New Garden Friends Is Big Winner in the MLK Classic at Riverside High in Durham


New Garden Friends – 98
Freedom Christian Academy (Fayetteville) – 92

Kanayo Obi-Rapu and the Bears bring home some hardware !

                         1st  2nd  3rd  4th  Final
   New Garden Friends    23   21   19   35    98
   Freedom Academy       15   26   25   26    92

Kanayo Obi-Rapu scored 27 points and handed out 13 assists to lead the Bears to a hard fought win over their opponents from Fayetteville. Also coming up big for New Garden was Isaiah Manderson who scored 22 and hauled in 18 rebounds. Kingsley Nzekwe was the third Bear to record a double double as he scored 10 and pulled down 10 rebounds. Cameron Williams returned to action and gave the Bears a big lift as he scored 15 . Noah Poulos followed with 11, Mason Wyrick had 8, Juan Urena with 3 and Josh Wilkerson with 2 closed out the scoring for the Bears.

10 Teams competed in the day-long, five game showcase in Durham, including High Point Central who defeated Pender , J.B.Hunt (Wilson) who defeated Southern Durham Apex High who beat Person Roxboro in the night cap and North Raleigh Christian fell to Panther Creek earlier in the day.

Obi-Rapu was selected by event officials as player of the game in the Bears win over Freedom, and at the end of the day he was also seleted as the OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE DAYS’ EVENT. He was presented a trophy by Phil Ford (UNC), who along with Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace sponsored the event.

Submitted by David Secor