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Hoop Group Summer Jam Fest: Day 3 Notebook (July 23)

07/23/2017, 10:30pm EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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MANHEIM, Pa. -- The Hoop Group’s Summer Jam Fest invaded the massive Spooky Nook Sports complex for three days this weekend to close out the second of three July live recruiting periods.

Here’s a notebook from the championship rounds on Sunday, featuring a pair of programs who made unlikely runs through their respective brackets:

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Gavin Burke (above) and East Coast Power's 16s made a run to the championship game. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

East Coast Power takes step forward at Spooky Nook

For the first time in the program’s two-year history, East Coast Power played for a major tournament championship.

And even though the final game of the weekend didn’t end the way the other five did for the King of Prussia-based program’s 16U squad, as Ohio Nova-Russell emerged with a 59-53 win, it was clearly a step forward for a team that has some recognizable names on the local scene but certainly doesn’t have any big-time stars just yet.

While shooters like Methacton’s David Duda Jr. and Bonner-Prendergast’s Michael Perretta stretched defenses all weekend, and Episcopal’s Matthew Dade and Pennridge’s Sean Yoder both scored the ball like they’ve shown the ability to do for their high school teams, Spooky Nook was an emergence for another guard on the team.

The Haverford School’s Gavin Burke was running the show at point all weekend, putting up a representative effort with 13 points, six assists, two steals and two rebounds in a semifinal win over 6th Man Warriors.

“I think our first game this tournament was when we really hit our stride, that’s when we really started to come together as a team,” he said. “I thought we were moving the ball great [this weekend], we obviously shot it really well and overall just playing hard defense and getting defensive stops.”

A 6-foot-tall, 160-pound point guard, Burke is part of a point-guard heavy backcourt at The Haverford School that only seems to be getting more crowded as the summer goes on. Rising senior Kharon Randolph plus juniors Burke and Jameer Nelson Jr. have all had strong Julys with their respective AAU teams; all three are primarily on-ball guards.

“I think it’s going to be competitive, and hopefully we’ll work together really well,” Burke said. “It’ll be fun to play with [those] two other guys.”

A two-sport athlete for the Fords, Burke is also a midfielder on the school’s lacrosse team, which is one of a few prep powerhouses in the region that routinely sends players on to Division I programs. He’s got basketball in his blood, though; his father played hoops at Lafayette, which is where is mother also matriculated.

“I’d prefer to play basketball, but I’d prefer to play anything with a [Division I] scholarship,” Burke said. “Hopefully it’s basketball, but if not, lacrosse is fine.”

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North Jersey bunch pulls off long run to title
Sina Basketball Academy wasn’t given a showcase game on Friday night. They weren’t given a bye in the 72-team 17U Platinum bracket, the top dog of nine different divisions spanning four different age groups over the course of the weekend.

So instead, SBA had to win two games on Friday night (the second of which came by two points) plus two more on Saturday, against a Nike team in the New York Lightning and one of the Hoop Group’s sponsored teams, the NJ Shoreshots, to make it to Sunday morning’s quarterfinals.

And they found it in themselves to go for three more wins, knocking off Rhode Island Elite in the quarters, Crown Basketball in the semifinals and finally Middlesex Magic -- another Hoop Group showcase team -- in a stunner, 47-46, to cap off the weekend. Millburn (N.J.) senior Ross Gang hit the game-winner, a layup with seven seconds left; SBA forced a turnover on the ensuing Middlesex possession.

“It just feels amazing,” said Arthur L. Johnson (N.J.) rising senior George Visconti, who poured in a game-high 19 points for SBA. “I feel like we’re just such a fantastic team and we put that on display this tournament. People don’t really give us the credit we deserve.”

Visconti, a 6-3 guard, is part of half of the roster that doesn’t go to Gill St. Bernard’s (N.J.); SBA is coached by Mergin Sina, head coach at GSB. But the non-GSB players mesh seamlessly with the high school teammates by this point in the summer, and it was a group that relied heavily on ball-movement, smart decision-making and tough defense to get it done.

It’s a group that’s largely getting recruited at the high-academic fringe between Division I and Division III. Visconti, who boasts a 4.65 GPA, is hearing from Brown and Cornell, plus D-IIIs Johns Hopkins, NYU and more.

The heart of SBA is Alex Schachne, a Gill St. Bernard’s rising senior and his high school team’s starting point guard; a leader on both squads, he poured in 24 points to lead GSB to the Somerset County Tournament championship for the third straight year this February. A 5-10 guard, Schachne’s a strong on-ball presence on both ends who can get into the heart of a defense and create for his teammates.

“We’re just excited to get the win and play well the whole tournament,” he said.

Like his teammate, Schachne is hearing from Brown and Cornell, but it’s the high-academic D-IIIs that he said he has his pick of at the moment.

“My number one right now is probably Johns Hopkins,” he said. “They really really like me, I’m really close with the coaches there; also University of Chicago, hearing from Carnegie Mellon...MIT a little bit. So we’ll see how it ends up.”

