New England HS Challenge

To honor and celebrate the careers of the top senior basketball players in New England. The event will showcase the talents of New England's best and provide a basketball day for fans and players alike. Players must be a New England resident in order to be selected for both games.

2009 Event Recap

2009 All Star Game- rosters

Details

March 21st, 2010 (tentative) - New England All-Star Game

Springfield, Massachusetts - Springfield College

Purpose

Twenty-four (24) players will be split into two teams for the Public School division and the Prep School division. The teams will be split for two competitive games based on ability, first and geography, second. Players will be chosen through a board of directors. This board will personally evaluate players throughout the 2008-2009 season to make sure the most deserving players have been chosen. In addition, nominations can be sent to:

allstar@basketbull.org

Please include: name, school, position, height, address, and stats for 2008-2009.

2009 All-Star Challenge Recap

The first game of the New England All-Star Challenge featured many talented players from public schools all across the six great states putting on a show inside Blake Arena. The Windsor (CT) duo of Steve Samuels and Adrian Satchell led the South team to a victory just as they had done the previous night in the CIAC Class LL state championship. Samuels also took home MVP honors in the 111-99 win, scoring 19 points, dishing out 6 assists and grabbing 5 boards.

The second game of the event was for prep school seniors but just like the public school game, these players had to be from New England to qualify. This made for some interesting matchups as many players were familiar with and against each other playing together in AAU and summer camp circuits as well as during the school year. Team West jumped out to an early lead and looked to run away with the game; however, the East was able to almost come all the way back thanks to the Tilton duo of Scotty Tavares-Taylor (UMass-Lowell) and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (UConn). Yet, the MVP of the game, Worcester Academy's Sam Martin (Yale), wouldn't let it happen with his 21 points and 5 assists. Martin paced the West throughout the game with strong drives to the bucket, yet it was his clutch 3 just as the East cut it to one possession that sealed the victory for his squad

Also featured in this year's All-Star Challenge were a dunk and 3 point contest. The dunk contest featured high flyers Kyle Casey (Brimmer and May/Harvard), Chris Evans (Stamford HS/Undecided), Jamal Coombs-McDaniel (Tilton/UConn), Allen Williamson (Pingree/Undecided) and Preye Preboye (Winchendon/Undecided). Evans and the others showed their ability to get up with some thunderous dunks, but it was Casey who stole the show. In the first round, he jumped over 6'9 Thomas Knight. Then topped it with this dunk below (courtesy of the Boston Globe) to seal the win in the finals.

Many scouting services and other publications were on hand to cover the event:

New England Hoop News - Article on the Games and then the Contests.

Slam Magazine - Article on the whole Challenge.

New England Recruiting Report - Article on all the events.

Boston Globe - Wrap up on the whole event.

CBS - 3 Springfield was one of the sponsors of the event and did a great job covering the entire day's action with on their nightly news below.

Directions

Please click here for directions to Blake Arena at Springfield College

Contact

For more information or questions, please contact: Colin.Tabb@basketbull.org