By By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
The Washington Daily News/PotashCorp Aurora Holiday Tournament turns 30 this year. While there will be no celebrating with a birthday cake, hoops fans will just have to settle for watching two of the country’s top recruits clash on the basketball court at Northside High School.
This year’s tourney is guaranteed to be a slam dunk as it features a total of 11 teams, two showcase games and the return of one of the best prep players this area has seen in a long time.
Washington native Mychal Parker will play his first prep basketball game in North Carolina since he left Terra Ceia after his sophomore year and transferred to The Miller School in Charlottesville, Va.
The moved paid off as Parker raised his profile, won a Div. II state championship with the Mavericks and has recently signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball for the University of Maryland next fall.
Parker and The Miller School will have two showcase games during this year’s tournament. The first will be a clash of two powerhouse programs as Chris Hill and his Stevens Prep squad will travel from Raleigh to take on the Mavericks Friday at 9 p.m. (tickets can be purchased at the door for $5). The game will be played after Northside’s game against Perquimans.
The second showcase game will pit The Miller School against local stalwart South Central Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
At 6-8, Hill, whose godfather is Jerry Stackhouse, is a dynamic athlete that can play on the wing or in the paint. Hill has been heavily recruited by Arizona and West Virginia and has had heavy interest from Kentucky.
So far this season Hill is averaging 27 points and 11 rebounds a game for the Golden Griffins (3-3).
“Chris is a great athlete; he can really jump out of the gym,” Stevens Prep first-year coach Darryl Harris said. “He can play off on the wing, he can dribble really good and he’s very versatile and I don’t even think he has fully reached his potential yet.”
Hill isn’t the only star on Stevens Prep. Harris estimated that he has two Div. I caliber players on his team right now in Kevin Adams and Jamal Williams.
Adams is a 6-foot senior point guard who is averaging 17.5 points and 5.5 assists per night. Harris said Adams is a stunning offensive player and is being looked at by N.C. Central.
Williams is a 6-4 combo guard who is posting 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds a night for Stevens Prep and has drawn interest from Coastal Carolina.
Joining Hill, Adams and Williams in the starting lineup will be PF/C Chris St. Amand, who is the team’s leading rebounder, grabbing eight boards a night, while scoring 17 points per game.
Playing shooting guard, and likely to be defending Parker, is 6-1 Kentrell Gasper.
“Kentrell is really the heart and soul of this team,” Harris said. “He is a defense-first guy and a real leader for us. He averages 12 points a game and two steals.”
The Golden Griffins played consecutive games on Tuesday and Wednesday at a holiday tournament at Pamlico High School, then have Thursday off before heading to Yeatesville on Friday.
“We are just going to go hard all week,” Harris said. “We will have a light shoot-around on Thursday, but we are very excited to get there and play. We expect a really tough game from (The Miller School) and we will just try to go out and play hard.”
Like the Mavericks, Stevens Prep prefers an up-tempo game.
“We definitely like to fastbreak,” Harris said. “We are not that big of a team, so we like to go out and push the tempo. We run an NBA-type offense; we like to make it a track meet.
“On defense we press a lot. We will use either a zone or man press depending on the situation. We are not too big, but we like to create turnovers.”