31ST MCDONALD’S ALL-AMERICAN GAME
At Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wis.
Final score: East 107, West 102
Top scorers: Tyreke Evans (E) 21, Willie Warren (W) 23.
Key run: 19-6 spurt that featured 8-0 and 6-0 runs early in the first quarter to give the East the lead for good, 23-12.
Key stat: A 53-39 edge for the East on the boards, including 19 offense rebounds that led to a 22-7 edge in second-chance points.
Slam dunks: East 21, West 16
Key play: After the West closed to 89-86 with 6:11 remaining, Evans offered a putback followed by a driving lay-up and the West would never get within five.
ESPN highlight: A boatload to pick from, but a steal by East 6-foot Kemba Walker and flying dunk from the right side over high-flying Jrue Holiday brought the East bench to its knees.
Unsung hero: Green, a quiet 6-9, 220-pound forward, played only 14 minutes but was extremely active with 12 points and five rebounds.
OTHER MCDONALDS' STORIES: West girls beat East, State of the game, Inside nuggets, Californians McRule, Jam Fest/History, Slice of redemption.
By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – When you gather the elite boys basketball players from the country in the most coveted and watched All-Star prep event in any sport, a few pre-game bare-bone facts tend to prove the difference.
In the East’s 107-102 McDonalds All-American victory over the West before 10,914 fans at the Bradley Center and a live ESPN national television audience on Wednesday there were three:
1. The East had lost the previous two games.
2. West guard Jrue Holiday said the West “was pretty much unbeatable.”
3. East coach Woodie Jackson really hates to lose.
The East came out with just a little more moxie, was a little more determined on the glass, got an early run and lead and would never give it up in a predictably entertaining 31st showcase of the 24 top players in the country.
“Frankly, I just think we wanted it a little more than they did,” said the East’s beastly 6-foot-9, 230-pound forward Samardo Samuels, who had eight points and five rebounds in 19 minutes. “Simple as that.”
While the West’s much ballyhooed California backcourt got most of the early-week attention, it was the guard trio of Tyreke Evans (American Christian Academy, Chester, Pa.), Michael Rosario (St. Anthony, Jersey City, N.J.) and Kemba Walker (Rice, Bronx, N.Y.) that paved the way to the East’s victory.
Evans, a sleek 6-6, 217-pound off-guard, had team highs of 21 points, 10 rebounds and four assists to easily earn the game’s Most Valuable Player trophy. The fourth-ranked senior in the country according to CBS College Sports recruiting expert Van Coleman was one of only two unsigned players in the game.
His finalists are Texas, Memphis, Connecticut and Villanova, but he may be getting a few more calls Thursday morning hoping to convince him to lengthen that list.
“It was a great game,” the soft-spoken Evans said. “My dreams came true. This was against the top talent in the country and all the hard work paid off.”
He got plenty of help from Rosario, a tenacious and clutch 6-2 point, who had 18 points and a game-high five steals, and the 6-foot Walker, the smallest player on the East, who had 13 points, six rebounds and the biggest play of the game when he stole a pass, dribbled down the right wing and sent down a windmill dunk over the 6-4 Holiday, the game’s most coveted defensive guard.
The dunk sparked a 19-6 run that gave the East a 23-12 lead that it would never relinquish.
“That brought chills to my spine,” Evans said of the dunk, one of 37 in the game, 21 by the East. “That was big.”
"For a little guy, he’s got a big heart to go up that strong against a guy like Jrue. We’ll see that on SportsCenter.”
Said Walker: “I didn’t think Jrue was going to jump after it. When we were both up there and just decided to put it down. If he got it, he got it. But he didn’t get it.”
Instead, the East broke a two-game slide and went up 17-14 in the series that dates back to 1978. East's guard trio went a combined 23 of 37 from the floor (68 percent) and the winners were 47 of 90 for the game (52.2 percent).
The West got a huge game off the bench from Oklahoma-bound Willie Warren, a 6-4 guard from North Crowley (Fort Worth, Texas), who scored a game-high 23 points on 11 of 17 shooting from the floor, leading six players in double figures.
UCLA-signee Holiday (Campbell Hall, North Hollywood, Calif.) added 14 points, five rebounds and five steals, while Arizona-bound Brandon Jennings (Oak Hill Academy, Va.), a 6-1 point guard and the country’s No. 1 recruit according to Coleman, had 12 points and a game-high nine assists.
The East also got 12 points from Alabama-bound JaMychal Green (St. Jude Educational Institute, Montgomery, Ala), 11 by North Carolina-signee Ed Davis (Benedictine, Richmond, Va.) and 10 from Duke-bound Elliot Williams (St. George, Memphis, Tenn.).
The West, which was outrebounded 53-39 and outscored 22-7 on second-chance points, also got 12 points from 7-1 center and Ohio State-bound B.J. Mullens (Canal Winchester, Ohio) and 10 each from USC-signee DeMar DeRozan (Compton, Calif.) and unsigned Scott Hopson (University Heights Academy, Hopkinsville, Ky.).
They didn’t got much production from McDonald’s National Player of the Year and Georgetown-bound Greg Monroe (Helen Cox, Gretna, La.), who got few touches in 20 minutes, missed his only two attempts and scored one point.
“It was a really good and entertaining game, but we got off to a slow start, got beat on the glass, made some careless turnovers and just couldn’t quite get over the hump,” West co-coach Tom Diener (Harold S. Vincent, Milwaukee) said.
Warren tried to and almost did so single-handedly, scoring 10 straight points capped with a steal and lay-up, closing a once 13-point deficit to 82-80 with 7:41 remaining.
