MLK Basketball Showcase Recap: Part 2 (Video)

Josh Preston

January 31, 2019 @ 10:04 PM

The 2nd annual MLK Basketball Showcase presented by InspireNOLA Schools tipped off last week (Jan. 21) at Xavier University’s Convocation Center. This year’s slate pitted top teams from New Orleans and Baton Rouge against one another with matchups including Karr vs. Scotlandville, Landry-Walker vs. Madison Prep, Sophie B. Wright vs. Walker and Bonnabel vs. Lafayette Christian. Warren Easton also started the day slipping past McKinley, 35-32 and McMain ended the night with a 66-65 win over McDonogh 35. We’ll focus on Landry-Walker-Madison Prep and Bonnabel-Lafayette Christian in this article. Madison Prep 51, Landry-Walker 47 Madison Prep was down one of its key starters with 2020 F Jordan Johnson sidelined with an injury, but the Chargers still gutted out a tough win against last year’s Class 5A runner-up. It was a tight game through the first three quarters and most of the fourth, but the Chargers put together a 10-3 run to take a late 51-42 lead. UAB signee Jahein Spencer was a man among boys putting up 24 points including 11-of-17 from the free throw line. He also ripped down 13 rebounds with four steals and three assists, and he just wouldn’t allow Madison Prep to lose. 2020 G Elijah Tate also had it going for the Chargers knocking down four of his five 3-pointers en route to a 16-point performance. Dual-sport athlete 2019 PG Dywan Griffin is beginning to round into basketball shape after seeing his recruitment skyrocket on the football field this past season. The 6-foot-3 guard bullied his way to 22 points going 7-of-10 from the stripe, and also had four steals, four rebounds and four assists. [embed]https://youtu.be/CO5lcT-sHPc[/embed] Lafayette Christian 51, Bonnabel 49 Lafayette Christian just has a bunch of solid to good players that are well-coached and play well off of one another. 2019 PG T.J. Jones is the proverbial ‘straw that stirs the drink’ as the orchestrator of the offense who’s a sensational passer. He had double-digit assists both times I’ve seen the Knights this year (the other time was the Allstate Sugar Bowl State Bracket Championship) and he finished with seven and 10 against Bonnabel. 2019 G Pierre Dupre (12 points, 4 steals), 2020 G Victor Dupre (12 points, 5 rebounds) and 2020 G B.J. Francis (11 points, 6 rebounds) are LCA’s other top players. All three are hard-nosed players that can get it done on both ends of the floor, and do most of their damage offensively getting into the paint. They’re all capable shooters as well, though, and combined for four 3-pointers with Pierre Dupre hitting two of those. Bonnabel wasn’t quite themselves, which was partly due to the LCA’s gritty defense, but they’ve also been without one of their assistant coaches Micah Hagans, who’s father recently passed away. He was present for this particular game, but the Bruins’ energy just didn’t seem to be there. 2019 G Rodney Munson led the team in scoring with 14, plus seven rebounds and two steals and he continues to prove to be one of the fastest end-to-end players in the state who can put up huge numbers offensively. 2019 PG Donte Mitchell and 2021 F Will Allen both had off games scoring nine points, but Mitchell has the potential to put up 20+ on any given night and Allen will be one of the top 5-6 players in his class.