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Malachi de Sousa (above) has five Division I offers with one week to play in the live period. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Quick Hits

-- An off guard with great size, South Kent (Conn.) wing Malachi de Sousa says he’s been working hard on his jump shot. It certainly looked good in a consolation game on Sunday, as de Sousa was playing with his Castle Athletics (N.Y.) squad. The 6-6, 200-pound guard, who transferred from Kennedy Catholic (N.Y.) to South Kent last year in order to move into the 2018 class, and it’s paid dividends in his development and recruitment. Right now, de Sousa has offers from Saint Peter’s, Siena, Albany, Wagner and Robert Morris; the last three of those have all offered during July. He’s also hearing from Hofstra, New Hampshire and Saint Bonaventure.

“I was talking with my mom and my dad and we were thinking around October, November, December, around there, that’s when we’re going to start cutting it down and listing where I’ll be taking official visits to,” he said. “I just want to get somewhere where I can go play, be an impact player and just contribute, help the team win.”

-- Leading the way for OH Nova-Russell in the 16U championship game was Upper Arlington (Ohio) 2019 SG Max Martz, who dropped six 3-pointers en route to a game-high 26 points. The 6-5 wing guard hit the clincher, a triple from the right wing with a minute left, and also helped seal the game from the foul line. The son of Mike Martz, who was a role player at Nebraska in the ‘80s, Max has three offers of his own: Western Carolina, Toledo and Stony Brook, the last of which he’d picked up just earlier in the day.

He’s hearing from his dad’s alma mater and fellow Big Ten school Ohio State -- and considering he grew up in Columbus, those are two schools that have very strong connections to him. He’s also gotten Ivy League interest, as Princeton, Harvard and Penn are staying in touch. A strong-bodied guard, Martz’s jumper was picture-perfect; now he’s got to add to it. “Definitely want to see me get stronger, so that’s one thing I’ve been focusing on, being in the weight room all the time,” He said. “And a couple dribble moves...I’ve got shooting down, so I’m just working on getting to the rack a little bit."

-- At a solidly-built 6-foot-11 and 240 pounds, Fairview HS (Pa.) 2018 PF/C Sam Parini knows that there’s really just one thing he has to do to show off to the college coaches: keep moving. “At my size there’s not a lot of guys who can run up and down the floor for an entire game.,” he said. “I like to show that I’m well-conditioned and I can finish inside as well.” Though Parini certainly isn’t the most athletic big man out there, he did a good job of clearing his space and rebounding his position, grabbing nine boards and scoring six points while playing for Bridge City’s 17s in a loss to York Ballers in the tournament quarterfinals.

His two offers at the moment come from Army and Navy; he said he’s seeing “a lot” of interest from Ivy/Patriot types, including Lafayette, Bucknell and Cornell. “A lot of schools are coming to watch me play over the last two live period events, so I’ll try to plan some visits here in August and go from there, try to make a decision soon,” he said; he’s also certainly not opposed to going to one of the service academies and joining the military: “the ball’s going to stop going at some point, so you’ve got to have a backup plan. So it’s great.”

-- Coming off his second consecutive PIAA Class A state championship, Kennedy Catholic 2019 SG Maceo Austin is enjoying a strong offseason with his Bridge City squad on the Adidas circuit. The loss his team took in the quarterfinals of the Summer Jam Fest was its first of the month against 12 wins, Austin said, as they won two tournaments in Myrtle Beach over the first live period. His current offer list is West Virginia, Penn State, UAB, Akron, Duquesne and Canisius; high-majors like Kansas State, LSU and Florida State plus A-10s St. Joe’s and Richmond are also keeping in touch with the 6-4, 175-pound combo guard: “They like my game, the way I play, they like that I’m versatile and can play the ‘1’ or ‘2’,” he said. “They said they’re going to follow during AAU and then the high school season.” At the moment, Austin said, his two most constant suitors are Duquesne and West Virginia.

-- In a loss to East Coast Power in the 16U semifinals, two 6th Man Warriors guards stood out. Heru Bligen (2019/St. Andrew’s, Md.) came off the bench but was a two-way force, hitting his first six shots and scoring 15 points while grabbing three steals, two reobunds and two assists. A 6-3, 180-pound combo guard with long dreadlocks, Bligen has a pair of offers, from local schools UMBC and Navy, while hearing from Binghamton, St. Joe’s, Holy Cross and Bucknell. Also scoring 15 points was Sidwell Friends (D.C.) 2019 Jason Gibson, a slender-but-quick combo guard who wasn’t shy to let fly with his shot, utilizing a one-dribble pull-up on a number of occasions and hitting three 3-pointers as well. The 6-0, 150-pound Gibson is waiting on his first offer, but is hearing from Brown, Delaware, Colgate, Holy Cross, Towson, Princeton and Yale.


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