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Trabs Gabs: Big-time players from smaller schools on the big stage and semifinal battles

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Justice Smith (right) became the all-time scoring leader in Lyons program history this past Tuesday. He and his brother, Justin (left), lead the top-seeded Lions into Friday’s Class C2 final. Lyons will match up with No. 3 seed Red Jacket. A 7:00 PM tip-off is scheduled on Les Harrison Court at the Blue Cross Arena. (Photo: JOE BRADT)

By MATT TRABOLD

TRABS KEEPS TABS

Big-time Players from Smaller Schools Hitting the Big Stage

For the second year in a row, Section V boys basketball is returning to its once more annual format of every single sectional title game being played at Blue Cross Arena rather than one featuring a couple of the smaller classification championship contests being waged on separate neutral sites a good deal south of the city of Rochester closer to where a lot of the smaller schools reside, such as Alfred University. One of the countless reasons the NCAA Tournament is so, so popular is electric players from smaller programs that do not regularly have televised games getting an exciting opportunity on a big stage to show their mettle against household names. This type of spectacle can also happen in a major way in the younger form of the sport that will be occurring tonight and tomorrow at Blue Cross Arena, with supreme hardwood weapons from programs far away from the immediate Rochester area venturing to play in a more populated area of the section.

Earlier on this season, all eyes in the Section V boys basketball world were on Northstar Christian star and future Division I collegiate basketballer Miles Brown’s quest to become the all-time leading career scorer for the section. After Brown accomplished that milestone a pair of days before the end of December 2018, a similar quest picked up steam 77.7 miles southwest of where Northstar Christian resides on Spencerport Road in the town of Gates. By February 13 in a game against Arkport-Canaseraga, Belfast senior guard Adam Enders also broke what was the Section V boys basketball all-time career scoring record coming into this season. Adam is currently at 2,494 career points. Rather ironically, Enders is also atop the Section V boys soccer all-time career goals list. In the Class D2 sectional title game tomorrow, Enders and Belfast will be facing off against sectional title game staple Prattsburgh and star junior Mason Putnam, who is No. 7 on the Section V boys basketball active career scoring list. The Class D1 sectional title game tomorrow will feature Avoca and LaDre Stanford, who is currently No. 4 on that list behind Brown, Enders and Justice Smith of Lyons.

Going from the Section V boys basketball active career scoring list to the double-double leaders list for this section from the regular season this campaign, a pair of smaller classification sectional title games going on at Blue Cross Arena between tonight and tomorrow will feature players prominently featured on that latter list. The Class D1 sectional title game tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 PM between the top two seeds in that postseason bracket features 6-foot-3 Mount Morris senior captain Cameron Regal. One of his recent claims to fame is placing tied for No. 6 on that double-double leaders list with seventeen double-doubles this year before this playoff bracket started up. One of those regal Regal double-doubles was even a triple-double. Tonight, in the Class C3 sectional title game against Caledonia-Mumford, another member of this Herculean list will do battle in front of the fans in the Blue Cross Arena stands. Despite being a 6-foot-1 guard, York senior Matthew McFarland landed in a tie for the No. 23 spot on the aforementioned double-doubles leaderboard with ten double-doubles.

Another Class C sectional title game hitting the floor this evening boasts the previously mentioned Justice Smith, who was tied at the very top of this double-doubles list with Dan Cook of Pittsford Mendon and Ryan Davis of now ousted Alexander with nineteen double-doubles. Justice’s sophomore younger brother Justin Smith is one of the very most underrated players in the entire section this year. Justin is one of the tallest and lengthiest backcourt players in the area at 6-foot-3. He can score in a multitude of ways driving to the cup, but he really shines on the defensive end as a stifling on-ball defender that uses his mouth just as productively shutting down opposing players as his wingspan, athleticism and reflexes.

