Holiday Tournament Wrap-Ups - At Jacobs

Holiday Tournament Wrap-Ups - At Jacobs
2014 Hinkle Holiday Classic
Elgin Larkin 69 – Barrington 66    *Title 
Zion Benton 64 – Jacobs 61    *3rd Place

After 2 consecutive years of strong individual performances and an array of D1 prospects on-hand, the 2014 event wasn’t as entertaining a band of bad teams filled the first game match-ups, but the semi-final contest between Barrington and Zion-Benton gave the crowd some hoop conversation to discuss for years to come.  “I mean ain’t much happening in a sleepy town like Algonquin.”  Junior forward Rapolas Ivanauskas went for 37 points in an over-time victory against (Tennessee recruit) Admiral Schofield and his Zion-Benton squad.  Rapolas at six foot nine is a throw-back type he has excellent feel for the game and he’s a very skilled scorer, he and Rakocevic are neck & neck on who might be the no. 1 player in the 2016 class.  Top 5 sophomore Christian Negron’s Larkin squad defeated Ivanauskas’ Barrington team in the title, Rapolas went for 30 and they still came up short.  The game featured two of our states best young players.  South-Elgin’s Matty Smith demonstrated he’s moving up the charts at the PG slot in an ever dwindling 2016 crop.  Carmel’s junior scoring guard C.J. Duff broke the tournament scoring record held by Mundelein’s Ben Brust.  Duff eclipsed the mark of 136 points in 5 games at a 27.8 clip, his Carmel team finished in 7th place, so scoring isn’t everything and besides his team did not play well together.  “A very selfish group.”  Jordan Anderson a 6-2 senior swingman is a player to watch, the lefty is explosive and he showed he can shoot from distance, so he will be added to the must watch list in coming games.  Hospitality room gets a low grade, not even relevant to mention.