Harvey, Burnett push Prolific Prep to rout of Seattle Prep
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
There’s generally a lot of problems that need to be worked out at the beginning of the season, but for Prolific Prep they only have a few things to work on following their 103-63 victory over Seattle Prep.
The victory gives the Crew a 2-0 record so far in the young season.
“There’s certainly times during the games we’ve been playing the last couple of days where our team has looked excellent, and unfortunately there’s some points where we get a little bit sloppy or we get a little too casual,” Prolific Prep coach Billy McKnight explained. “You know turnovers are hurting us a little bit, but you know it’s nice to get off to a nice start. I’m seeing some great signs from this team as far as what their overall potential is, so I think when we tighten some things up and it’s early right now in the season. Obviously if you’re playing your best basketball right now it’d be scary – we wouldn’t really be doing our jobs as coaches.”
Prolific Prep started the game in grand fashion by going on a 12-0 run that lasted four minutes and five seconds.
“We just have a really talented group this year, and all of them can pass the ball,” McKnight added on the Crew’s fast start in the game. “So there’s times when we can be really special offensively. Now the big thing that you said is we got off to a 12-0 run, so we were obviously playing some good defense as well. I still don’t think that we are in the best shape right now – a lot of that comes from playing games – you know being in game shape, so I think our guys are starting to get used to that a little bit. But as this game wore on things got a little bit sloppy – I think we were losing our fresh legs.”
Also, the Crew got a great game from their backcourt that consists of Harvey and Nimari Burnett, who is a returner from last year’s team.
Harvey had 23 points to pace the Crew to go along with his two rebounds. In the first half where Harvey had 15 of his team leading amount of points it seemed as though he wasn’t going to miss a shot.
“Just my teammates getting me in good positions to get good shots and just kinda focusing and do what I do,” Harvey said of his impressive start.
“He’s a phenomenal player,” McKnight said of Harvey. “He’s extremely gifted, he can shoot the three, he can get to the rim off the dribble, he can make the right pass. So it’s not a surprise, and he did that playing half the game, so he could have easily had a lot more points than that. But he’s just going to play the right way and he’s just going to go out there and bust his butt.”
Burnett ended the night with a 23 points as well to go along with three rebounds.
“I love playing with Nimari,” Harvey said of the backcourt. “He’s one of the most talented guards I’ve played with and I feel like we both just see the floor so well, so it just opens the floor for everybody else to create shots for our teammates. So I love playing with Nimari.”
The win, however, was slightly diminished due to the fact that that senior forward Alimamy Koroma suffered an apparent knee injury with 15:53 left in the game.
Thanks to their depth, especially with their big men the injury shouldn’t hinder Prolific Prep too much.
“Almi, obviously he’s a senior this year, he’s one of our two returning guys who actually played a lot of minutes last year, so he’s been a pretty good leader for us,” McKnight said of how the injury impacts his team. “So next guy’s going to have to step up and it’ll be an opportunity maybe. I have to see where he’s at – I still don’t know yet.”
The Crew will face ABE Prep Academy today at 3 p.m. at Napa Valley College.
