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Girls: Rose Classic Semifinals

BROOKLYN, NY - The semifinals of the Rose Classic on Sunday morning in Brooklyn featured 4 of the top teams in the area with the talent in the building overflowing with girls who are future high major Division 1 stars.

Semifinal number one featured a pair of NYC powers as Mike Toro led his D1 Bound squad against Chez Williams and his New Heights crew. The second semifinal then saw a battle between iExcel and the New Jersey Demons. Four great reams and lots of great action as we now recap the games before Sunday afternoon's title tilt.

D1 Bound Thumps New Heights, 65-51

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Shadeen Samuels & Kaisah Lucky
Shadeen Samuels & Kaisah Lucky
M. Libert

From the start D1 Bound tried to utilize their size to get easy buckets inside as Jayla Jones-Pack (St. Anthony's '16) was able to post up inside and finish with her back to the basket to give her squad the early lead.

When it wasn't Jones-Pack in the early going it was a pair of underrated future D1 guards in Toucan Billings (Bishop Loughlin '16) and Kaisah Lucky (Grand Street Campus '16) who were able to break defenders off the dribble as D1 Bound took a double digit lead with 3:22 to go in the half.

Milicia Reid (Bishop Loughlin '17) was a star in from the start for New Heights as she was able to beat defenders one on one and get herself to the rim for buckets, and when Kaelynn Satterfield (Christ the King '19) was able to get back to back buckets on floaters late in the half, New Heights was able to cut the D1 Bound lead to 28-21 at the half.

D1 Bound came out strong to start the 2nd half as Lucky was able to score the first 5 with a bucket from the midrange, and then a drive where she eluded two defenders and got fouled for the three-point play.

That seemed to set a bit of a tone for the rest of the half as the double digit D1 Bound lead was back and with Shadeen Samuels (Ossining '16) starting to find her rhythm it seemed like it would be a long fight for New Heights to get back in this one.

The lead for D1 Bound grew up to as many as 16 as Samuels was able to finish in the paint time and time again, and even though sharpshooting guard Laysha De Los Santos (Bishop Loughlin '19) was able to get hot and hit on 3 second half three balls, D1 Bound never relinquished their control on the game as Kaela Hilaire (Floral Park '16) was a steadying force at the point and handled the pressure New Heights defense with ease.

Arella Guirantes (IMG Academy, FL '16) was another star who got into the act in the second half for D1 Bound as she was able to go one on one and finish with her left hand while getting fouled, and then a nice jumper from the right side seemed to seal the deal late.

New Heights gave it a good run, but even with 13 points from Reid, and 10 points from Satterfield it was not enough as Toro's D1 Bound squad would move onto the championship game once again with the 14-point victory.

In the win D1 was led by Samuels who scored 18 of her game high 20 points in the second half, while Jones-Pack and Lucky each had 10 as well in the winning cause.

iExcel Takeout NJ Demons, 60-53

Tiana England & Desiree Elmore
Tiana England & Desiree Elmore
M. Libert

The second semifinal pitted the defending champs in the Demons against a team making their first Rose Classic appearance in iExcel, and while iExcel may have never hit the JHS 113 court in Fort Green, Brooklyn before this season they looked and acted as if they had been here before as they took an early lead and never trailed throughout en route to the 7-point win.

The star from the very start for iExcel was Tiana England (Stamford, CT '16) as the lead guard was able to time and time again create off the dribble and score either attacking the rim or pulling up and knocking down long three balls as she scored 10 points in the first 7:15 of the game to see her squad take a 22-15 lead.

While they got off to a good start, the size inside of the Demons started to take an effect late in the half as Felicia Aiyeotan (Blair Academy, NJ '16) was able to face up and use her 6'8" size to consistently knock down midrange jumpers over iExcel defenders.

A 7-0 Demons run saw the game tied at 22 late in the opening half, but iExcel came on strong in the closing 2 minutes as Desiree Elmore (Capital Prep, CT '16) was able to take the ball by her defender and finish on back to back possessions and see her iExcel team take a 28-24 lead at the break.

Even though the Demons were down they were getting good offensive outputs from both Katie Kinum (New Providence, NJ '17) and Julia Cunningham (Watchung Hills, NJ '18) as both long and athletic perimeter players were able to step back and knock down jumpers off the dribble, but they needed to get help to stay in touch of taking down iExcel in this one.

Both of the Demons stars in Kinum and Cunningham would knock down threes from the wings to get them back in contention, but whenever a big shot was needed for iExcel, England was there as she would knock down a three ball of her own, and then off a drive and kick she found an open Olivia Ramil (Binghamton '16) inside for a basket to make it 47-41 with 6:35 to play.

It was Ramil who started to be able to make headway on Aiyeotan as the second half went on as on back to back possessions she was able to get free in the paint and finish around the size of Aiyeotan and eventually make it a 53-45 game.

Cunningham would hit on a reverse after driving down the baseline to once again get it within 2 possessions, but each time the Demons tried to grab back momentum, iExcel was there to squash that as Elmore was huge late from the FT line, and when England was able to finish on a drive around Kinum and then over Aiyeotan late, that put an end to all hope for the Demons.

iExcel came up big at the biggest moments of the game and were able to hold off a talented NJ Demons team from start to finish for the 60-53 victory.

England had a game high 24 points in the win for iExcel, and Elmore added 12 points of her own in the semifinal game that propelled them into the Rose Classic finals in their first attempt.

In the loss it was Kinum who led the Demons with 20 points, while Cunningham had 14 points in what a solid effort from both players though not enough to take down a talented iExcel squad.

So the Championship Game was set for Sunday afternoon and it will be an intriguing matchup between D1 Bound and iExcel for the right to call themselves 2016 Spring Rose Classic Champions.


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