City of Palms Classic 2024: Gateway Charter comes up short against Millennium

Posted by Admin December 19, 2024 Sports

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A roundup of the games played Wednesday at the 51st annual City of Palms Classic at Suncoast Arena on the campus of Florida SouthWestern State College.

Gateway Charter well acquitted in loss to Millennium and Cameron Holmes

Millennium (Az.) 64, Gateway Charter 53: For the second year in a row, the Tigers faced a Southwest Florida team in the opening round of the City of Palms Classic, and, once again, they came out on top.

However, the victory did not come without a tough fight from the Griffins, who battled defensively and got solid production from two of their top scorers.

“I thought they played a really good game – hat’s off to them,” Millenium head coach Ty Amundsen said. “I thought they came out and I thought they had a good plan. They came out in a zone, which kind of surprised us a little bit.”

Five-star junior Cameron Holmes led all players with 22 points in addition to 7 rebounds. The Tigers scored 14 points off Gateway Charter turnovers and dominated inside, outscoring Gateway Charter 40-20 in the paint.

Despite the disparity, the Griffins kept pace in the matchup. Gateway Charter’s defense held a Millenium team that makes more than 40 percent of their 3-pointers to 25 percent while hitting timely 3-balls of their own.

Senior Myles Jones led the team with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting, and Patrick Johnson added 12 on 5-of-6 shooting with 7 boards and 2 assists.

“I was excited to see the measuring stick on where they’re at,” Gateway Charter head coach RJ Jones said. “I thought they both held their own really well.”

Myles Jones and Johnson were often matched up with Holmes and Utah State commit Kingston Tosi, who scored 17 points.

“I think they showed they can go toe-to-toe with anybody,” RJ Jones said.

Myles Jones’ performance was punctuated by a breakaway dunk in the fourth quarter.

“Honestly, I tried not to think about it too much because I didn’t want to miss, I didn’t want to travel,” he said. “It felt great, like that’s the moments that you play for, that’s what you dream of – playing in an event like this and you get to do something like that.”

Senior Destin Bess added 10 points off the bench for the Griffins.

Gateway Charter will have a quick turnaround as they get set for a 10:30 a.m. game against Long Island Lutheran, who were upset by Owasso in the opening round.

“I think we’re excited for that,” RJ Jones said. “We don’t have to sit on the loss too long. Anytime you get to play quick, that’s great. I know they’re super upset they lost, and we’re upset we lost. No one wants to keep losing games, so I know it’s going to be a tough one tomorrow. We’ll get to bed early and be excited to be here.”

Millenium will take part in their quarterfinal matchup Wednesday at 9 p.m.

“It’s still early in the season for us – six games into the season, this is our seventh,” Amundsen said. “Still figuring out where we’re at, how good we can actually be.”

Grayson blows out Oregon’s top team powered by lethal shooting

Grayson (Ga.) 96, Central Catholic (Ore.) 55: After what it has seen in the game prior, Grayson wasn’t going to be the next team that was upset in the City of Palms Classic.

And while Portland Central Catholic would loved to have continued the story that started with Owasso’s upset of LuHi, it wasn’t meant to be.

Oregon’s best was still 41 points worse than that of the Rams, as Grayson cruised to a 96-55 running-clock win Wednesday afternoon.

Chris McLavish feasted early for the Rams, nailing multiple corner treys in the opening frame to give Grayson an insurmountable lead early on. Grayson used its size to its advantage whenever it wanted, but saw a large amount of its success come outside despite being the bigger and more physical team, shooting 8 of 12 from 3-point range in the opening half,

“We knew they were going to try and zone us early,” Grayson coach Geoffrey Pierce said. “The big thing was moving the ball, not sitting with the ball too long. I thought the guys, especially Jake (Wilkins) early, finding Chris, that kind of opened their zone up some more, and they eventually had to come out of it because KJ (Garris) was hitting too.”

McLavish was 5-for-5 from deep to start, while Kennesaw State commit Amir Taylor racked up a double-double in the first half with 13 points and 10 boards. Taylor ended the afternoon with 17 points and 16 rebounds, while McLavish was tied for a team-high 20 points alongside Holt.

