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JERSEY CITY, N.J. — In the battle of 2013 point guards in the Dan Finn Classic, Aquille Carr may have had more fans, but Tyler Ennis walked away with the victory.
The 6-foot-3 Ennis took the game over late, scoring 14 of his team-high 20 points in the fourth period as St. Benedict’s Prep, No. 23 in the Five Star Basketball Power rankings, routed Carr and Baltimore (Md.) Patterson, 89-63, at the Jersey City Armory.
“He’s a great guard, he proved it today,” the Seton Hall-bound Carr, who scored a game-high 38, said of Ennis.
“He got his team the ‘W’ and I came up short, but I’m going to just keep working and get my team back at it.”
While Carr has his college situation squared away, much to the delight of the Seton Hall fans in attendance, Ennis is still deciding.
He said that Arizona, Louisville, Memphis, Kansas, Syracuse and Georgia Tech were at the top of his list, but that he’s also considering Virginia, Georgetown and others.
“I’m interested in all of them,” Ennis said.
St. Benedict’s (14-1) has lost just one game, to unbeaten St. Anthony by one point, 51-50, earlier this month at the New Year’s Jump Off at Hackensack High.
(St. Anthony improved to 11-0 with a 61-21 rout of St. Peter’s Prep at the Dan Finn for their 44th straight victory.)
Had St. Benedict’s not blown an eight-point, third-quarter lead in the St. Anthony game, the Gray Bees would be unbeaten on the season and higher in the national rankings.
As things stand, they are No 10 in USA Today, No. 23 on Five Star and No. 28 in the ESPN/Fab 50
“We all had a little chip on our shoulder going in because there’s a lot of teams out there that we think we’re better than,” Ennis said. “We just haven’t had a chance to show it, so when we do get the chance ewe really have to take advantage of it.”
Miami-bound senior guard Melvin Johnson tallied 18 points, freshman guard Isaiah Briscoe, who was recently offered a scholarship by Miami, added 16 and junior forward Isaiah Watkins had 15 points and 15 boards. Watkins said Harvard, West Virginia and Iowa State were among those involved in his recruitment.
But it was Ennis who took the game over after a Carr pullup cut the lead to 62-53 in the fourth.
Ennis scored 10 straight St. Ben’s points around that basket and St. Ben’s extended the lead to 68-53.
Despite Carr’s remarkable performance, St. Ben’s coach Mark Taylor said he thinks Ennis is the best point guard in the nation.
“I do,” he said. “I think definitely as a junior, maybe even as a senior. They’re different players. Carr is very good. He’s more of a scoring point guard.
“Tyler’s more of a true point guard in my opinion. Tyler had 20 points and 10 assists. Last game, Tyler had 23 points and 17 assists so Tyler gets as many points for other people as he does for himself.”
As for his team, which was not invited to the prestigious Hoophall Classic where both St. Anthony and St. Patrick will appear, Taylor said: “I haven’t seen everybody play so it’s hard for me to say.
“St. Benedict’s right now, in my opinion, we can play with anybody in the country. It’s going to be competitive.”