“I thought then we were going to come all the back and win,” Warren said.
Davis responded with a slam dunk and after two free throws in four attempts by Hopson, Green sent down a slam dunk and Walker drilled a 3-pointer to go up 89-82.
DeRozan came back with a tough baseline jumper and Holiday had a steal and uncontested slam, to close to 89-86 with 6:11 remaining.
“I told coach (Jackson) then to get the ball in ‘Reke’s hands,” Rosario said. “He can create. He can make things happen.”
Evans did just that with a putback and a driving lay-up to send the lead back to 93-86 with 5:07 remaining.
The West would never get inside five the rest of the way despite a pair of late 3-pointers from Jennings.
“Overall we just didn’t do a real good job of getting back on defense,” Jennings said. “And they did a real good job on the boards. We’d good one shot and that was it.”
The East grabbed 57.6 percent of the rebounds and had 19 on the offensive end, three each by Walker, Davis and Green. Other than four offensive rebounds from Holiday, the West had just six others.
Coach Jackson might have had something to do with the East’s intensity on the glass. The 55-year-old from Francis Marion (Ala.) said all week he came to win the game, a diversion from most who gave it an “it’s all about fun” company line.
“We just hustled, played together and played good defense,” Jackson said.
He was up off the bench most of the night exalting his team and down the stretch instructed them to nurse the lead and play smart.
“We had the beast of the East (Samuels) and other guys do a great job on the boards,” Jackson said. “We played hungry.”
He made the team aware of Holiday’s comments after the West players, primarily those from California, swept all the events in the Jam Fest on Monday.
"I think that helped light a fire under them," Jackson said.
Mostly, Rosario said, Jackson reminded his team that the East was on a two-game slide.
“We wanted it bad,” Rosario said. “The West had won the last two and we needed to get us back on the winning track.”
In the locker-room beforehand, East also heard from former NBA and Georgetown great Alonzo Mourning, named an Alumni Ambassador for the game.
“He told us to play really hard, share the ball and play good defense,” Rosario said.
The West led only twice, 2-0 and 6-4, both on passes from Jennings to Mullens for dunks. Jennings, who averaged a school-record 35 points a game at renowned Oak Hill Academy, said afterward he was going after the McDonalds' assist record of 13 set by Jacque Vaughn in 1993.
He had five on the West’s first five baskets in the first five minutes, but only two in the second half.
The East went on an 8-0 run after his third assist and would never trail again.
“It was just a great experience to be in this game with so many great players,” Jennings said. “I’m not worried about the loss. I’m more worried that I didn’t get the assist record.”
The entertaining contest featured plenty of flow, lots of turnovers (48) and was a typical dunk fest as each team failed to get back on the break.
The West actually outshot the East by hitting 54 percent from the floor (44 of 81), but took nine less shots. The losers also shot better from the floor than the free throw line (10 of 19, 53 percent).
“I think the fans got their money’s worth,” Diener said. “It was a good competitive game and the kids got up and down the court which everyone likes to see. Would we rather have won than loss? Sure. But I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.”
Said Jackson: “It was just a blessing to be part of such an event. To win it too was just another blessing.”
Read more about coach Jackson in the next 24 hours.
What did you think of the game. E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.
EAST 107, WEST 102
East 54 53 – 107
West 48 54 – 102
EAST (107)
Tyreke Evans 9-15 2-3 21, Michael Rosario 8-13 1-2 18, Kemba Walker 6-9 0-1 13, Sylven Landesberg 1-5 0-0 2, Elliot Williams 4-8 2-2 10, Chris Singleton 0-1 0-0 0, Ed Davis 5-7 1-4 11, Tyler Zeller 3-4 0-0 6, Al-Farouq Aminu 0-4 0-0 0, William Buford 3-9 0-0 6, JaMychal Green 5-7 2-3 12, Samardo Samuels 3-8 2-2 8. Totals 47-90 10-17 107.
WEST (102)
Iman Shumpert 0-1 0-0 0, Brandon Jennings 5-12 0-0 12, Luke Babbitt 1-5 2-3 4, Greg Monroe 0-2 1-2 1, Malcolm Lee 1-3 1-2 3, Willie Warren 11-17 0-1 23, Jrue Holiday 6-9 2-2 14, Larry Drew II 3-8 0-0 7, DeMar DeRozan 5-10 0-1 10, Scotty Hopson 4-5 2-4 10, B.J. Mullens 5-6 2-4 12, Michael Dunigan 3-3 0-0 6. Totals 44-81 10-19 102.
3-point shooting: East 3-16 (Evans 1-4, Rosario 1-4, Walker 1-2, Singleton 0-1, Aminu 0-1, Buford 0-3), West 4-25 (Shumpert 0-1, Jennings 2-8, Babbitt 0-1, Monroe 0-1, Warren 1-5, Holiday 0-2, Drew II 1-6, DeRozan 0-1, Hopson 0-1). Rebounds: East 53 (Evans 10), West 39 (Monroe 6). Assists: East 12 (Evans 4), West 21 (Jennings 9). Turnovers: East 25, West 23. Steals: East 11 (Rosario 5), West 15 (Holiday 5). Total fouls: East 16, West 17. Pts off TO: East 25, West 35. Defensive rebound percentage: East 77.3, West 60.4. Bench points: East 59, West 53. Total rebound percentage: East 57.6, West 42.4. Largest lead: East 13. Ties: 3. Lead changes: 3. Attendance: 10,914.
