Trenton Catholic - A Team to Watch

Hello, my name is Alex Schwartz, and I am a new writer for Northstar Basketball, LLC. I’m a high school junior and a big high-school hoops fan. On January 26, 2008, Rancocas Valley High School hosted the Jeff Coney Classic, and I was in attendance for a game between Trenton Catholic and Lenape. TCA was the team with the most talent of all those playing that day. The Iron Mikes are lead by a wealth of underclassmen, and a solid quartet of juniors. Despite not having an seniors of the team, Trenton Catholic is a top-notch squad, with a number of players who are legitimate Division I talents.
Lafayette Smith is a 6’5” junior for TCA, and he is a beast on the boards. He racked up 11 points and a boatload of rebounds against Lenape. Junior Daquan Basnight is 6’3” and a vital part of Trenton Catholic’s success. Daquan had 9 points along with countless boards, as helped he team to victory. Basnight was eleventh place in the area with 16.3 points per game as of 1/22/08. Dondre Whitmore is a well-renowned sophomore guard for the Iron Mikes, and he was putting up 14.3 ppg as of the 22nd, and had hit 26 three-pointers, putting him at ninth in the area. Frantz Massenat is a talented member of the TCA team, and he was averaging 10.0 points per contest through January 22nd. Despite being a freshman, Khalid Lewis El has lots of talent and can play either guard position or small forward. Reggie Coleman is a junior guard for the Iron Mikes. The 5’7” Coleman has a sweet stroke from long range, and he dropped 9 points on Lenape, all of which came on threes. Sophomore big man Markese Tucker is an integral member of the TCA team, but was unable to play against Lenape due to a wrist injury. Junior Lorenzo Santos also didn’t play on the 26th, but the 5’9” guard has lots of talent.
Trenton Catholic played a solid game against Lenape, but was in a struggle until the fourth quarter. The Iron Mikes entered the last quarter of play up 40-39 after giving up a buzzer-beating lay-up. TCA took over the game in the last eight minutes of play, on the backs of Daquan Basnight and Khalid Lewis El. The Iron Mikes’ free throw shooting was key in the team’s victory, as they went 27 for 39 from the charity stripe on the day, at just under 70%. Lewis and Whitmore combined to shoot 12 of 12 on free throws, while Basnight and Massenat were both 7 of 10 at the line. They wound up with a hard-fought nine-point win, 71-62.
The team displayed toughness and a well-rounded attack on both offense and defense. The squad was able to hit threes, drive to the hoop, and get it to the big men for buckets in the paint. On D, TCA was tenacious, and went they went to an all-out full-court press in the fourth quarter, they seemed to take over the game. All said, this team is immensely talented, and was able to win on a day where they had just seven players at the start of the game, only six of whom played. If you want to see some top-notch high school basketball players, check out the Trenton Catholic Iron Mikes.