[1] There wasn't much defense Friday night in Freedom Hall, but that's what you get when you have some of the Nation's top recruits playing in the Kentucky Derby Festival Basketball Classic.
A crowd of around 7,000 came into Freedom Hall Friday Night, mostly to watch the three Indiana recruits, one Louisville recruit, and a possible Kentucky recruit, as the white team defeated the black in a impressive score of, 130-127.
Louisville recruit Terry Rozier (seen above) from Shaker Heights, OH took home MVP honors for the black team. Rozier finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds, four assists and three steals. He was 6-17 from the field.
"It feels good," Rozier said, "Nice fans, Nice town and I had a lot of fun," Rozier commented.
Rozier captured the attention of the Louisville faithful before the game even started. In the starting introduction, Rozier was introduced dawning a Louisville Flag as a cape (video below).
"It was something me and my mom came up with," Rozier Said, "I defiantly had a lot of fun with that,"
The 6-foot-4 guard who said Louisville was a "no-brainer" for him finished in second, in both the Slam Dunk Competition and Three Point Competition. Two Oklahoma State signees beat out Rozier. Phil Forte(seen right) won the three point competition and Marcus Smart(seen left) won the slam dunk competition. Rozier and Smart finished the competition with a dunk-off.
Smart wowed the crowd doing a front flip then finishing with a reverse slam, giving him 28 points.
Video of Final Dunk:
However Roizer answered with a 360 dunk, but was only able to garner 27 points.
Video of Final Dunk:
Phil Forte won the 3-point competition with 19, but nobody cares about the 3-point competition, so we will move on.
Rozier's team trailed by 19, 59-40, before going on an 18-0 run that was keyed off by four dunks from St.Johns signee Jakarr Samspon. This made the game 65-65 at halftime.
Rozier said he "didn't expect to take the big shots". But he did excatly that throughout the game.
He was planted back into game at the 3:13 mark. Right away, he had impact, when he grabbed a lose rebound & dished to Sampson who gave the white team their first lead in over 30 minutes, 128-127. Following this, Rozier dished to N.C State signee T.J Warren who gave them a three-point lead. The white team never looked back, finishing the game with a few rare defensive stands.
I felt personally that T.J Warren was shafted from MVP Honors. He finished with 27 points, and hit a few big shots down the stretch. Warren said that "Louisville is lucky to have Rozier" and after last night-theres no doubt about that.
All three IU signees were teammates of Rozier on the white team. Jeremy Hollowell finished with 11 points, while Robert Patterson had eight and Hanner Perea seven. Local stand-out and Trinity’s Nathan Dieudonne, going to Boston University, had eight points and four rebounds for the winners.
The one lone hopeful for Kentucky, Amiele Jefferson, was on the black team. He preformed very well and led scoring for the black team with 25 points. Following the game, I asked Jefferson about his decision. He said that he really liked NC State & Kentucky, along with the others in his top 5. It's "going to be a decision I make with my family".
After last night performance, Jefferson will certainly receive more pressure from Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari to join the 2013 class.
For more Sights & Sounds, Visit here. [3]
Here are the full rosters for each team:
Rosters: www.thecardinalconnect.com [4]
Photos Courtesy of: Chris Hatfield and Courier-Journal
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