MANHATTAN, NY - High School All Star games are a different kind of animal. Even though most players know each other, they haven't really played a lot with each other, so the chemistry is usually not there. Sometimes you have to look for something spectacular to happen in order to be entertained.
Well that did happen when "Scoochie" dunked on somebody at the Nike Basketball Battle of the Boroughs.
The Bronx was playing Queens during this particular afternoon. The other boroughs will play each other on different dates.
Dayshon "Scoochie" Smith is one of the players on the Bronx squad and he definitely provided the highlight of the game. The Bronx went on to win the game 65-48 because Queens was never really in the game in the second half.
Rashad Andrews was bringing the ball up the court to start an offensive possession but he was caught off guard when Smith picked his dribble at half-court. With nobody in front of him, Smith tried to accelerate to the rim with Andrews trying to catch him from behind. He actually did catch up and decided to jump and defend the shot by Smith.
Bad idea.
Initially, it looked like Smith was just going to try and convert a difficult lay-up over the taller Andrews, but he had other intentions. Smith took off and decided to tomahawk it through the rim. Andrews was caught in a bad position and became a highlight, literally.
Nike Basketball built an actual hardwood court on top of the concrete ground at Rivington Court in the lower east side, a few blocks from the Williamsburg Bridge. It has a nice big digital scoreboard on one end and a video screen on the other end. The video screen is where you could see Scoochie dunk it on Andrews about 5 times in a row, one right after another.
In fact, there was a time out called, which meant everybody in the park had the opportunity to focus on the replay.
Andrews was laughing about it. Why not? It was funny, and a real good play in the meantime. Andrews was actually one of the best players in the game, playing with a lot of energy and being involved in multiple parts of the game. He was actually one of the few who knocked down a shot longer than a lay-up. Andrews scored 15 points and was tied for game high with his Queens teammate Marquise Moore.
Moore scored a lot of his 15 points inside by grabbing offensive rebounds and putting the ball back in for tough baskets. He was aggressive offensively all game, looking for his shot and taking it.
Deandre Bembry was actually the high scorer for the Bronx with 14 points. Bembry scored 10 of those points in the second half. He caught an alley-oop dunk after Queens had cut a 37-31 lead in half with a three pointer. The 6-6 Bembry scored inside again and the Bronx never looked back.
Terry Larrier, a 6-7 forward, was the second leading scorer for the Bronx, finishing with 9 points.
It was a real nice evening to play ball, but the game itself didn't have as many memorable moments that you would like to see in a game. Fortunately, the dunk by Smith is one of those moments that you will remember. Almost as vividly as the replay that kept playing on that screen on one end of Rivington court.
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