 

SLAP YOUR PEEPERS ON THIS QUARTET

Class C1 No. 1 Marcus Whitman vs. Class C1 No. 3 Charles Finney at Blue Cross Arena—Fri., March 1, 9:00 PM

Yes, Marcus Whitman was the superior seed on Tuesday against Avon, but coming out victorious in that one by double figures is probably the Wildcats’ most impressive result of this year so far regardless of what part of the season it came in. Avon has the star power of Connor Taylor, who is truly looked upon around the section as one of the very best players whatever the classification may be. The 63-51 postseason win three days ago over those Braves and taking down Red Jacket by 37 points back on January 29 are two beacons of this dream season for Marcus Whitman. Fifth-year varsity player Jon Donovan is unquestionably the top scoring option for Greg O’Connor and his staff. With how shifty he can be navigating through defenders on the fly, Donovan is tough to stop on the break despite standing just 5-foot-10. His big head of hair, the face mask he has been wearing on the court of late and his wowing passing abilities are arguably the three top hallmarks of Seth Benedict as a basketball player right now, but the unrelenting tenacity the 5-foot-10 junior plays with allows him to regularly garner success banging on the blocks. Another asset O’Connor and company can employ is 6-foot-5 stud forward Liam Prendergast being a much bigger body than Class C squads in this section are usually used to going up against. Charles Finney has really ramped up its caliber of play over the last foursome of ballgames especially, including falling to Northstar Christian by a single bucket, downing a more than strong Lyndonville group by a whopping seventeen points and easily dispatching of thousand-point scorer Jayden Castrechini and Gananda by 28 points last time out. When it comes to Charles Finney in this postseason run, many eyes are on Markus Robinson to see if he will keep scoring in the twenties as an eighth-grader playing in the added rigors of sectionals.

 

Class AA No. 3 McQuaid Jesuit vs. Class AA No. 8 University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men at Blue Cross Arena—Sat., March 2, 9:00 PM

To a certain degree, the sectional semifinal pairing on Tuesday of Class AA No. 2 seed Gates-Chili and Class AA No. 3 seed McQuaid Jesuit felt to a good deal of Section V boys basketball followers and fans like a sectional final of sorts in this sectional bracket with Hilton already out of the mix and after what the Spartans and Knights did in the regular season compared to the rest of the classification. What helped Gates-Chili storm back in the final quarter and a half after being down by seventeen points early in the third quarter Tuesday night before ultimately falling to Jack Leasure’s club was having one of the top few scorers of the basketball in the section in Keith Slack and one of the top few team defenses in the section. University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men could scare McQuaid Jesuit in this one because the Griffins are also known for their defensive prowess and one of those scorers that rarely, rarely are denied in senior starting point guard Jakhi Lucas. In every season in its still pretty short lifespan, regardless of what the coaching staff and player roster looks like, University Prep has always displayed a commitment and consequent skill at running, running, more running and defensive effort. By now, you can always expect a University Prep team to have premium team speed, premium team athleticism and premium team size. Na’Zea Fowlks has pulled off one of the tip-top in-season production growths in the section this campaign. His name was not even listed on the paper rosters handed out at the home opener way back when against Fairport, and now he is arguably the second option for the squad. The also vastly improved Krystain Lee is the perfect representation of the team’s mighty overall defensive effort and defensive skill. Now healthy 6-foot-3 McQuaid Jesuit freshman Justus Ross-Simmons has quickly become someone the Knights can lean on due to his on-ball defense talents, skill at getting to the rim to score and quiet poise of a much more experienced player.

 

Class A1 No. 1 Pittsford Mendon vs. Class A1 No. 2 Greece Athena at Blue Cross Arena—Sat., March 2, 7:00 PM

This particular sectional title game will have a different look than the last few years with it not being a matchup of Greece Athena and Irondequoit like in 2018 and 2017. That is just one of the many indications that Bob Nally’s Pittsford Mendon team this go-through is really weaving together something special. Jacob Shadders was a dangerous and efficient perimeter shooter last year as a freshman, but the confidence and dribbling ability he has added as a sophomore allows him, and the team as a whole, to find all sorts of success against any type of team in these parts at the very least. 6-foot-6 senior Dan Cook was able to thoroughly utilize his God-given impressive wingspan last season, but the productive weight he added to his frame for his final campaign with the Vikings propelled him to recording scoring and rebounding both in double figures in all but one ballgame of the regular season that wrapped up a little while ago.

Greece Athena will be looking to vastly improve its performance against these Pittsford Mendon forces compared to the last night these two teams squared off around twenty days ago. There are not too many individuals that could have guessed the Trojans would come out on the losing end of that February 8 showdown by a whole 26 points. Mike Setzer’s group will want to compete more similarly to its four-point loss against still undefeated Pittsford Mendon a couple months prior on December 5. Tireless senior captain Johnny Salone has a very similar body type to Cook in a slightly shorter package at 6-foot-2. If these Trojans want to keep up with the perimeter offense barrage Shadders and company usually exhibit, fellow senior captain Isaiah Brock will need to have his upgraded perimeter shot cooking alongside what Kelvin Reaves, Jr. and DeAndre Newsome can do. Greece Athena currently boasts four frontcourt players in its true rotation, while Pittsford Mendon really only has two guys that fit that description in Cook and junior Nate Strauf.

