By Kevin McCaskill Jr.
12/20/21 * 12:20 PM
(SPRINGFIELD) - BASKETBULL HoopsFest took place last week in Springfield, MA.
Thursday, 12/16 was Day 2. I watched one game: Brewster (NH) vs. MacDuffie (MA).
Brewster won the game 60-39.
The standouts for Brewster were Reed Bailey (2022; committed to Davidson); Jeremiah Jenkins (2024); Taylor Bol Bowen (2023); Reid Ducharme (2023); Matas Buzelis (2023).
(Dunk by Reed Bailey)
(Dunk by Taylor Bol Bowen)
The standouts for MacDuffie were Joe Thomas (2023; from Springfield, MA) & Nolan Gomis (2023; from Nice, France).
I left the Prep Showcase to cover the Baystate Academy/Easthampton HS game in Easthampton. You can read that article here.
Day 3
The third day of HoopsFest started with First Love (PA) vs. Canada Top Flight (Ontario). First Love is coached by former UMass-Amherst Assistant Coach Tony Bergeron.
First Love won 72-57.
The standouts for First Love were Nathan Tshamala (2024) and Tariq Francis (2023).
The standout for CTF was Brayden O’Connor. He is from Ottawa and is getting interest from mid-major D1 schools “in the States”.
The second game of the day was ISA (International Sports Academy) (OH) vs. undefeated Northfield Mount Hermon National (MA). Northfield MH National is arguably the #1 Prep team in the country. They are led by Blair Thompson, who is committed to Columbia. They also have Rowan Brumbaugh and Luke Hunger, who are committed to Northwestern. John Carroll is the HC for NMH National.
NHM National beat ISA 92-36.
The standouts for NHM, in this game, were Thompson, Avery Brown (2022), Jorn Everson (2022), and Hunger (2022).
(Dunk by Jorn Everson)
(Dunk by Jorn Everson)
(Three by Avery Brown)
(Dunk by Avery Brown)
The standouts for ISA were Alex Garcia (2022), Kelvin Turner (2022) and Ta-Jae Jenkins (2022). Turner is good 3-pt shooter.
The third game of Day 3 was Phillips Andover (MA) vs. St. Luke’s (CT).
Andover has three players from Western MA:
Eric Tynes - Springfield
Colby Duggan - Monson ⛰
Davian McDonald - Springfield
All three players from the 4️⃣1️⃣3️⃣ played well. Tynes had 15 points; Duggan had 12 points; McDonald had 8 points.
(Three by Davian McDonald)
Andover beat St. Luke’s 69-48.
The standouts for Andover were the three players from Western MA.
The standouts for St. Luke’s were Ryan Frank (2022) and Aren Cummings (2022).
The fourth game of the day was St. Andrew’s (RI) vs. New Hampton (NH).
In a game that came down to the wire, New Hampton pulled out the victory 61-59.
The standouts for St. Andrew’s were John Paulino (2022) and Sean Fullerton (2022).
The fifth game of the day was Bradford Christian vs. Worcester Academy.
Bradford Christian won comfortably 65-50. Sam Kodi scored 27 points.
The standouts for Bradford Christian were Kodi (2022), Isaac Bonilla (2023), George Turkson (2024) and Kur Teng (2024).
The standout for Worcester was Tre Norman (2023). He got to the basket when he wanted to.
The sixth game of the night was Vanier College Prep (Canada) vs. St. Thomas More (Team 1).
Vanier beat STM T1 95-85.
The standouts for Vanier were Thierry Tshibola (2022), Jaheem Joseph (2023) and Chris Everard (2022).
The standouts for STM T1 were Kyle Carlesimo (2022) and Abdur Deleon.
The last game of the night featured St. George’s School vs. Wilbraham & Monson Academy. Mike Mannix is the HC of Wilbraham & Monson. W&MA has three of the best players in country: Kyle Filipowski, Matt Filipowski and Deven Austin. They are committed to Duke, Harvard and Princeton, respectively. K. Filipowski is ranked #10 in the ESPN Top 100 HS recruits.
W&MA beat St. George’s 75-46.
The standouts in this game were all from W&MA: The Filipowski Brothers, Austin, Jeremiah Dorsey (2023) and Sean Seymour (2022). Seymour scored a game-high 20 points. K. Filipowski had 14 points, 12 in the 1st half, with multiple dunks.
(Deven Austin assist to Kyle Filipowski for a dunk)
(Filipowski to Filipowski)
(Dunk By Kyle Filipowsk)
(Deven Austin dunk; Jeremiah Dorsey assist)
Day 3 was a long day but well worth it. Dozens of players destined for D1 played in Springfield.
Thank you to BASKETBULL and The South End Community Center.