When Paterson Catholic High School closed in 2010, its loaded basketball team split asunder and its talented players drifted in different directions.
PC’s two best players — Kyle Anderson and Myles Mack — shifted to St. Anthony to play for Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley.
So far, that has worked out fairly well for the Friars (28-0), who won a mythical national championship last season and take a 61-game winning streak into Thursday’s North Non-Public B championship game against Hudson Catholic (25-2) at Rutgers.
But two other younger former PC players — Reggie Cameron and Kavon Stewart — opted for another Jersey City school: Hudson Catholic.
And that, too, has worked out as Cameron and Stewart will take a 21-game winning streak of their own into the game.
“It’s cool,” Cameron, a 6-foot-7 junior wing who contributes a player’s blog to ZAGSBLOG, told SNY.tv Wednesday night.
“We both went to PC together and both ended up in Jersey City in Hudson County and we’re playing each other for the North Non-Pubcic B title down at Rutgers. I think it’s going to be a fun one.”
Camerson said he saw Anderson Wednesday night at the Teaneck-Plainfield game, but the two former PC Cougars did not exchange pleasantries.
“They’re on the other team now,” Anderson said Saturday after leading the Friars to a 69-30 rout of Dwight Englewood. “It [doesn’t have anything] to do with me being at Paterson Catholic [any] more.”
While Anderson landed at St. Anthony largely because of the pre-existing relationship between Hurley and Kyle’s father, Kyle Anderson Sr., Cameron and Stewart, a 5-10 point guard, picked Hudson Catholic because they got on well with head coach Nick Mariniello and assistant Jamal Slappy, whom they knew from the Playaz Basketball Club.
“We wanted to finish out high school together wherever we went,” Cameron said of himself and Stewart. “We felt more comfortable at Hudson Catholic and it’s turned out to be a pretty good decision so far
“Coach Slappy has been in me and Kavon’s basketball lives for a long time now and him being there has definitely helped us.”
Said Mariniello: “I think they came to Hudson because it was an opportunity to play together, to play right away and for them to be able to build something and I think they’ve done that in a quick time.”
A year ago, Anderson tallied 14 points as the Friars crushed Hudson Catholic, 68-35, in the quarterfinals en route to their 11th Tournament of Champions title and fourth mythical national title.
“We didn’t play particularly well last year and it’s been a theme of theirs since we played them last year,” said Mariniello, the former Bloomfield Tech coach who put that team in the USA Today Top 25 rankings and produced numerous Division I players, including former West Virginia star Da’Sean Butler.
But that was then and this is now. Cameron, Stewart and 6-9 junior power forward Mike Young are a year older and more experienced. Mariniello says they are “very business-like and serious” entering this game.
The coach says his team is prepared for the hype and pressure of this game after winning the Hudson County championship and playing in other showcase games.
“I think they played in enough big games,” he said. “Obviously, we won the country championship. That was a really exciting environment at the Prudential Center against Lincoln.
“We played Roselle Catholic, that was sold out. We played Plainfield, that was sold out.
“They’ve played in enough big games. They’re up for it, they really are.”
Still, Hurley and St. Anthony are used to the bright lights and pressure of this game at Rutgers.
Last year they stunned current Kentucky freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and St. Patrick, then No. 1 in the nation, in the biggest high school game seen around these parts…maybe ever.
In 2010, current Rutgers freshman Eli Carter led St. Anthony to an upset of Anderson and Paterson Catholic in the North B final. That was the last high school game Anderson lost — nearly two years ago.
“I think it’s incredible,” Cameron said of Anderson’s and St. Anthony’s streak. “God bless him. He’s had a great high school career. I’m happy for him.”
But when the former PC teammates meet up Thursday, Cameron and Stewart will put those feelings aside and try to bring Anderson’s incredible streak to an end.
“Yes, sir,” Cameron said.
Photos: Jason Bernstein, Hudson County Varsity
