The “Crime Stopper” was in the house Saturday afternoon at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, Maryland. With Byron Ashe of Friendship Collegiate (D.C.) scoring on him and harassing him the entire length of the court, Aquille Carr figured it was time to earn his nickname.
So he took it right before snapping the ball back into his left hand as Ashe flew five feet out in front of him. It got a little murmur from the crowd. Then, Carr put an in-and-out crossover on Ashe in the other direction, making the 5-8 point guard moonwalk towards the opposite sideline. That got fans leaning forward. Now just passing the midcourt line, Ashe overplayed again, and again Carr ripped the ball from his leading right hand to back behind his waist before swinging the ball from his left to his right side – all with his left hand – and then bringing it back between his legs. Ashe was lost, and Carr was exploding by him, finishing at the rim with a double-pumping three-point play. Now, the crowd was juiced. Buzzed.
You had heard the mumbling from the crowd: “This kid gets anywhere he wants to on the court” … “If he wants to go by you, you can’t stop him.” You’ve read the stories about how Carr is quickly becoming a Baltimore legend, the second coming of Shawnta Rogers, about how as a freshman, Carr put 39 points on Josh Selby‘s head. Now it was real. Carr, who scored 22 of his 26 points in the second half, went on an individual scoring spree that had every player in this All-Star game peeling to his will. The 5-6 (or 5-7 depending on whom you talk to) guard scored on five straight drives to the rim, bouncing off bigger bodies and finishing every single time. Each play, the buzz in the gym grew, not out of surprise, but more amazement. How can a kid so little continuously get to the rim and score when everyone in the place knows he’s coming?
Then, after Josh Newkirk (Word of God, N.C.) scored on him, Carr finished off the personal attack by pulling up and wetting a three right in Newkirk’s face (who had 20 points of his own). The National team was up 35-31 at the half. By the time the onslaught was over, Baltimore was up 16. With that, they subbed in a new five. Shut it down. It was over. Carr had done his job.
How good is he? It was an All-Star game and he’s a sophomore, so that’s kind of a pointless question.
In the third annual Under Armour I-95 Elite Challenge, nationally-ranked players from up and down the East Coast came into the intimate gym at St. Frances on the corner of East Chase St. to take on the best from Baltimore. With four games – a girl’s game as well as battles between the Classes of 2012, ’13 and ’14 – the gym was bumping all day long. In one corner, a snack bar that never stilled. In another, a DJ booth that blasted “Hustle Hard” harder than I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t exactly the Comcast Center (University of Maryland’s home), the gym nestled into a back alley with a dirt parking lot in front of the entrance, just a few miles north of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. But there I was, first sitting directly behind Carr’s bench, and then later at midcourt, sometimes squinting from the sunlight peering in onto the court through the windows, coming to get a glimpse of the firecracker from YouTube that gets it hype.
Carr wasn’t always the show. In fact, he barely did anything in the first half, looked more like an anomaly with too much one-on-one play than anything else, and missed much of the action with an apparent ankle injury. On the other hand, the National team’s Sindarius Thornwell (Lancaster, S.C.), a four-star recruit, was draining threes all game. And while Carr was a one-man show in the second half of the 2013 game, the 2012 nightcap was the best matchup.
The National team ran away with the game in the second half behind a trio of really good guards: Terrell Rogers (Indian Land, N.C.) led the team with 17 points, Mark Blackmon (West Charlotte, N.C.) had a huge second-half dunk, his 6-0 frame cocking the ball back behind his head for a vicious dunk and Ray Lee, the 6-2 playmaker from Romulus (Mich.) who might’ve been the best player on the court. Lee was one of the few guys really willing to give the ball up, but could finish inside easily and had a 360 dunk and a double-pump reverse finish as well.
Despite Baltimore’s loss, the play of the day came from Quentin Judd (Forest Park), who tied Lionel Greene (City) with a game-high 23 points. Early in the first half, the National’s 6-10 Tobechukwu Okafor saved a ball in under his own basket. The problem is that it went right to Judd who took one dribble, revved up, and crammed all over the big man’s face. It was ugly, and you could tell Okafor was embarrassed. Immediately, he started yelling at his teammates, three of whom had stood around watching the ball as Judd picked it up and went in for the finish.
I missed the 2014 game, but did find out that the Baltimore team won, paced by Allen Costly (15 points) of St. Frances Prep. Another big name who played in the game was Justin Jenifer, a guard who’s been profiled in the Washington Post and has been getting love since he was 10 years old.
In the girls’ game, the national team won behind Alexis Smith (St. Johns, D.C.), who had 11 points. The Baltimore team’s Infinity Alston (Digital Harbor) had a game-high 14 points.
What do you think about the talent Baltimore has to offer?
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