Haverford School, Philadelphia, Pa………. The Jersey Sophomore’s took a 20-19 lead into the 2nd quarter and stayed in it at the half, down a point 42-41! But in the second half, Philly took over and opened the game up for a 93-77 victory in the 9th annual Eddie Griffin Challenge! Neuman Goretti’s Jaquan Newton led the way for Philadelphia, scoring 21 points with 4 assists! Newton got to the basket and either finished or found an open teammate underneath! Most times he found Roman Catholic’s Basil Thompson(18 pts) or Friere Charter’s Jahyde Gardiner(10 pts,8rebs)! Jersey’s scoring was coming from Hackensack H.S. swingman Rashard Figures who finished with 21 points, including 3 “triples”! Jersey also got tremendous efforts from Newark Eastside’s Ismael Sanogo who finished with 10 points and 9 rebounds and Hawthorne Christian’s Alex Thomas who rolled triple 7’s in points,rebounds and blocked shots( falling one block shy of a tie with Andrew Bynum for the E.B.C. record)! Newton(right) and Figures(pictured with J.R. Smith and Wayne Ellington) were voted M.V.P.’s of the game for their prospective teams! 

Kennedy H.S. Paterson, N.J………. The Playaz 16’s and The Kings St. 15’s were winners in The Playaz Club sponsored We Got Next Tournament! The Playaz(right) won decisively in the “Chip” beating the Albany Athlete’s Only team 63-38 as Marques Townes led the scoring with 17 points, while Alex Thomas, Rashard Figures and Isaiah Briscoe all added 9 points in the victory! Isaiah Bodere led Albany with 12 points! Briscoe was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Player putting up big numbers most of the weekend! The King St. 15’s and the Playaz 15’s got in to a real battle for the” Chip” as the game went back and forth the entire contest! In the end, King St(left). overcame a 25 point effort from the Playaz superb guard Nassir Barrino to hang on to a 60-57 win! Kelly Hogan led the effort for Kings St. with 20 and 15 from Justin Salem! The Playaz Marquel Sheffield also played well, scoring 10 points and pulling down 12 rebounds including many putbacks! Nick Brooks also finished with 10 for the Playaz!

Kennedy H.S., Paterson……..The game of the night in the Playaz sponsored Fallball league featured Kyle Anderson’s Reebok Back against the Gray Bees! The game didn’t live up to the hype as Anderson and fellow Senior Jerome Frink took control to lead Reebok to an easy win over the Bees 57-40! With a minimum of 8 D1 players on the court between the two teams the expectations were high but the show didn’t meet expectations! Frink led the scoring with 21 and the U.C.L.A. commit Anderson added 20! Senior Tariq Carey led the Gray Bees with 12 points,while senior Melvin Johnson finished with 11! In other action, the Hudson Hawks cruised past the Paramus Paladins 56-31 as Junior Mike Young led the scoring with 17! Paramus was led by Sophomore Jalen Hernandez with 10! The Somerset County’s Best easily beat the Paterson Spirits as Senior Dominic Hoffman scored 14 in the 49-33 win! Junior Xavier Fulmore led the Spirits with 10 points off the bench! In the final contest, Senior Chris Jones scored 21 points, Junior Joel Hernandez added 13 and Junior Shakir Lindsey added 11 as the Bergen Highwaymen beat St. Raymonds 57-43! Senior Daniel Dingle led the Ray’s with 14 points!

                                                  SINA DECOMMITS FROM ALABAMA 

  Junior Jaren Sina ranked the #1 Junior in the State in some sites has decommitted from his verbal to the University of Alabama! Saying that he still liked the school, “he wanted to test the waters to see what else was out there!” Alabama is still very much in the picture Sina said!  The Gill St. Bernard stud has had a strong A.A.U. season this summer and was still getting  alot of looks from other schools!