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HACKENSACK, N.J. — Tyler Ennis and his father say a handful of schools are working hardest to land the talented 2013 St. Benedict’s point guard.
“Louisville, Arizona, Memphis and Syracuse are probably all about the same right now,” Tony McIntrye of CIA Bounce, Ennis’ father, told SNY.tv following St. Benedict’s narrow 51-50 loss to St. Anthony in the New Year’s Jump Off at Hackensack High School. “And Kansas is in there as well.”
“There’s still other schools that can get involved,” McIntyre said. “Those are the ones that are just working a little bit harder, and making contact and talking more.”
Ennis himself added Georgia Tech and Seton Hall to the list of schools working hardest for him.
“I’m open to everybody but I think those [above] schools are the ones that are calling me the most, more involved at the games and everything like that,” he added.
As far as visits, Ennis said, “Probably at the end of the season or after the season’s finished, then I’ll probably start taking some unofficials and checking everything out.”
In the battle of the top two teams in New Jersey, Ennis scored 14 points, hitting 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.
Before a standing-room only crowd, St. Benedict’s led 40-32 late in the third, but St. Anthony (7-0), the reigning mythical national champs, closed the game on a 19-10 run for their 40th straight victory dating back to last season.
“It tells us we’re doing prettty good so far but we have a lot to work on going into the second half of the season,” Ennis said of the disappointing loss for the GRay Bees (9-1).
Because St. Benedict’s is not a member of the New Jersey state athletic association, St. Benedict’s and St. Anthony can’t play in the postseason.
St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley, who never faced St. Benedict’s during the nine years his son Dan Hurley coached at the school, said he would be in favor of playing an annual game against the Newark school.
That would be just fine with Ennis.
“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “They’re always one of the top in the country, so we could probably turn this into a rivalry more than any other game.”
Photo: SBP Athletics
