Top ranked St. Anthony's finishes season undeafeated with Tournament of Champions win

Congratulations to St. Anthony’s of Jersey City for completing its season undefeated with a 69-36 win over Science Park High to with the Jersey State Tournament of Champions. McDonald’s All-American guard Mike Rosario led the Friars with 21 points, and guard Tyshawn Taylor went 7-for-7 from the floor with 17 points. Rosario and Taylor will next face off in the Big East as Rosario heads to Rutgers and Taylor will play at Marquette.

"We made some adjustments at halftime," said St. Anthony’s coach Bob Hurley, who is on the ballot for the Naismith Hall of Fame this year. "We had a few players out of synch and towards the end of the half we had an ineffective lineup on the floor. In the second half, we added more defensive pressure, threw a few zones at them to force them to shoot from the perimeter."

The Friars featured six seniors who have signed to play for Division I schools on their roster this season, but their best player, junior forward Dominic Cheek, will be back next year.

- St. Thomas More guard Devin Ebanks was in attendance at the Big 10 tournament this past weekend watching Indiana, the school he signed with this past summer, fall to Minnesota in the tournament quarterfinals. Ebanks told the Indiana Daily Student that his recruitment was still up in the air, and he was expected to meet with officials from the Indiana athletic department this week.

"I don't know right now," Ebanks told the paper. "Right now we have to meet with (IU Athletic Director) Rick Greenspan tonight or probably (Saturday), but we haven't decided yet. I will try to make a decision after the Big Ten Tournament."

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Impressions from the PrimeTime Shootout: Isaiah Philmore and Mike Rosario

The difference between good and great was on display in the first game Friday night at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J.

The John Carroll School of Bel Air, Md., has three seniors that have signed on to play low-major Division I basketball next year, and a junior in 6-7 swingman Isaiah Philmore that has received looks from the likes of Virginia Tech and Kansas State. The Patriots came into last night’s contest with a very respectable 18-8 record overall and may very well make a little noise when Maryland’s state playoffs begin.

But Friday night’s opponent was St. Anthony’s of Jersey City, the consensus Number 1 team in the country, with six seniors who will be playing at major Division I schools, and that’s not counting junior Dominic Cheek, the Friars best player who was unavailable last night due to illness. The Friars scored the game’s first 19 points, led 50-16 at the half en route to blowing out John Carroll 71-33.

St. Anthony’s senior guard Mike Rosario, who next year will be playing his home games at the RAC as a Scarlet Knights, went 5 for 7 from 3-point range, and finished with 32 points.

“We're still pushing ourselves to be the best team we can possibly be,” Rosario told the Star-Ledger. “We're just improving every day and making sure everyone learns something every day.”

St. Anthony’s next real test should be February 21 against Tyreke Evans and American Christian.

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The Takkle Top-25 Gets a Shake-up

TAKKLE.com released its latest high school player rankings with a little bit of a shake-up to the line-up.

Gone from the list:

Patterson School forward Nate Miles, who graduated from Patterson last week and his hoping to get admitted to UConn this semester. Also dropping out were as Karron Johnson of Mt. Zion Academy in N.C., Dominic Cheek of St. Anthony’s of New Jersey and Delvon Roe of St. Edward’s of Ohio, who is out for the season with a knee injury.

Now in the Top-25:

Joining the list are Courtney Fortson of Patterson School, Markief and Marcus Morris of Apex Academy, and John Wall of Word of God Academy. Check out the full line up at takkle.com/rankings.

Video Posted from Kyle's Gallery on Takkle.com

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