 

Class A2 No. 1 East High vs. Class A2 No. 6 Pittsford Sutherland at Blue Cross Arena—Sat., March 2, 5:00 PM

Pittsford basketball teams find a way to at least stick around most seasons. Yes, Pittsford Sutherland got to play a No. 10 seed for its berth into this Class A2 sectional title game, but Wilson Magnet was exponentially better than its low seeding would suggest. If you wanted to hone in on the common opponent between these two sides from the regular season this year of Leadership Academy for Young Men, John Nally’s men downed those Lions by 22 points ironically on the home floor of East High, while the Eagles struggled for much of the time in their three victories against Reggie Simmons’s group this year by a cumulative seventeen points. The specific form and level of juju that Pittsford Sutherland has been channeling in this postseason run as a No. 6 seed might remind some of what the program did in sectional play in 2016. That sectional bracket journey ended with current FBS running back Josh Mack and the Knights pulling off a big Class A1 championship game upset by a whopping seventeen points against current University of Vermont superstar Anthony Lamb and Greece Athena. If slashing talents Ben DiGiovanni and John Messina focus on attacking the basket rather than settling for jump shots, that could be an important factor in this one. 6-foot-6 four-year star Kevin Ryan is the most successfully traditional post player in this matchup. With that being said, the more versatile style of East High’s 6-foot-6 Penfield transfer Dyllon Scott has also proven to be more than productive this go-around. This battle will actually be the first one against a Monroe County league opponent for the Eagles. Before handling defending Class A2 champion Wayne Central in essentially all four quarters on Wednesday, East High had to put together a significant second-half surge to squeak by in three of its four prior contests against Class A2 opponents.

 

SECTION V IN DIVISION I UPDATE

Keith McGee—So., New Mexico (Greece Arcadia)

His Lobos fell in the end to San Jose State on Tuesday, but that did not prevent Keith from making headlines with his statistical eruption off the bench against the Spartans there. By recording 25 points on 52.6 percent shooting from the field and a fivesome of successful shot attempts from downtown three nights ago, McGee is now able to say that he has scored at least twenty points twice in his last four ballgames. Versus the Spartans that night, he also went for five assists, which was his highest assists output in a single game since a January 12 meeting with Colorado State. Keith is now up to 41.7 percent shooting from deep, which is barely under Anthony Mathis for the team lead. Mathis spent a significant portion of time at the start of this campaign first nationally in perimeter shooting percentage.

Jalen Pickett—Fr., Siena (Aquinas Institute) 

The dude just keeps finding a way to star. On Sunday against Marist, Jalen did not score quite as efficiently from the floor as he usually does for the Saints, but he still nearly reached double figures in three different main statistics with eleven points, eight rebounds, ten assists, just a pair of turnovers and two blocked shots. With what he did getting teammates involved against those Red Foxes this past weekend, Pickett is currently on a streak of three contests with at least nine assists thrown. Those ten helpers last time out allowed him to break into the top ten nationally in assists average. On top of that, Jalen is now just two behind former star Buckeye and Celtic Jared Sullinger in Division I men’s basketball history in terms of most conference rookie of the week awards. His ten so far ties him with the likes of Tyler Hansbrough, Jabari Parker, Carmelo Anthony, Lamar Odom and Kenny Anderson.

Anthony Lamb—Jr., Vermont (Greece Athena)

After not scoring in the twenties, in a loss last Thursday to Maryland, Baltimore County, for the first time since returning from a short injury stint seven ballgames ago, Lamb went for 28 points, twelve rebounds and just a single turnover on Saturday against Binghamton. That performance versus those Bearcats was the sixth double-double of the season for Anthony. His shot-blocking is down slightly over his past quartet of contests, with one combined blocked shot against New Hampshire, Hartford, Maryland, Baltimore County and Binghamton. With that being said, the fact that Anthony is still averaging a pair of blocked shots an outing and is still in the lofty top 45 in the country in shot-blocking shows how polished and improved he has been protecting the rim this season as a whole.

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