By CHRIS BARCA
NEW YORK — The high school career of Montverde (FL) Academy star Ben Simmons couldn’t have ended more appropriately.
With a bang and another national championship.
As Montverde fans chanted “Three!”behind the bench at Madison Square Garden, the LSU-bound Australian forward and expected 2016 lottery pick streaked down the court and threw down a one-handed slam with 20 seconds left, sealing the Florida school’s 70-61 win over undefeated Oak Hill (VA) Academy and its third straight Dick’s Sporting Goods High School Nationals title.
Simmons said only one thing was running through his mind as he bounded down the floor uncontested.
“I got three rings!” he said win a laugh after the game.
Simmons and teammate Fard Muhammad scored a game-high 20 points, while the the Naismith, Gatorade and Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year award winner also snagged 11 rebounds and dished six assists en route to tournament MVP honors.
It was a tale of two halves on Saturday, as Oak Hill, winners of 47 straight entering the game, started on a 13-4 run and Simmons spent most of the second quarter on the bench after being inadvertently hit in the face while battling with an Oak Hill player for a loose ball.
While the injury didn’t appear serious, Simmons said he feared his high school had ended two quarters prematurely.
“I thought I was going to be out for the whole game,” he said. “But I just put some eyedrops in and got back in the game.”
With Simmons still trying to get into a groove offensively, Muhammad buried a trio of three-pointers in the third quarter to give the Eagles a 49-45 lead going into the final period, and that’s when the Australian product single-handedly took over the contest.
The forward, projected by DraftExpress.com as the No. 2 pick in next year’s NBA Draft, had just five points at halftime, but he went off for 13 points in the fourth quarter, with five free throws and the breakaway dunk in the final minute putting the game away for good.
Saturday’s final was Simmons’ fourth game in four days, as he scored seven points and grabbed 10 rebounds during Wednesday’s McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago. But he said fatigue was not a factor in his sluggish start.
“I don’t really get tired,” Simmons said. “I get beat up but I don’t really get tired.”
Montverde coach Kevin Boyle couldn’t help but praise Muhammad’s performance after the game, saying he was just as key to the Eagles’ win as Simmons was.
“Fard was able to keep us on the game,” Boyle said. “He’s really a great story. He had as much right as anybody to win today’s game”
Muhammad buried five three three-pointers in the win, something he said his teammates expect of him whenever he takes the floor.
“My role has always been to knock down shots,” Muhammad said. “Today, I just got a lot of good looks.”
Missouri-bound guard Terrence Phillips led all Oak Hill scorers with 15 points, in addition to nine rebounds and five assists, but he also committed a game-high seven turnovers in the contest.
McDonald’s All-American Dwayne Bacon, a Florida State commit, contributed 14 points of his own while Daniel Giddens, who will attend Ohio State in the fall, scored just six points on 3-5 shooting.
Phillips said guarding a player of Simmons’ caliber represents a nightmare matchup, no matter how athletic the opposing team is.
“He can be a bit of matchup problem,” Phillips said. “You bring a big guy out and he’ll go around him. You put a small guy on him and he’ll post him up.
“Ben’s a great player,” he added. “He’s going to get his at the end of the day. He’s going to be in the pros in two years.”
Oak Hill coach Steve Smith said the loss, his fourth in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Nationals final, was especially tough because of how dominant his team had been all season.
“It’s tough to lose your last game when you win 47 straight. It’s tough to handle,” Smith said. “They’re a good team. I thought we were the better team but hey, maybe we weren’t.”
An NBA scout told SNY.tv this week that Simmons would have been a lottery pick in this year’s draft, if he were eligible. But when asked if he could immediately help the New York Knicks, Simmons said the NBA is far from his mind right now.
“It’s LSU first,” he said.
