South Kent tops Tilton in Showdown

Zedric Sadler: Big-Game Catalyst for South Kent

South Kent wins wild west duel

- As the South Kent and Tilton squads went through warm-ups this afternoon at the Hoop Mountain Prep Classic at Marianapolis, several things became immediately apparent.  First and foremost, Georges Niang was not in uniform for Tilton as he was forced to a sit a game due to a bogus ejection in Tilton's previous game in Chicago.  A real shame and injustice, but not the end of the world in the grand scheme of things.  The other thing apparent was that not everyone who came to see the game would be able to get in as the gym was packed to the brim with New England hoops fans of all kinds and also in attendance were between two and three dozen college coaches, including UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun, UConn AC Kevin Ollie, Providence Head Coach Ed Cooley with two assistants, and Iowa State Head Coach Fred Hoiberg with an assistant.  With the stage fully operational, the Sunday afternoon scene was set for a cosmic heavyweight bout.

- Tilton dominated early as Wayne Selden put on a show, prompting Hoop Mountain Prep Classic Tournament Director Greg Kristof, at the 11 minute-mark, to state, "Wayne Selden is the best player in this game right now" Meanwhile, the defensive combination of Nerlens Noel and Goodluck Okonoboh stifled the South Kent attack and after ten minutes of play, Tilton led 20-11 with Ricky Ledo held scoreless.  Then, something happened.  Nerlens Noel came out of the game after picking up his second foul and the ball-game pendulum swung in the other direction.  In the second ten minutes of the 1st half, South Kent outscored Tilton by a 26-6 margin, with Ledo erupting for 18 of the 26 to give SK a 37-26 lead heading into the halftime break...They continued their run in the second half with Kansas State-bound floor general Zedric Sadler leading the way by getting into the passing lane for steals and then attacking the basket in transition for scores.   The lead got up to around 20 and stayed in that area until about the 7 minute mark, when the pendulum finally swung back to Tilton as they went on a 5 minute tear to cut the lead to single digits with about 2 minutes to play.  The rally stalled there however as South Kent was able to take care of the ball and hit foul shots, and they hung on to win by final score of 73-63.

South Kent Notes

After a scoreless first-fourth of the game, Ricky Ledo ended up with 34 for the game.  He was very impressive...Another guy who was very impressive for Kelvin Jefferson's club was Zedric Sadler, a Detroit flavored guard with a great combination of size, length, speed and ability...Also for South Kent, the ever-dangerous and highly-talented Chris Thomas had a solid game and showed the ability and the willingness to facilitate for Ledo in a game in which he had the hot hand...The interior trio of Laimoinas Chatkevicius, Isaac Freeman, and Chris Ortiz did a valiant job of holding their own against Noel and Okonoboh down low...South Kent is now 5-0 and they'll be in action next on Wednesday when they host St Thomas More.

Tilton Notes

Wayne Selden started out hot and stayed hot throughout the game, finishing with an easy 31.  The way he was efficiently moving and ruthlessly attacking the basket this afternoon, Selden looked like one of the top athletes in the country, regardless of class...Nerlens Noel and Goodluck Okonoboh each had solid ball-games despite playing against a hovering skyscraper South Kent Army encamped in a clog-2-3 zone in the Tilton paint.  Would love to have seen this game with the third member of the Tilton three-amigo front-line in the lineup.  But as usual, despite the fact that it's almost the year of the fabled Mayan prediction, The Man still has us down in the form of the illogical 'suspension' of Georges Niang.  If had known before, would have organized a occupy thompson tent city in protest on the sprawling Marianapolis land surrounding the gym...Tilton is now 4-1 and they'll take the floor next in the St Andrews Holiday Classic next weekend.