Also, Collick retires; Smyrna High School girls win key game; St. Mark's girls remain unbeaten.
Newark senior point guard LeShawn Washington sent Tuesday night’s Flight A Conference game at Concord into overtime with an 8-foot baseline jumper, allowing the Yellowjackets to come away with a hard-fought 55-53 overtime win and avenge an early-season loss to the Raiders.
Sophomore guard Taylor Reynolds finished with a team-high 15 points, including four in overtime, while junior center Shakore Grant added 14 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots for Newark. Dominick Perry chipped in 12 points, including four in overtime.
"The Concord win was the most impressive so far this season," Newark coach Shannon McCants said. "But I still feel we didn't play as good as we should have knowing we already lost to them. Concord is a good team."
Aaron Burton scored 18 points and Jordan Dupree added 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Raiders. Newark (13-2) followed that performance up with a much easier 78-58 win over district rival Glasgow on Thursday night. Kadeem Brown had 23 points and Raymar Wescott scored 16 for the Yellowjackets, who, with the win, took over first place in the Blue Hen Flight A Conference with a 10-1 conference record.
2. Feb. 1 rankings:
Boys basketball
1. Sanford (14-0)
2. Newark (13-2)
3. Delcastle (13-1)
4. Hodgson Vo-Tech (15-1)
5. Concord (11-3)
Girls basketball
1. St. Mark’s (12-0)
2. Sanford (12-4)
3. Smyrna (15-2)
4. Ursuline (8-5)
5. Cape Henlopen (10-3)
3. Collick retires after 35 years: Sussex Tech football coach Bill Collick has called it a career, announcing his retirement Friday morning. Collick, whose coaching stops included Cape Henlopen High School and Delaware State College (now University) before being hired as Sussex Tech’s third football coach in 2000, had a record of 52-48 in 10 years at the Georgetown school. He led the Ravens to the state tournament twice and his team was crowned Henlopen Conference Northern Division co-champions last season.
Collick will be on the sideline one last time when he serves as head coach of the Gold Team in the annual Blue-Gold All-Star football game in June.
4. Smyrna girls rally to edge Cape Henlopen: Junior forward Begnijah Laney scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead Smyrna to a 49-46 victory over Cape Henlopen in a key Henlopen Conference Northern Division game Tuesday night. The Eagles then soared to an easy 75-36 victory over Sussex Tech on Thursday night.
5. St. Mark’s maintains No. 1 ranking with big win over Ursuline: Junior Allison Zimny poured in 16 points and sophomore Lindsey Nichols added 13, including 6-of-7 from the free-throw line, to lead the Spartans to a 55-44 win over rival Ursuline Academy on Thursday night. "I’m very pleased with our season up to this point," St. Mark’s coach John Fiorelli said after the game. "Right now we’re dealing with the loss of our senior captain and everyone on the team has had to step up a bit, and that has meant some younger players have had to play more minutes and our older players have had to provide even more leadership."
First-rate performers in the first state
* Gibbs (Smyrna): The sophomore guard scored 30 points in a 76-59 win over Cape Henlopen on Tuesday and followed that up with a 25-point performance in the Eagles’ 53-49 victory over Sussex Tech on Thursday night.
* A.J. English III (Appoquinimink): The junior guard poured in 30 points in the Jaguars’ 82-64 win over St. Georges Tech on Thursday night. Earlier in the week he scored 26 points in an 84-66 win over McKean.
* Marques Jones (Milford): The senior guard scored 27 points, including 8-of-10 from the charity stripe, to lead the Bucs to an 87-75 win over Cape Henlopen.
Recruiting news
* Appoquinimink junior guard A.J. English III told Premo Hoops Recruiting he is being heavily recruited by Marquette, George Mason, VCU, Xavier and Virginia.
* Former Delcastle High football standout Marquis George has signed a letter of intent to attend Jacksonville State University, where he is projected to play on the defensive line. He played the last two seasons with Dodge City (Kan.) Community College.
* Former St. Elizabeth High offensive tackle Pat McCloskey signed a letter of intent with Akron University. He played last season at Nassau (N.Y.) Community College.
DVR alert
* The two top boys teams in Flight A square off when No. 2 Newark (13-2) travels to play No. 4 Delcastle (13-1) on Thursday at 5:30. Newark handed Delcastle its lone loss, 61-57, on Jan. 11.
* On the girls side, No. 1 St. Mark’s (12-0) travels to No. 2 Sanford (12-4) for a Saturday 1 p.m. game.
The buzz
* In what seems like the biggest news story since that Escalade crashed into a tree, as reported Friday by MaxPreps.com’s Dave Krider, David Sills, a highly-touted quarterback at Red Lion Christian Academy in Bear, Del., has verbally committed to attend USC after being offered a scholarship by coach Lane Kiffin.
The problem? Sills is in seventh grade, yet to play one snap at any level of high school football. What’s even more preposterous is that neither party is legally bound to anything. Sills or Kiffin could change his mind 1,000 times between now and Feb. 3, 2015, the date Sills can officially sign a national letter of intent. Per NCAA rules Kiffin isn’t even allowed to initiate contact with Sills — the quarterback called Kiffin to avoid an NCAA violation — until May 2014.
I don’t blame the kid, the coach or the parent. I blame the system. Maybe the NCAA really does have bigger problems than worrying about whether to expand March Madness from 65 to 96 teams when its coaches are formally talking to seventh-graders.
Jon Buzby is the sports columnist for the Newark Post, a freelance writer, and occasional color commentator for the 1290 AM The Ticket High School Football Game of the Week. You can reach him at jonbuzby@hotmail.com.
