Paterson Catholic and St. Patrick normally wouldn’t meet until the New Jersey North Non-Public B state playoffs in March, but now the squads will square off on Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the Beach Ball Class in South Carolina.
“I saw them tonight,” Paterson Catholic coach Damon Wright said by phone of the Celtics after both teams advanced. “They looked very dominant, very guard heavy. We gotta do a good job of playing good defense, just focus on defense. Hopefully they don’t shoot the ball as well as they did in the second half today.”
North Carolina-bound guard Dexter Strickland tallied 20 points and Derrick Gordon and Chase Plummer added 11 apiece to lift the Celtics, No. 2 in the ESPN Rise Fab 50, to a 71-50 victory over Mullins (SC) in the first round.
The Celtics (3-1) , fresh off Tuesday’s loss to No. 1 Mater Dei in the final of the City of Palms Classic, actually trailed 27-26 at halftime before waking up and outscoring Mullins (7-2) 45-23 in the second half.
PC, No. 33 in the ESPN Rise Fab 50, routed host Socastee (SC) 55-27 behind 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting from junior forward Fuquan Edwin.
“He might have had 12 points in transition,” Wright said. “He played decent defense. We did a lot of pressing and trapping that resulted in points for Fuquan.”
Fordham-bound senior wing Lance Brown did not make the trip for Paterson Catholic because of a sprained knee suffered in the Dec. 21 loss to Plainfield at the Tip-Off Classic at Seton Hall. He got an MRI and is awaiting the results.
No matter what happens in Saturday’s game, Wright said the game should help his young guards down the road.
“Absolutely, we got some young guards in [sophomores] Myles Mack and Jhamir White and [freshman] Kyle Anderson,” Wright said. “Definitely it’s a good test. However the game goes, if we do see them later on hopefully we’ll learn from it.”
All games are being simulcast on the web here.
Speaking of Paterson Catholic, the school will host the first annual Jingle Bells Jubilee beginning Saturday. The event features several of New Jersey’s top teams, including Plainfield, Linden, Paterson Eastside and Paterson Kennedy.
SEEDS
Saturday December 27, 2008
2:00pm – Game 1 – Seed 1 vs Seed 8
3:45pm – Game 2 – Seed 2 vs Seed 7
5:30pm – Game 3 – Seed 3 vs Seed 6
7:15pm – Game 4 – Seed 4 vs Seed 5
Sunday December 28, 2008
2:00pm – Game 5 – Loser of Game 1 vs Loser of Game 4
3:45pm – Game 6 – Loser of Game 2 vs Loser of Game 3
5:30pm – Game 7 – Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 4
7:15pm – Game 8 – Winner of Game 2 vs Winner of Game 3
Tuesday December 30, 2008
12:15pm – Game 9 – Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6
2:00pm – Game 10 – Loser of Game 7 vs Loser of Game 8
4:00pm – Game 11 – Winner of Game 7 vs Winner of Game 8
Each team will be given 15 Gift Bags for players and coaches along with 15 Tournament T-Shirts.
(12 players and 3 coach limit).
T-Shirts will be given out to our teams on Saturday December 27th
Gift Bags will be distributed to our teams on Sunday December 28th.
Individual and team awards will be given to both 1st and 2nd place teams.
A team trophy will be given to the 3rd, 4th and 5th place teams.
The announcement of the All tournament team will be made halftime of the championship game along with the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
The Tournament MVP and the Sportsmanship Award will be announced at the conclusion of the event, immediately following the championship game in an awards ceremony.
JBJ information updates will be sent directly to coaches via email and to athletic directors as well. Please do your very best to have your information (roster) in before the deadlines (December 10th).
ANYONE WITH ANY QUESTIONS CAN EMAIL JINGLEBELLSJUB@AOL.COM
(photo courtesy Beach Ball Classic)
