While St. Patrick came up short in its bid to win the City of Palms Classic in Florida, St. Benedict’s captured the Kreul Classic title Tuesday night in Fort Lauderdale.
Junior Aaron Brown hit a driving layup with 9.2 seconds left to give the Gray Bees, No. 3 in the USA Today Super 25, a 53-52 victory over host Dillard (Fla.) in the title game.
Dillard made one of two free throws with 19 seconds remaining to take a 52-51 lead, but Texas-bound junior forward Tristan Thompson grabbed the missed free throw and fed a streaking Brown, who scored on the other end.
Dillard missed a potential game-winning shot on the other end.
“[Thompson] fed me and I hit the reverse layup,” Brown said by phone.
“Basically we won every game by 30 but this game we only one by one,” he added. “It feels great. It was a sold-out crowd.”
St. Ben’s coach Dan Hurley was T’d up in the second quarter and was ejected from the game.
“He had to wait in the locker room,” Brown said. “He looked like he was about to cry [after we won]. He said he was peeking to see some of the plays.”
Thompson and sophomore point guard Myck Kabongo scored 12 apiece for Hurley’s team and Brown added 10.
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Brown said he holds offers from Virginia Tech, Virginia, Providence, St. John’s, Harvard and Penn.
“Right now my favorite is Virginia Tech,” he said.
St. Ben’s heads home to Newark and then to the Nike Invitational in San Juan, Puerto Rico beginning Friday.
