***Read the Rivals.com Boost Notebook here***
NEW YORK — Josh Selby cocked back his right arm and threw down a monstrous one-handed jam on Kendall Marshall that was the highlight of the Boost Mobile Elite 24 game before 1,800 at the Gauchos Gym in The Bronx.
“The crowd was getting a little bit bored so I did that for the excitement. We needed our chance to get the momentum and that’s what we did. We got the momentum after that,” Selby said.
“Crazy,” Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Jennings called it.
“Bananas,” Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love said.
“Straight out of Vince Carter,” New York Post columnist Pete Vecsey explained.
The dunk was one of several exclamation points Selby flushed in the game. He finished with 18 points and was named Co-MVP but ended up on the losing end as Skip to My Lou beat Selby’s Goat team 133-120 in a tight, hot gym after the game was moved from the outdoor Rucker Park because of rain.
Because of the shift, the game won’t be shown on ESPNU Saturday night. Somebody made a bad decision by not moving this game to Fordham when the forecast called for thunder showers.
Queens native Doron Lamb of Oak Hill (Va.) Academy poured in 23 points, six rebounds and five assists and then posed for pictures with family and friends in his AAU team’s gym. Tobias Harris of Dix Hills (N.Y.) Half Hollow Hills West added 20 points. The duo were named Co-MVPs for Skip.
“It’s a big thing for me,” Lamb said. “I should’ve got it [MVP] last year but John Wall and Lance Stephenson got it. This year I had to come out and get it.”
Roscoe Smith of Oak Hill added 22 points, Harrison Barnes of Ames (Iowa) High and Memphis-bound guard Will Barton of Brewster (N.H.) Academy had 18 apiece and Joe Jackson of Memphis White Station added 10.
For Goat, Kyrie Irving of Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick and Myck Kabongo of Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s scored 16 apiece and C.J. Leslie and Syracuse-bound guard Dion Waiters tallied 15 apiece. Leslie added 11 rebounds.
Still, the story of the night (aside from the rain and the move) was Selby’s dunks. He had three in a short span in the second quarter and then showed some touch by floating in a 10-foot rainbow shot that drew a foul. He made both free throws.
After decommitting from Tennessee, Selby is wide open and he and his mother, Maeshon Witherspoon, who sat courtside, will soon set out a schedule of in-home visits.
“To be honest, I don’t need no help with my scholarship,” he said. “I got about 15 schools looking at me right now. That’s all I need because if I had more schools looking at me, that’s more headache.
“I’m cool with the schools looking at me because they’re all big-time, Division 1 schools.”
NOTES:
**Eight of the players have committed to colleges: Dion Waiters to Syracuse, Terrence Ross to Maryland, Myck Kabongo to Texas, Austin Rivers to Florida, Jared Sullinger to Ohio State, Kendall Marshall to North Carolina, Tristan Thompson to Texas, and Will Barton to Memphis.
**Five of the players in the 2009 game also played in the 2008 game: Dion Waiters, Doron Lamb, Josh Smith, Jared Sullinger and Tristan Thompson.
**The 2009 Boost Mobile Elite 24 consists of players that represent 16 states: Florida – 1; Iowa – 1; Kansas – 1; Maryland – 2; Nevada – 2; New Hampshire – 1; New Jersey – 3; New York – 2; North Carolina – 1; Ohio – 1; Oregon – 1; Pennsylvania – 1; Tennessee – 1; Texas – 1; Virginia – 3; and Washington – 2.
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