5 Takeaways: Holiday Basketball Classic of Palm Beaches
Bergen Catholic, out of New Jersey, came south to tangle with Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian to open the Holiday Basketball Classic of the Palm Beaches on Wednesday in Palm Beach Gardens.
Thirty-two high school teams (16 boys, 16 girls) from 11 states have descended on Palm Beach County to compete in four brackets in the national invitational. The boys’ eight-team brackets will be played at Dwyer High and The Benjamin School. The girls’ brackets will be played at Benjamin and Palm Beach Gardens High.
Bergen Catholic defeated Calvary Christian, 80-68, to win the quarterfinal in the Boys’ National Championship Bracket. Here are the top 5 Takeaways from Wednesday night:
Who has No. 25?
Calvary Christian was slow to find No. 25 in red on Wednesday night.
Bergen Catholic 6-foot-3 senior guard Doug Edert drilled four 3-pointers right off the tip to stake the Crusaders to a quick 12-2 lead over the Eagles.
Calvary never did totally recover. Bergen Catholic led 32-18 after one, 42-31 at the half and 62-49 going to the fourth quarter.
Edert, who is headed to Saint Peter’s University, finished with a team-high 21 points in the victory.
Plenty of options
Bergen Catholic (4-0) has a solid starting five.
All five starters scored at least nine points and two of the five have already committed to colleges.
Besides Edert, 6-8 senior Zach Freemantle (pictured) is headed to Xavier and 6-9 junior Matt Zona has offers from Rutgers, Notre Dame, George Washington, Davidson and St. Joes.
Zona finished with 15 points and Freemantle had 12.
“They are both very skilled and then they are also really good passing bigs,” Coach Billy Armstrong said of Freemantle and Zona. “The other side of it is they are great leaders and then they have a tremendous IQ for the game.”
2022 Glenn continues to impress
Calvary freshman Gregg Glenn III was spectacular against the bigger Crusaders.
You needed two hands to count the number of and-one’s the 6-7 Glenn converted. He was a problem all night in the lane.
Glenn has already been offered by Iowa State. He scored seven field goals in the first half and had six over the final two quarters on the way to a game-high 29 points. Senior Tim Dalger added 23 points for Calvary — 17 in the second half.
Not Calvary’s night
Besides struggling to tag Edert, Calvary needs to shore up its ball-handling and passing. The Eagles lost possession of the ball way too many times because of turnovers.
Junior big man Jahmari Sylvester was not available Wednesday. Senior Necach Marson stepped in but went scoreless. And junior Matt Khoury is usually good for at least a couple of 3s but went 0-for-5 and did not score.
“This is why we play these [tough] games in December, to get ready for January,” Calvary coach Cilk McSweeney said.
Looking ahead
In Thursday’s other three quarterfinals in the Boys’ National Championship Bracket, it will be:
4 p.m. — Deer Park Senior (Ohio) vs. Dutchtown (Ga.)
6 p.m. — McCracken County (Ky.) vs. Calvary Day School (N.C.)
8 p.m. — North Clayton (Ga.) vs. Dwyer (Fla.)
Bergen Catholic gets the winner of the Deer Park-Dutchtown game on Friday in the semifinals.
The eight teams in the other boys’ bracket — the American Challenge Bracket — include: Atlantic Shores Christian (Va.); Brewbaker Technology (Ala.); Cape Fear Christian (N.C.); Dr. Henry Wise (Md.); Impact Christian (Fla.); Stone Memorial (Tenn.); Trinity Prep (Fla.); and The Benjamin School (Fla.).
The championship games are Saturday night.
If you have high school basketball news, you can reach Pat Lammer via e-mail at PatALammer@Gmail.com or via text at 954-661-9671.