Plainfield – Loughlin in Jingle Bells Final; St. Benedict's, St. Patrick & Rice in Action

Two of the area’s premier juniors will square off on Tuesday for the championship of the inaugural Jingle Bells Jubilee.

Isaiah Epps (pictured) will lead Plainfield against Jayvaughn Pinkston and Bishop Loughlin at 4 p.m. at Paterson Catholic.

Epps holds offers from Pittsburgh, Maryland, Rutgers and Seton Hall and has interest from Kansas and Marquette, while Pinkston is being pursued by St. John’s, among others.

Linden plays Paterson Kennedy in the third-place game at 2 and St. Peter’s meets Passaic at 12:15.

Plainfield advanced to the final after fighting off Kennedy 85-72 in OT on Sunday. Asmar Edwards, who transferred to Kennedy from Passaic Tech in the offseason, hit a 50-foot bank shot to tie the game at 63 and force OT.

The crowd rushed the floor at that point, but Plainfield outscored Kennedy 22-9 in the extra period. Edwards, Dawon Lighty and Shondell Stewart all fouled out in OT for Kennedy.

Edwards finished with 27 points and was 6- of-9 from beyond the arc.

Plainfield’s Anthony Baskerville had 27 points.

In the other semi, Loughlin downed Linden 46-42 behind Pinkston’s 12 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks and 2 steals.

Trevon Hamlet added 15 points, 8 boards and 4 blocks

ST. BENEDICT’S, ST PATRICK IN FINALS

St. Benedict’s, No. 3 in the USA Today Super 25, reached the final of the 5th Gatorade International Championship in Puerto Rico with a 53-50 victory over Bayamon Military on Monday.

Texas-bound junior Tristan Thompson led the Gray Bees with 13 points and 9 rebounds and sophomore guard Myck Kabongo and Gil Biruta added nine points apiece.

St. Benedict’s will meet Carmen Sol of Puerto Rico in Tuesday night’s championship.

Meantime, North Carolina commit Dexter Strickland and St. Patrick, No. 4 in the nation, will face West Virginia-bound guard Dalton Pepper and Pennsbury (Pa.) in one semifinal tonight in the Beach Ball Classic in South Carolina.

Pepper, who was selected to the 2006 BBC All-Tournament Team as a sophomore, tallied a tournament high 32 points to lead Pennsbury to a 54-49 victory Monday over Arlington Country Day. Arlington Country Day was paced by Rodney McGruder’s 14 points and Wally Judge’s 12 points and 13 rebounds.

Wheeler (GA) will face Martin Luther King (CA) in the other semifinal.

The championship is Wednesday night. All games are being simulcast on the web here.

FINDLAY TO FACE RICE

The finals of the Rock Holiday Classic at Henderson International School will feature Findlay Prep vs. Rice HS (NY). Findlay is 11-0 and ranked #1 in the Rivals High 100 nationally and Rice is ranked #14 in the nation by Rivals.

Rice features Durand Scott, a Miami commit. Findlay features Avery Bradley, committed to Texas, Carlos Lopez, committed to UNLV, DJ Richardson, committed to Illinois, and unsigned senior Victor Rudd.

Findlay is ranked #2 in USA Today, and #5 in ESPN Rise Fab 50.

On the season Findlay averages 86 points and allows 50.

For tournament info go to: http://www.therockholidayclassic.org/HolidayClassic.html

Tournament action starts at noon with 4 games through the 5pm final.