Big Apple Basketball HS Invitational Day One

NEW YORK, NY - The 12th Annual Big Apple Basketball HS Invitational got underway on Saturday at Baruch College and NYCHoops.net was on board for four of the five games. Here are brief recaps of each.

Cardozo Defeats Seton Hall Prep (NJ), 70-59

The Cardozo Judges went up against undefeated Seton Hall Prep (11-1) and did what no New York team has done so far. Sparked by an MVP performance by 6'4" guard Tareq Coburn '16 (25 points & 6 rebounds) ended the Pirates winning streak at eleven game.

"Tareq is a kid that a lot of people don't know about," said Naclerio. "He's a kid that's climbing the latter. Last year he was our utility man now he's batting fifth. This was the best game he's ever played."

Tied at 13, foul shots by Temple Gibbs '16 (20 points) gave the Pirates a 15-13 lead to begin the second quarter.

Dozo battled inside and with and 6'5" Armando Dunn '15 (4 points & 8 rebounds) and Coburn tied be game at 18 and 20 but 6'7" Kelly Hogan '15 (10 points) countered each time. Coburn nailed a trey with 3:34 which finally put Dozo up 23-22 but Gibbs and 6'0" Stephen Ferraro '16 (20 points) got hot. 1:45 remained in the quarter and a layup in transition by Hogan upped Preps lead to 33-25.

The Judges were only shooting 40% from the field and were being outrebounded 22- to 13. Aaron Walker (20 points) ended Seton Hall Preps run but Dozo trailed 37-30 at the half.

Naclerio said he told his players, "You don't realize how hard you have to play against the good teams. You have to limit your mistakes."

Rashond Salnave '16 (18 points & 4 assists) and Coburn came out firing and put Dozo ahead but Hogan regained the lead for the Pirates. Breakaway buckets by Salnave helped give the Judges a 48-45 lead to begin the fourth quarter.

Ferraro incited a Pirates run that put Prep ahead 49-48 with 6:45 but Cardozo was in it to win it against the methodical New Jersey squad. The lead changed hands as both teams jockeyed for the advantage. With 4:00, the Judges led 56-50 but Ferraro kept the Pirates in the hunt

A steal by Salnave put Dozo ahead by 6 with 2:18 and with 1:56, Coburn scored an and1 to push the Judges lead to 63-52.

Missed free-throws began to plague Prep team in the final minutes and they still trailed by 10 and Coach Naclerio's team would go on to win by 11 points.

"The first half was all of the bad that we've been trying to get out of," said Naclerio. "The second half was all of the good."

Archbishop Stepinac Overtakes Thurgood Marshall, 70-65

Paced by 5'11" Jalin Suber '17, the Panthers took and early 5 point lead over Stepinac in the first quarter but the Crusaders stepped it up in the second quarter as 6'6" Jordan Tucker '17 and 5'11" Kylan Guerra '15 stepped up their games to take 10 point lead midway through the quarter.

Down 35-27 at the half, Thurgood Marshall began to dominate in the paint as 6'7" Bryan Assie '16 went in to beast mode inside. The Panthers did make a slight dent in their deficit going into the final quarter but again without the services of 6'7" Amarveer Singh '16, who's missed more games than he's played, a weakened TMA was unable to make up for first half failures.

Tucker led Archbishop Stepinac with a double-double (25 points & 14 rebounds) with Guerra adding 23 points. Suber was high man for Thurgood Marshall with 23 points with Assie contributing 14 points.

Life Center Grinds Out The McDuffie School, 68-61

The contest between the two out-of-state teams featured two three New York players in Omari Spellman, Unique McLean '16 and 6'7" Kashaun Hicks

'16. Unfortunately, they were playing for McDuffie and all suffered the agony of defeat.

In a game that had five lead changes, Life Center had a strong start to the second half after which McDuffie was only able to trade baskets. Hicks played well for McDuffie as did Spellman but McLean found himself saddled with foul trouble and was only able score a bucket all evening.

Malik Ellison and Dennis Tunstall led Life Center with 19 points apiece. Hicks was the leading scorer for McDuffie with 20 points.

St. Raymond Tops St. John's College HS in OT, 82-73

The Ravens trailed St. John's College HS by 6 points after the first quarter but came back to take a 35-34 lead into the locker room at the half buoyed by Sid Wilson fighting inside for points.

St. Ray's increased their advantage in the third quarter but a strong finish by the Washington, D.C. squad took the game into overtime tied at 66.

Sparked by an MVP performance by Cahiem Brown '16, the Ravens outscored St. John's College HS 16-7 in the overtime to win in convincing fashion.

Brown scored a game high 27 points to go with 10 rebounds. Wilson added 23 points. Anthony Cowan, Jr. paced St. John's College HS with 24 points.

The B.A.B. High School Invitational continues on Monday with five games starting at 12 noon.