Stars Shine @ Shooting Stars Showcase

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY – The stars came out to play at St. Anthony’s High School which hosted the 4th annual Shooting Stars Showcase. Five games took place in the Saturday afternoon event with four featuring NYCHoops.net Top Ten Teams. Here’s what went down.

With three of St. Ray’s starters (Dallas Watson ‘18, Da’Marco Watson ‘20 and Darius Lee ‘18) M.I.A., the Ravens still managed to do more than just put up a good fight against the Knox Falcons. As a matter of fact, the #9 ranked team from the Bronx held a substantial lead for most of the game.

Paced by sharpshooter Omar Silverio ‘18, the Ravens led by 12 points by the end of the first quarter, but the Knox School slowly chipped away at that lead quarter by quarter. Key shots by Quinton Williams ‘18 cut their deficit to 34 – 29 at the half.

Late in the fourth quarter, 6’10” Josh Gray ‘20 tied the game and Bret Talbert ‘18 gave the Falcon’s its first lead, 75 -73 with 1:27 left I regulation. Gary Grant ‘20 come up clutch for St. Raymond, drawing a foul with 21.7 seconds to knot the game.

All signs pointed to overtime as the Knox school had possession and holding for a shot near the end of regulation. The Falcon’s did one better as Gray tried to score and was fouled by Khari Taylor ‘19 with absolutely no time left on the clock. The sophomore went to the charity strip and calming hit the first free-throw. Game over.

Williams led the Knox School with 24 points with Gray contributing 11 points. Silverio netted a game-high 28 points.

Josh Serrano ‘18 drained a three-pointer at the beginning of the game that gave the Amityville Warriors a 3 – 2 lead but that was the first and only lead the Long Island squad had over its Queens, NY opponent. After that, it was a complete Brown-Out as 7’2” Moses Brown ‘18 had his way, scoring dunks at will. Midway through the opening quarter Molloy went on a 12 – 0 run before Serrano managed to score Amityville’s second basket of the quarter.

With help from Cole Anthony ‘19 and Jade Tse ‘18, the Stanners held a substantial 16-point lead going into the second quarter. Although the offensive burden for Amityville rested primarily on Serrano’s shoulders, the senior guard did receive help from Myles Goddard ‘21 and Branden Tannis ‘18 to keep pace with Molloy’s output. Unable to get stops, Amityville still trailed 46 – 30 at the half.

The dunks by Brown continued relentlessly and midway through the third quarter, Amityville was in a 23-point sinkhole. With Brown doing the Lions share of the scoring, the Amityville fan base tried to accuse Anthony of being “overrated.” Those chants were quickly silenced as the rivals.com 5-star point level an alley-oop dunk of his own followed by an over the rim put back. The Stanners walked away winning by 27 points.

Brown notched another double-double with 36 points and 14 rebounds and went over 1000 points (1018 total). Tse added 20 points and 9 assists with Anthony pitching in 12 points and 8 assists. Serrano led Amityville with 34 points.

A clearly dominant Christ the King squad jumped out to an early 23 – 11 lead over St. Joes but the pesky New Jersey team was filled with aerial acrobats that could knock down threes. Every time the Royals pulled away, St. Joseph’s shot themselves back into contention.

Tyson Walker ‘18 and Quaran McPherson ‘20 led the charge early for Christ the King leading up to a 11 points advantage at the end of the warm up quarter. Tavin Pierre-Phillip ‘19 carried the Royals torch in the second quarter but St. Joe’s levied a collective push back as Tyree Ford ‘21, Luke Fresco ‘19, Howard McBurnie ‘19 and K-Shawn Schulters ‘20 drained three-pointers

St. Joes trailed 44 – 32 at the half and was still behind by 10 points at the end of the fourth quarter. Because of the Royals massive interior presence of 6’11” Kofi Cockburn ‘19 and 6’10” Moussa Cisse ‘21, St. Joes was living and slowly dying by the jay

Midway through the final quarter, Christ the King’s lead grew to twenty points. To the NJ team credit, they did that deficit down to eighth points before the clock struck twelve.

Cockburn led the Royals with 17 points with Walker and McPherson scoring 14 points apiece. McBurnie paced St. Joseph’s with a game-high 25 points.

After coming off a double overtime loss to their archrival Archbishop Stepinac on Friday, Iona Prep needed a win to restore confidence. Playing the final game of the Shooting Stars Showcase against a host team that is supremely motivated to not want to lose would make for a tall order for the Gaels.

In their game against Stepinac no one led by more than four points. This game mirrored that game. With Jon Harewood ‘18 putting up points for the Friars and Souleymane Koureissi ‘18 doing the same for Iona Prep, the game was knotted at 11 after one quarter and again at 19 points at the half.

Both squad played grind ‘em out defense and it showed in the low scoring overall. Tyrone Lyons came up big for St. Anthony’s especially in the second quarter but Romar Reid ‘19 and Bryce Wills ‘18 countered but in a game of inches, the Friars pulled ahead by a point as the fourth quarter started.

Wills and Kouressi came up big late in the fourth and with 2:30 left to play, Iona Prep had its largest lead of the evening, 41 – 37. St. Anthony’s tried to close the gap but only managed to cut it in half before time ran out. “We’ll take it,” said Iona Prep head Coach Steve Alvarado as the teams shook hands.

Wills and Kouressi scored 14 points and 12 points respectively for Iona Prep. Harewood knocked down 13 points for St. Anthony.

Holy Cross takes out St. Mary’s, 58 – 45

Elijah Perry led the Knights with 23 points