iS8/Nike Saturday AM Action

SOUTH JAMAICA, NY – Two early morning games propelled teams into the playoff round as the last weekend of the iS8/Nike Fall Tip-Off Classic regular season got underway. Here are recaps of a game between The Eagles and Positive Direction followed by 2GZ versus the Early Risers.

With point guard Aquarn Butler ‘18 running the offense, the Eagles from Paul Robeson H.S. took an early lead and never looked back. Buckets from Prentice Miller '18 and Rik Car Jean Baptiste ‘18 pushed a two-point first quarter edge into a 42- 20 half time lead.

Positive Direction received sparse scoring from Tayjuan Lynch (Q.H.S.T. ’18) and K.J. King (BDA ’18) but 6’7” Abou Ousmane ‘19 began to pound away in the paint, extending the Eagle advantage that much more. Positive Direction, who faced tournament elimination, tried diligently to recover but had already dug a hole that was much too deep.

Ousmane was the high scorer for the Eagles with 17 points with Butler adding 11 points. King paced Positive Direction with 10 points.

This game was almost over before it began with 2GZ jumping out to a 14-point lead after the warm-up quarter. A majority of that lead was supplied by an uber-aggressive Khalid Moore ‘18 who poured it on throughout the contest. Although the Early Risers countered with perimeter baskets from Marcus Hammond (Cardozo ’18) and Chris Wright (Kingston H.S. ’18), the efforts of Moore with back up from Joe Toussaint ‘19 kept 2GZ out front 45 – 30 at the half.

The third quarter was a breakout for 2GZ when Kyle Harding (Our Savior Lutheran ’18) got buckets with the Early Risers unable to adequately respond. Down by 20 points to start the final quarter, the Early Risers were still down by 19 points with 2:20 left to play en route to a twenty-point loss and a permanent tournament dirt nap.

Moore was high man for 2GZ with 20 points with Harding and Toussaint adding 14 points and 10 points respectively. Hammond led the Early Risers with 18 points.