This past Saturday at Legacy Park Multipurpose Center in Alachua, area girls and boys basketball players got a chance to put on their school jerseys one last time.
A total of 20 seniors from the Mainstreet Daily News coverage area competed in The Prep Zone All-Star Showcase.
The All-Star games offered a college experience, with the girls playing four 10-minute quarters and the boys playing two 20-minute halves, like the college game.
The South defeated the North, 84-75, in the girls game behind West Port (Ocala) forward Aaliyah Grant’s game-high 32 points.
First-year P.K. Yonge girls basketball coach Jazzmin Bethea, a Vanguard (Ocala) alum, and assistant coach Mariel Mayo coached the South team.
“It was fun,” Bethea said. “Most of the girls I coached with AAU, Sylnya Roberson’s (Vanguard) my niece, and I’m from Ocala so I wanted to coach the Ocala team. I told them they have to get ready for college because they’re out of shape. The 10 minutes killed them. They’re not ready for it yet. I told them they have to start getting ready now. Practice in college starts like two weeks after school starts, so they have to get ready now.”
Grant, who averaged 16.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, 1.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game, committed to Division-I North Carolina Central University on Monday, March 3.
“I was going for a 30-ball, but I didn’t really expect to get it,” Grant said. “I was just trying to have fun, honestly. I missed a lot of shots, but I also had a lot of good things as well. We were just having fun. It was like my old AAU teammates, so we already had that chemistry. It just felt like a big reunite scrimmage, like an AAU game.”
The Gainesville High backcourt ‘dynamic duo’ of Jayden Terry and Jamison Cardwell scored 20 and 19 points, respectively, to lead the North, who were coached by Trenton’s Lynsey Grant and assistant Sharonda Green.
“It was so much fun,” said Terry, a Louisiana Tech signee. “I love to represent my school and my coach, and I was glad that I got to play with Jamison one more time…we had a lot of fun and honestly that’s all that matters.”
At halftime, Cardwell officially announced to the crowd that she had committed to Division-I University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
“I get to represent Gainesville, and that’s great,” said Cardwell, who averaged 16.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals this year for GHS. “I feel like we have so many hoopers and to be able to have me as a Gainesville athlete come up on a bigger stage, it’s a blessing. It’s awesome and I can’t wait to put on for the city.”
Cardwell, who attended UNF’s team camp last summer, and Terry helped lead GHS to a state runner-up finish in Class 5A earlier this month.
“Me and Jayden have been putting in a lot more work because we want to get to that D-I level and be ready,” Cardwell said. “We don’t have to get ready…the 10 minutes (per quarter) really wasn’t that much more difficult, but you could feel it. You can score a lot more points, so that was definitely the difference.”
In the second game, the North boys All-Star team defeated the South, 87-73, thanks to a game-high 25 points from uncommitted Columbia (Lake City) forward Zavian Douglas (6’6, 215).
“It was a good time,” said Trenton coach Eric Bullis, who was the coach for the North. “We’ve got great kids, we subbed in and out, we were just trying to get up and down the floor. I told them in the pregame I thought we had an advantage with some speed and quickness and to just keep pushing the ball up the floor and we would wear them down in the second half and that ended up happening, so it was good.”
Douglas scored 16 in the second half while St. Francis Catholic Academy guard William Collett led the North in the first half with 12 of his 14 points.
“It was a pleasure to be in the All-Star game,” Collett said. “I just came out and kind of shot my shot. It felt good, it was a fun experience.”
Collett (6’2, 170), who finished his senior year with 84 made 3-pointers, will be attending Navy this summer and plans to walk on.
Gainesville center Aidan Bell (6’5, 293), who finished with nine points, had his first dunk of the year.
“Really, I just kind of cherry-picked. They missed a 3-pointer and we got the rebound, I was out past half court and I just kind of waited and tried to calculate my steps to get the right steps in and dunk the ball,” said Bell, who will be playing football at Kentucky Christian University but wants to walk on to the basketball program. “It was very fun to get back on the court one last time.”
Chiefland’s Reggie Adams (6’3, 230) had a game-high 22 points for the North, which was coached by Newberry boys basketball coach Patrick Green and assistant Troy Strappy.
Williston SG/SF Xavier Kirkpatrick (6’3) was next with 20 points.
“I think I could have done way better, just knocking off some rust because I haven’t been in the gym in a little bit, so it felt good to come back out here and just play,” said Kirkpatrick, who hopes to announce his college intentions in a couple of weeks. “It was a blessing being nominated. It was really fun just getting up and down one last time with my jersey on.”
