Hoophall Saturday: Ohio State-bound Scott turns jeers into cheers for Milton

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Shannon Scott was booed by a pack of fans early in the first quarter Saturday when he made a fundamental layup instead of going for the highlight reel slam dunk against top-ranked Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.).

Those boos quickly transformed into cheers as Scott, a 6-foot-2 guard who has signed to Ohio State, put on a dominating performance, scoring 12 of his 22 points in the first quarter, propelling Milton (Ga.) to a 75-69 upset victory in the premier game of the 10th annual Spalding Hoophall Classic at Springfield College.

"Our game plan was to jump on them real fast and get them off their momentum early," Scott said. "We got on them early so they had to come back the whole game."

The Eagles continuously attacked Oak Hill's man-to-man defense with speed in the first quarter, outscoring the Warriors 25-9.



Oak Hill (15-1) came in No. 1 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 national rankings while Milton (13-2) was No. 11.

Oak Hill got as close as 62-60 in the fourth quarter after a Ketih Hornsby three-pointer, but could not pull off the comeback. The Warriors had a chance to cut the lead back to three with 1:55 remaining but A.J. Hammons turned the ball over out of bounds down low.

"We were just playing out of character," said Oak Hill coach Steve Smith. "I don't know why, but you have to give them credit. They were the better team tonight."

Milton coach David Boyd understood Oak Hill would be bigger, stronger and have a deeper bench, but he believed his team could utilize its speed and quickness.

Boyd had guards Scott and Dai-Jon Parker (19 points) continuously slash into the teeth of the Warriors interior defense. The duo combined for 41 points.

"I'm a little bit biased on this, but I think they're the best guard combination in the country and they showed it," Boyd said.



Smith blamed his team's lack of ability to get back on defense in transition early for the large-first quarter deficit.

"In the first eight-to-10 minutes they must have had three or four run-outs, and it also got us into foul trouble," he said. "I thought we were ready to play physically, mentally and for some reason we weren't getting back on defense."

Milton had its largest lead early in the second quarter after a Jordan Loyd (10 points) basket gave the Eagles a 35-15 lead.

However, Oak Hill used a zone defense to slowly climb back into the game, and finished the first half on an 18-10 run to cut the deficit to 45-33.

Late in the third quarter, Quinn Cook (16 points) forced a quick turnover with a steal and fed Damien Wilson (10 points) for a quick chip-in to give Oak Hill its first lead since early in the first quarter, 51-50.

The lead was short lived as Scott bounced right back and led Milton on a 6-0 run to end the quarter and preserve the Eagles victory.



"I just felt like if we could withstand the body blows that they threw at us we could still come back and win," Boyd said. "I'm really proud of how we hung in there when they came back and took the lead."

{PAGEBREAK}No. 4 St. Anthony (Jersey City, N.J.) 75, No. 20 DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) 25: The St. Anthony Friars gave coach Bob Hurley another reason to be "enamored" with a city the 2010 Basketball Hall of Famer has come to love.

Four months after their coach was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the Friars opened with an 18-0 run and held the Stags to a season-low 25 points in an all-around dominating performance in front of former DeMatha coaching great and fellow Hall of Famer Morgan Wootten.

"We haven't played a schedule as tough as DeMatha's and we were very concerned today that their strength of schedule would make it hard for us," Hurley said. "But our players started off so well and we never really gave them anything."

Myles Mack put on a clinic from beyond the arc and scored a game-high 28 points. The senior, who has committed to Rutgers, connected on 6-of-7 three point attempts.

"If Mike Rice from Rutgers was home watching and I'm sure Mike was, he probably is pretty happy," Hurley said.

Mack showed off his quickness with six consecutive fastbreak points to end the first half giving the Friars a 38-10 lead. His finest play of the run was when he took the ball himself the length of the court, crossed between two defenders and finished with a right-handed layup.



"I was just trying to get my team involved in the first half," Mack said. "I got behind my screens, hit 3s and felt confident."

DeMatha coach Mike Jones said his team failed to execute the scouting report on Mack and failed to use fatigue, travel or a Thursday night game as an excuse.

"No, these guys are teen-agers," Jone said. "You're on national television, how can you not get ready for that? I just feel bad for DeMatha. Just the name."

Despite being the smaller of the two teams, St. Anthony outscored the Stags 44-12 in the paint.

"Our defense was great and our offensive execution was tremendous," Hurley said. "And our points in the paint is kind of unbelievable.

"This was a big stage for them for the first time this year, and we really responded well. We have a bunch of big games coming up after this, but this is something we can really build on."



{PAGEBREAK}Taft (Woodland Hills, Calif.) 72, Mt. Vernon (N.Y.) 56: The Toreadors were unstoppable in the paint out-rebounding the Knights 49-35 in a victory in which Taft never trailed.

Kevin Johnson highlighted Taft's interior dominance with 26 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. The 6-foot-10-inch center made a series of close lay-ins with one, two and sometimes three defenders on him.

C.J. Blackwell was next in line with 14 rebounds and chipped in another 13 points. Stephen Maxwell also posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 boards.

Jabarie Hinds struggled from the field by going 7-for-25 for 18 points for Mount Vernon who as a team shot 28.9 percent.

Morgan Park (Chicago, Ill.) 78, Garfield (Seattle, Wash.) 67: Despite giving Morgan Park a scare in the first half, Wayne Blackshear responded by pouring in a game-high 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting to lead the Mustangs to victory.

Blackshear was down on the ground for a few minutes in the second quarter grasping his left knee when the 6-5 forward's knee buckled from underneath him on the landing from a dunk attempt.

Morgan Park continuously found the basket and finished the game with a 50 percent field goal percentage and held on to the victory despite sending Garfield to the free throw line 37 times. The Bulldogs were 23-of-37 (62 percent) from the charity stripe.



Tony Wroten Jr. had 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead Garfield.

Adrian Jeffries and Tucker Haymond each grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.

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Hoophall notes: The 6-3 tandem of Torin Childs-Harris (34 points, 13 rebounds) and Kris Dunn (26 points) contributed for 60 New London (Conn.) points in a 72-59 victory over Albany Academy for Boys (N.Y.). … St. Anthony will tour the Basketball Hall of Fame on Sunday and admitted it will be a little "weird" seeing himself among basketball's elite. … Taft's Spencer Dinwiddie (11 assists) got politely turned down when he looked for a high-five from an official following an "And-1" layup. Dinwiddie settled by giving him a pat on the back. ... The Boston Celtics' backup point guard Nate Robinson made an appearance inside Blake Arena. ... Victor Aytche (15 points, 11 rebounds) and Mikhal Asad (17 points, 10 rebounds) led West Springfield (Mass.) past East Hartford (Conn.) 61-47 for its eighth straight victory. Asad scored 14 of his 17 in the second half. ... Central (Springfield, Mass.) defeated Chicopee (Mass.) 57-53 behind 18 points from Ruben Del Rosario. Central replaced Columbia (Huntsville, Ala.) after the team could not make it to Springfield due to inclement weather.