By Danny Wild
MaxPreps.com
NEW YORK - The only thing better than beating another New York City rival? Smacking around a team from Jersey.
Rice, ranked in the top 25 of every national poll, overcame a super-sized 13-point third-quarter deficit to beat St. Patrick of New Jersey, 60-57, in the championship of the 25th McDonald's Classic in Pennsylvania.
Last week, Rice fell to Jersey rival St. Benedict's Prep at the Garden in front of Division I coaches and thousands of fans. Sunday's win over the Garden State's Celtics, with Ronald McDonald himself courtside, made it three wins in a row for the Raiders. The Harlem squad dumped Cathedral Prep (Erie, Pa.) on Friday, 87-63, and now have some momentum heading into a rough stretch: Holy Cross on the road on Jan. 29 and St. Raymond, at home, on Feb. 1.
Rice made 13-of-32 three-pointers to beat Cathedral Prep in the first round, but were just 1-of-9 in the first half against St. Pat's. Dorvell Carter scored 15 points, University of Connecticut-bound Kemba Walker added 14 and Chris Fouch knocked down a tournament record eight three-pointers. No word on whether the HamBurglar handed out the MVP hardware.
"We have a lot of guys who contribute who come off the bench," Carter told The Erie Times-News. The senior scored 12 of his team-high 15 points thanks to a pair of second-half three-pointers. "Coach said if you play defense, offense will come," added Carter.
"We had to make some adjustments at halftime," Rice coach Mo Hicks told the newspaper. "Once we got the lead, the ball was in our court."
Quintrell Thomas led St. Pat's with 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Dexter Strickland added 15 points in the loss.
The Raiders victory also affected the national scorecard. Rice moved up from No. 9 to No. 5 in the nation this week in the ESPN poll, while St. Patrick dropped from No. 3 to No. 7.
Rank `Em (If you can)
Enough of McDonald's. Remain seated and grab some note paper - New York teams are splattered around the various national rankings, but no one can seem to agree on who should go where, and the best I can do is sift through it all.
Let's start with Rice, for example. The Raiders are as high as No. 5 in the nation (ESPN) and as low as No. 12 (MaxPreps). Here's a better look:
Rice (13-2)
No. 5 - ESPN Elite 25
No. 9 - Sports Illustrated Top-25
No. 11 - USA Today Super 25
No. 12 - MaxPreps
Regionally, things get even more fried for Rice:
No. 2 - MaxPreps state rankings
No. 3 - New York State Sportswriters Assoc.
No. 2 - MSG
No. 3 - ESPN (Eastern Regional)
ESPN has several teams from the five boroughs in the national poll. We already know about Rice, so here's the rest of Monday's lineup: St. Raymond of the Bronx is ranked No. 9, Queens' Christ the King took No. 10, and Flushing's Holy Cross was ranked No. 23 in the High Elite 25.
Sports Illustrated also has the nation covered. Lincoln is ranked No. 12, St. Ray is No. 15, Holy Cross No. 19 and Christ the King snuck in at No. 24.
More? MSG released its newest regional boys Top-10 rankings on Monday. Here's how it shakes down from the Garden: 1: St. Anthony, NJ (13-0); 2: Rice, NY (13-2); 3: St. Benedict's, NJ(16-1); St. Patrick, NJ (13-2); 5: St. Raymond, NY (15-2); 6: Lincoln, NY (14-2); 7: Christ the King, NY (12-2); 8: Holy Cross, NY (12-3); 9: Mt. Vernon, NY (10-2); 10: Paterson Catholic, NJ (10-3)
Let's forget I even brought this up. Here's a quick rundown of the MaxPreps state poll from Friday, which doesn't seem to change too much each week:
1. Holy Cross
2. Rice
3. Bishop Loughlin
4. Lincoln
5. St. Raymond
6. Boys & Girls
7, Christ the King
8. Mt. Vernon (Section 1)
9. Cleveland (Buffalo)
10. Henninger (`Cuse)
Lance-Mania: On the court, on TV, on the web, with opossum
The Lance Stephenson hype/drama/lovefest continues, and now you can watch the Lincoln star online in his own reality TV show. I'm not kidding.
