Juice wins South Division at iS8/Nike
A Juice All-stars (3-0) comprised mostly of seniors would play against the MetroHawks-B (3-0) on Friday to start the last weekend of the regular season. While it would be a hard fought game, turnovers would betray the MetroHawks in the end, ruining their possibility of clinching first place in the South Division of the iS8/Nike Spring H.S. Classic. The veteran Juice All-stars would win 98-86.
Juice's David Cooley of Thomas Jefferson would make his offensive presence felt early
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It was a close game in the first quarter but MetroHawks would take and miss more shot to keep stride.
Shaquille Stokes would push the rock and score on runners for MetroHawks and Dyrek Jones would score a few put backs.
James Johnson of Bishop Loughlin would, however, began hamper MetroHawks guards on defense resulting in Juice buckets on turnovers.
The relentless mid-court pressure applied by Juice guards would eventually push their lead to 11 points late in the half. An alley oop from Lincoln guard, Vincent Council to Wadleigh's Curtis Loving for the dunk taking it up two more.
The MetroHawks would make a push in the final two minute as Stokes and Anton Dickerson would score off fast breaks.
The frenetic first half would end with Juice up, 50-42.
The second half would be a continuation of the first as Justin Greene single-handedly controlled the boards for Juice. That, coupled with the MetroHawks seeming unwillingness to get down and dirty with the Brooklyn squad resulted in little difference in the point spread.
A Dave Samuel's NBA dunk would sway the momentum in the MetroHawks direction as Mason and Stokes would put numbers cutting the Juice lead to 5 points with a 1:14 left in the third.
A Jeremiah Brown lay-up word temporarily impede the MetroHawks progress, putting them down by 7 points to end the quarter.
A Loving 3-ball followed by a slam dunk would start the final quarter as Coach Kenny Pretlow urged his MetroHawks team to get more physical.
Turnovers, however, would saddle the MetroHawks throughout the final quarter as the Juice All-star lead would go back up to 15 points with 3 minutes left in regulation.
The MetroHawks would then simply trade baskets with Juice but no net gain would result as the Juice All-stars would go on to win and remain undefeated in the South Division with the MetroHawks coming in second.
The Juice All-stars would accomplish this without their star junior guard Lance Stephenson, who will probably play during the playoff next week.
High scorers would be James Johnson with 24 points follow Justin Greene with 21 points
For the MetroHawks the high man would be Shaq Stokes with 21 points.
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