,” he said. “I’m still going at it like I’m a 2019, just getting as much exposure as I can.”

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Supreme Cook (above) is an intriguing prospect at 6-6 with a smooth mid-range jumper. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Roadrunners prospect Cook-ing up something special
One of the more intriguing prospects in the gym all day was the one with the best name.

East Orange (N.J.)’s Supreme Cook has a lanky, athletic 6-6 frame that screams “prospect” when he takes the floor, and when he started off a game for the NJ Roadrunners’ 16Us with a well-timed block and a smooth left-handed finish, that tag seemed to fit.

And then Cook really opened eyes, hitting a nifty 12-foot turnaround jumper with his natural right hand, one of five mid-range shots he ended up knocking down over the course of a game that was ultimately won by Jersey Force Elite.

Cook finished with 14 points and a collection of blocks and rebounds.

“I’m trying to improve on my ball-handling and my shooting so I can possibly play on the wing,” he said. “Just learning to work harder, I have to play harder, work harder than everyone out there.”

Cook had his introduction to varsity hoops as a sophomore at East Orange, part of a young Jaguars rotation that struggled along to a 5-18 record. But he earned All-Super Essex Conference-American Division second-team honors for his efforts, showing what he can do with a 28-point, 12-rebound outing against Hackensack late in the year.

“We had a rough season but we’re going to do better next year,” he said. “We had a bunch of new kids, not a lot of experience, so I feel like if we play another year we’re going to be a solid team.”

Cook is still fairly new to basketball, picking up the game in seventh grade, but he’s already got a solid skill-set for someone his age and size. His recruiting is still also still on the ground floor, but his upside is bound to attract schools sooner rather than later, especially if he can grow a little more or continue to expand his game to being a true face-up ‘4’ who can block shots off the wing.

It’s certainly not obvious watching Cook play that his first love wasn’t athletics, but art.

“I still draw in my free time, when I’m not practicing -- anime, all of that stuff, manga,” he said. “When I’m not playing basketball, drawing helps me clear my mind about what happened on the court.”

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Andrew Alikakos (above) is one of six Jersey Shore Warriors 15U players with an older brother who played at least in high school. (Photo: Verlin/CoBL)

Quick Notes

-- If the last names on the Jersey Shore Warriors’ 15U squad sound familiar, there’s a reason for that: six of the team’s 10 players have an older brother who played high school basketball in the region in the last few seasons. John Friberg (State College, Pa./Drew), Kevin McNamee (Council Rock South/Ryan), Christopher Arizin (St. Joe’s Prep/Gabe), Andrew Alikakos (Episcopal Ac./Nick) and Trevor Wall (St. Joe’s Prep/Evan) all are at the same schools their brothers played for; only Khai Champion (Shipley) is different from his brother Chuck, who played two years each at La Salle HS and Friends’ Central. And all of that group -- save for Champion, out sick this weekend -- contributed well in a 44-40 win over Sportika in 15U pool play. Very solid game for McNamee, a 6-4 wing/forward whose hustle, defense and rebounding got the Warriors started often on the break, and guards like Wall and Alikakos, as well as flashy Bishop Eustace (N.J.) guard David Cross, were able to take advantage in transition.

-- Helping The Firm to a hard-fought, 62-55 win over Jersey Shore Blue to clinch a spot in the 17U quarterfinals was a strong effort from Justin Archer (2019/Union Catholic). The 6-6 PF did well on the glass against a Warriors squad that didn’t lack for size, and also showed he can step out and knock down a 3-pointer as well. Archer gave a lot of credit to his improvement over the last year to going up against Union Catholic’s Dayton-bound big man, Jordan Pierce, day after day in practice: “He told me a lot of skills that I can use on the floor, playing with other players, he showed me some moves,” he said. “Teaching me like basic drop-steps and hook shots.” The Firm also got plenty of offensive production from a pair of guards, Kyle Lofton (2017/Union Catholic) and Ricardo Dominguez (2018/Our Savior Lutheran).

--First game of the day, watched Jersey Shore Warriors’ 17s easily handily Sportika-Daley, 76-35. It was the typical all-around effort from the Warriors, who seemed to be playing downhill in two straight wins on the day. Lenape’s Andrew Sims was playing with a vengeance, throwing down a monster one-handed baseline slam over a defender, his exclamation point on a game he started with a backdoor lob that he laid in off the glass; State College’s Drew Friberg, Caravel Prep (Del.)’s Okoye Tyree Parker and Archbishop Wood’s Andrew Funk all had strong outings as well. Playing up with the Warriors’ 17s this weekend was Lower Merion 2019 Jack Forrest, who came off the bench and looked solid in his 17U debut.


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