BornReady.tv has eight web episodes currently playing online that take you through the daily routines of Lance and his Coney Island family. I highly recommend watching this show, titled "Born Ready," as it is very well-done and brings you into the life of this rising star. Lance dominated competition over the summer after helping Lincoln win the PSAL championship last year, but it has not been a smooth winter for the Brooklyn junior. An ankle injury derailed the Railsplitter early on, and he's just recently returned from a five-day fist-fighting school suspension. You can read more about that incident in last week's notebook.
Check out the show. Some good hip hop tracks, Brooklyn scenes, and you'll meet a bunch of Lance's buddies - guys named Tiny, Crunch, Bigz, Smooth, and Lance's father, Stretch. The cameras follow Lance around his house, past a bloody Coney Island crime scene, to the summer ball court, and in Episode 4, you sit backseat as Lance drives his mother crazy behind the wheel of her Toyota.
It gets even better. In Episode 5 ("Possum Island"), Stretch (Lance Sr.) finds a dead-looking opossum in the family's garbage can.
"It's big?" Lance asks as he comes to inspect.
"Hell yeah it's big," Stretch replies. The opossum, with its ratty white tail, is shown lying on top of the garbage.
"When I seen it in the garbage, I was like `oh my god,'" Lance says. "Eww. It's like a big rat."
Incredible. Oh, and even more: Lance and Lincoln, rodents aside, will face Holy Cross on Sunday and the game will be broadcast live on MSG at 6 p.m.
One more note: MaxPreps photographer Kevin Yen hit up the Spalding Hoophall Classic on Saturday and got some killer shots of Lincoln taking on Pius XI (Wisconsin), so check them out.
Hoophall in New England
Kevin and Lisa Yen made the trek up to Springfield, Mass., to cover the Spalding Hoophall Classic along with MaxPreps' Steve Spiewak. Be sure to check out the excellent photo galleries.
St. Ray Destroys No. 7 Taft
An East-West-coast showdown on Sunday went to the Bronx when St. Ray scored a big 84-69 win over Taft (California) on Sunday at the 2008 Spalding Hoophall Classic. Kevin Parrom had a game-high 27 points and 16 rebounds while Omari Lawrence added 13 in the Ravens win.
Taft, ranked No. 7 by MaxPreps, No. 21 by USA Today and No. 13 by ESPN, was led by Eugene Phelps' 20 points and 11 boards.
The second quarter started with an 8-4 run by St. Raymond to open up a 28-22. Parrom and West Virginia-bound Darryl "Truck" Bryant combined for six points in the run. Taft rallied and nearly tied it in the fourth after Terran Carter's layup made it 60-59. Parrom exploded with eight points in the final seven minutes to help the Ravens to a 15-point win.
No. 4 Archbishop Mitty 62, No. 10 Holy Cross 61
Holy Cross, ranked No. 10 in the nation by MaxPreps, blew its chance in the final seconds on a missed bounce pass and fell to Archbishop Mitty (Calif.) by one point on Sunday.
Virginia-bound Sylven Landesberg led the Queens squad with a game-high 26 points and 8-of-22 shooting from the field. Blaise Ffrench and Kayvon Roberts each scored 14 for Holy Cross.
Mitty, undefeated at 16-0, entered the game ranked No. 4 nationally by MaxPreps.
Lincoln 89, Milwaukee Pius XI (Wis.) 56
Lance Stephenson and Darwin Ellis combined for 41 points in the huge win for the Railsplitters. Lance poured in 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Ellis added 19 points and Justin Greene chipped in 10 points and 10 boards. Photos here.
Also check out more photos from Holy Cross and Ursuline Academy.
More Than One Walker
Step aside, Kemba. Erving Walker, a 5-8 guard from Christ the King, was named Most Valuable Player of the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions after averaging 30 points in three victories. The Florida-bound Walker dropped 24 points in the final game, with 17 coming from the charity stripe alone. Walker also scored 33 points in the quarterfinals.
Danny Wild is a writer and photographer for MaxPreps and can be reached at danny@danny-wild.com
