Darrick Jones Jr. never lets up.
The 6-foot-5 senior was in pure rim-wrecking mode on Thursday night with most of Oak Hill’s 12 dunks in the first half as the Warriors cruised to a 105-28 win over Kalani in the quarterfinals of the ‘Iolani Prep Classic.
Ranked No. 14 in the nation by USA Today, the Warriors had their share of unforced errors, including two travels and a botched dunk attempt by Jones, who lost the ball and had it bounce off the bottom of the backboard and off him out of bounds during the first quarter. The rest of the time, he looked like a young Harold Miner, with hang time tomahawk dunks and a bit more hair on top.
Cam Thomas finished with 31 points despite a slow start for the Warriors, who advance to the semifinal round. Jones added 17 points, mostly on crowd-pleasing dunks. Jalen Ricks added 13 points, big Bradley Ezewiro had 12 and Jamari Sibley tallied 11.
Oak Hill (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) will meet Jefferson (Ore.) in today’s 8 p.m. semifinal. Jefferson defeated Mount Vernon (N.Y.) 65-57 in Thursday’s late game.
“We’ve got 10 healthy guys, with one injured. They’re all good players, nine seniors, and eight of them have signed Division I (scholarships),” longtime Warriors coach Steve Smith said. “Three of them are coming off the bench, so that speaks well of them.”
Senior Brandon Chung led Kalani with 12 points. The Falcons will play Mount Vernon (N.Y.) at 3 p.m.
“It’s a good experience for the boys, playing a team at the highest level. They see how fast it is,” first-year Kalani head coach Noa Hussey said. “We’ll try again tomorrow. I think it’s really about us getting ready for the regular season. We have to sharpen our fundamentals, to jump-stop properly, do all the fundamentals properly.”
Oak Hill led 62-15 at the half despite the efforts of Kalani, which reached the quarterfinal round by upsetting host ‘Iolani 45-44 on Tuesday.
“We got shell-shocked and we kind of fell apart in the middle of the first quarter,” Hussey noted. “Oak Hill is pretty impressive.”
The Falcons never lost their fight, though. It’s not often a team from Hawaii gets to play a perennial national title contender. Oak Hill has won seven ‘Iolani Classic titles, most recently in 2014.
“I think the teams in the other bracket are strong, too,” Smith said. “Wasatch. Long Island Lutheran. Jefferson and Mount Vernon are so talented and well coached.”
No. 15 Wasatch Academy 89, Archbishop Wood 77
Caleb Lohner scored 29 points as the Tigers pulled away with a 26-10 run in the second half. Richie Saunders tallied 17 points (three treys), Mike Saunders had 15 and Leonardo Colimerio added 13.
Wasatch, ranked 15th by USA Today, will meet No. 9 Long Island Lutheran in a 6:30 p.m. semifinal today.
Rahsool Diggins scored 33, including six treys, to lead the Vikings. Marcus Randolph added 16 points. Archbishop Wood will play Garfield at 5 p.m.
Saunders splashed two 3-pointers and Lohner added another trey as Wasatch opened a 17-0 lead.
Marcus Randolph and Muneer Newton connected from deep and the Vikings were within 50-48 with 5:57 left in the third.
Wasatch recovered and went on a 26-10 run. The lead was 76-58 midway through the fourth quarter.
Archbishop Wood made a run, though, and cut it to 82-72 with 2:15 to go.
No. 9 Long Island Lutheran 66, Garfield 63
Andre Curbelo led the Crusaders with 15 points, continuing his superb play at the point, and Rafael Pinzon added 14 in a seesaw battle. Kacper Klaczek banged inside for 11 and Ohio State commit Zed Key added 10.
Tari Eason led all scorers with 27 points. Koren Johnson chipped in 13.
Trailing for nearly two quarters, Long Island Lutheran went ahead 46-45 with 2:41 left in the third on Pinzon’s NBA-range 3.
Curbelo hit a smooth floater in the lane to open the lead to 58-52 with 5:45 left, but committed his fourth foul on the next possession and sat down.
Freshman Jayden Reid locked down, however, and forced Garfield into a five-second violation near midcourt. Klaczek then hit a tough runner outside the paint by the baseline to open the lead to eight.
Jefferson 65, Mount Vernon 57
Kamron Robinson scored 20 points and Lamar Washington added 14 as the Democrats beat the Knights.
Nate Rawlins-Kibonge added 10 points for Jefferson, which made more free throws (19) than Mount Vernon attempted (18).
Troy Hupstead led the Knights with 18 points and Xavier Riullano added 13.