“It was great seeing Chris get going,” junior 5-star Caleb Holt said. “Chris is probably the best shooter I’ve ever played with. Just for him to come out here, in his first game to show y’all what he can do is big. That’s gonna be big for Chris. I’m really happy for Chris. He showed all the scouts, and everybody.”

A plea had come from Central Catholic coach David Blue after McLavish’s fifth three of “we have to guard”, but it was too little too late at 59-31 in the third quarter.

Wilkins, son of NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, had a sequence in the third quarter with the game well out of hand. It started with an emphatic rejection that gave off shades of his father, followed by being the recipient of an alley-oop. Wilkins then grabbed a steal on the other end, heaved it downfield to Taylor, who finished with ease.

“That was just playing hard, even though we had the lead, we were just trying to do the right thing the whole game,” Wilkins said. “I knew that second effort, a third effort, it means everything.”

Grayson had it’s entire starting five in double figures, as Garris had 13 with Wilkins adding 10 points. The Rams finished with 17 assists, led by Wilkins’ five along with Holt and Taylor, who had four apiece. In the loss for the Rams, Zamir Paschal had a game-high 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Isaac Carr, who left the game early with a facial injury, returned and logged 12 points over 19 minutes.

Grayson will be back in action on Friday, taking on Thursday’s winner between Columbus and Great Crossing (Ky.).

— Alex Martin

Jalen Montonati’s deadly shooting propels Owasso upset over LuHi

Owasso (Okla.) 64, Long Island Lutheran (N.Y.) 60: The Rams made quite the impression in their City of Palms Classic debut.

Owasso, the first Oklahoma team to play in the tournament since Booker T. Washington in 1990, knocked off a LuHi team that made the championship game a year ago.

“We come down here and not a lot of people give us a chance,” Owasso head coach Brian Montonati said. “We’re a public school from Oklahoma, and we come down here wanting to represent our school and then also represent the state and show people we have good basketball players.”

Junior Jalen Montonati, the head coach’s son, led all players with 28 points, including 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. He added 9 boards to lead the team.

The Rams played with an intensity immediately from the tipoff.

“Obviously going up against LuHi, a top 10 team ranked in the nation, we had to come out with a chip on our shoulder, prove that we belong,” Jalen Montonati said.

Owasso built a quick lead with Montonati scoring 11 points in the first quarter to put his team in front.

“I just got going early,” he said. “Just to be able to get in the flow of the game early really helped me down the stretch.”

After leading 37-22 at halftime, the Crusaders chipped away and started the second half on an 11-2 run. Senior Kayden Mingo knocked down a 3-pointer to give LuHi a 41-39 lead midway through the third.

It didn’t last long – Montonati hit a pair of 3-point shots, including one where he was surrounded by defenders and fouled, to wrestle back the momentum for the Rams.

“We’ve been doing this a long time,” Brian Montonati said of his son. “And when the lights are bright, that’s when he does what he does.”

LuHi continued to compete, cutting Owasso’s lead to 54-53 with just over a minute to go.

However, the Rams were steely from the free throw line, going 13-of-13 on the day. Junior Boden Williams scored 13 points, including 8 makes at the charity stripe.

“We have a lot of guys back from last year’s state championship team, and we’ve been in battles like this before,” Brian Montonati said.

The Crusaders were without senior Kiyan Anthony, the son of NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony. After suffering an injury in the first game of the season, he is “closing in” on a return, according to LuHi head coach John Buck.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “I know he’s itching to play. I know the guys would love to have him out there on the floor. I’d love him to have him too, but he’s fighting.”

LuHi adjusted their defense to slow down Montonati’s scoring in the second half, but Owasso’s supporting cast stepped up when it mattered.

“(Montonati) made some incredible shots – just got to his spots too early, too easily,” Buck said. “Too little, too late in terms of the comeback.”

Junior Dylan Mingo led LuHi with 16 points and 4 assists, while senior Nigel James scored 10 points with 9 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.

The Crusaders will play in the consolation bracket Thursday at 10:30 a.m., and the Rams will advance to a quarterfinal matchup Friday at 5:30 p.m.

“We didn’t come down here for a moral victory,” Brian Montonati said. “We’ve been preparing for this thing for a while.”

— Dustin Levy