Gauchos Roundball Classic: Stepinac Debut

<p dir="auto"><span style="color: #000000;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Last night, The Crusaders (Stepinac) made their Gauchos Roundball debut against a gritty Team Mega (Vision Academy) squad. It was a close game throughout but the Crusaders prevailed 67-54. Duke commit, </span>[player_tooltip player_id="773402" first="AJ" last="Griffin"], a five-star prospect, didn’t play last night but the team seemed to be reloaded with quality prospects filling the void left by [player_tooltip player_id="766060" first="RJ" last="Davis"] who begins his first season at North Carolina.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Senior forward [player_tooltip player_id="945516" first="Malcolm" last="Chimezie"] led the way with 25 points and 10 rebounds. The Boston University commit controlled the paint and finished very well at the rim.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">The Crusaders welcome a pair of outstanding freshmen, 6’2” point guard Johnuel “Boogie” Fland and 6’8” power forward Jacob Hogarth, both hold multiple D1 offers. Fland finished with 2 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals while Hogarth contributed 4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal </span>in their high school debut.</p> <p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Junior prospects [player_tooltip player_id="900293" first="Keith" last="Mency"], [player_tooltip player_id="1047332" first="Samuel" last="Gibbs"], and [player_tooltip player_id="1046820" first="Joel" last="Baez"] seemed poised to take on large roles this season. Mency, a first-year transfer, added 9 points, 4 assists, and a steal. Gibbs knocked down three 3-pointers finishing the night with 11 points and 5 rebounds. Baez played with a ton of energy adding 2 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists along with a number of deflections on the defensive end, doing the intangible things that don’t show up in the box score.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Senior forward Jonah Phang played well off the bench protecting the paint with two timely blocks. Phang’s 6’8" frame will prove to be beneficial as the season progresses.<br /> <br /> Additional notables<br /> </span>Josh Zangerle ’21<br /> [player_tooltip player_id="1047085" first="Francisco" last="Mattei"] ’23<br /> Nico Andrews ’23</p>