In what will ultimately be remembered as legendary head coach Steve Smith's final game, five-star Arkansas signee
Jordan Walsh spoiled his going away party with 23 points nine rebounds and seven assists on 9-of-10 shooting Thursday to lead No. 3
Link Academy (Branson, Mo.) to the 81-67 victory over No. 7
Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) in the first quarterfinal contest of GEICO Nationals.
And while Smith coached his final high school basketball game, the day's biggest news was eight-seed Prolific Prep (Napa, Calif.) shocking top-seeded — and No. 1 in the National Top 20 — Sunrise Christian Academy (Bel Aire, Kan.) 59-56.
Link Academy (33-1) jumped out to an early 11-1 lead before extending their advantage to 27-14 at the end of the first quarter. The Warriors battled back in the second quarter, cutting the deficit to 34-33 after winning the frame 19-7.
The Lions won the final two quarters to secure the victory, taking the third quarter 26-19 and fourth quarter 22-15 to pull out the win in the program's first appearance in the event.
Julian Phillips chipped in 20 points and six rebounds in the win, while
Judah Mintz finished with a team-high 21 points and seven assists in the loss for the Warriors.
Smith concludes his career with an all-time record of 1,232-99 after 37 years at the helm of Oak Hill Academy, which finishes the year 33-8.
Oak Hill Academy head coach Steve Smith ends his career as the third all-time winningest coach in high school basketball history after the Warriors fell 81-67 to Link Academy in the GEICO Nationals opening round.
File photo by Randy Kemp
In what ended up being the best game of the day, the Buffaloes and the
Crew traded blows down the stretch. Junior
Scotty Middleton hit a top-of-the-key 3-pointer to give Sunrise Christian
Academy a 54-53 lead with 1:21 remaining. USC signee
Tre White responded by
knocking down a triple off the dribble from the left wing at the other end to put the Crew
back up by two with one minute remaining.
After Sunrise Christian Academy took the lead on a layup from Duke signee
Mark Mitchell, sophomore
Zion Sensley knocked down the game-winning 3-pointer on the other end to give the Crew the three-point victory.
With
Sunrise Christian Academy coming into the event ranked No. 1 in the
nation and Prolific Prep's tandem of McDonald's All-Americans Kansas
signee
M.J. Rice and UCLA signee
Adem Bona out with injury, the upset will likely go down as the biggest shocker in GEICO Nationals history.
But
on the last day of March, it is fitting that the Crew would end March
Madness with one of the greatest upsets of the high school basketball
season.
For No. 11 Prolific Prep (26-6),
Jordan Pope
led the way with a game-high 23 points in the win, connecting on 5-of -12 3-point attempts and 8-of-17 field goals attempts. White chipped in
17 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Middleton
had 16 points on 5-of-8 from the field, while Mitchell had 15 points on
7-of-12 from the field for Sunrise Christian Academy (25-2), while Kansas signee
Gradey Dick was held to five points on 1-of-10 shooting.
The No. 4 Eagles got 19 points and eight rebounds from unsigned senior
Malik Reneau to bounce the No. 6 Dragons in the day's second quarterfinal matchup.
After a back-and-forth first 12 minutes that saw 12 lead changes and three ties, Montverde Academy took a 26-25 advantage mid-way through the second quarter and never relinquished its lead.
The Eagles (20-4) stretched their advantage to as many 13 points with just over three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter but had trouble fully putting away the feisty Dragons, who cut the deficit to six points multiple times in the final two minutes.
Montverde saw a balanced scoring effort with five players scoring 10 or more points with Duke signee
Dariq Whitehead (12 points, nine assists), Texas signee
Dillon Mitchell (12 points, eight rebounds), Indiana signee
Jalen Hood-Schifino (12 points, three assists) and
Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn (10 points, three assists) each joining Reneau in double figures.
AZ Compass Prep (25-5) was led by Auburn signee
Chance Westry and Arizona commit
Kylan Boswell, who each finished with 13 points in the loss.
The No. 2 Ascenders received strong contributions from Houston signee
Jarace Walker, who led the way with a game-high 23 points, seven rebounds, five blocks and four assists while Baylor signee
Keyonte George who had 22 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
IMG Academy (21-4) jumped on the Lakers early with a 14-2 run over the first three minutes of the contest before cruising to a comfortable wire-to-wire victory that was never really in doubt.
The Ascenders were without injured point guard Jaden Bradley, but were efficient on the offense end, shooting 29 of 52 from the field (55.8 percent) while turning it over six times. Walker was 10 of 14 from the field, while George was 8 of 12.
No. 5 La Lumiere (21-5) shot 30 percent from the field, but
Taj Manning (21 points, nine rebounds, 3 blocks) and
Ryan Mabrey (15 points on 6 of 10 shooting) were bright spots for the Lakers.
The
GEICO Nationals semifinals are set for tomorrow as No. 4 Montverde
Academy faces No. 2 IMG Academy at 2:30 p.m. (ET), followed by No. 11
Prolific Prep versus No. 3 Link Academy at 4:30 p.m.
Five-star Texas signee Dillon Mitchell (23) looks to lead Montverde Academy (FL) to its sixth GEICO Nationals title.
Photo by Pete Wright
