Samardo Samuels came off the bench to score 14 points and grab 13 rebounds and Greg Echenique and Paterson's Tamir Jackson added 15 apiece to lead St. Benedict's to a 55-52 victory over Manhattan power Rice in the Nike Super Six Invitational at Madison Square Garden.
St. Ben's head coach Danny Hurley sat Samuels -- the subject of an interesting feature in Sunday's New York Times -- to start the game because of what he called "a coach's decision." Hurley said he was less than pleased with Samuels' performance during and after the team's loss Tuesday to the Academy of the New Church (Pa.), St. Ben's first and only loss this season. Samuels also arrived late to a practice. But the Louisville-bound Samuels still earned MVP honors for St. Ben's, which entered as the No. 1 team in the nation in the ESPN, USA Today and Prepnation.com polls.
As for the Samuels situation, Hurley said: "Sometimes you look at these kids, he's 6-9, he's 245. He's built like a man, and sometimes it's hard to realize that they're teenagers and that they make mistakes.
"Some other coaches would maybe have looked at what happened this week and said, 'No big deal.' I got from my old man (Bob Hurley) and other coaches, small things are a big deal with me."
UConn-bound PG Kemba Walker scored 18 for Rice and Durand Scott added 14.
Rice was coming off a thrilling 81-74 OT victory Saturday evening over CHSAA rival St. Raymond, which earlier lost to St. Patrick, 64-56. New Jersey won two of three games at the event, with only Paterson Catholic losing to Mount Vernon.
The game was tied at 49 before St. Ben's closed it with 6-3 run. Jackson scored three points on foul shots and Samuels made a three-point play in the paint.
Still, when Danny Hurley wakes up on Monday, he is likely to fall behind his father, Bob, in the national polls. St. Anthony, No. 1 in the ZAGSBLOG Top 10, remains unbeaten.
The two teams won't play each other while Bob is the head coach at St. Anthony.
"I wouldn't want to play them this year," Danny said. "He's got a great team and we don't talk about (the rankings) at all. We just talk about how miserable we are during the season."
(Photo courtesy New York Times)
Unfortunately, I didn't attend the games. While Rice is a perimeter-oriented team, how did Greg Echenique play overall?
Posted by: Dre | January 14, 2008 at 01:25 PM
The St. Ben's front line of Samardo and Greg was way too big and powerful for Rice, which doesn't play anyone that big in the CHSAA. They combined for 29 points and 24 boards. Greg had a bunch of dunks and helped St. Ben's stay in it the first half when Samardo spent time on the bench.
Posted by: Adam Zagoria | January 14, 2008 at 01:39 PM
Thank you for the information.
Posted by: Dre | January 15, 2008 at 01:03 PM