Jakarr Sampson, one of several high-profile St. John’s signees, has spent weekends over the last month in his future home to prepare him for the Big East. He’s been playing in the iS8/Nike Spring High School Classic, a prestigious AAU tournament featuring 60 teams from five different states full of national prospects in Jamaica, Queens.
On Sunday, the versatile 6-foot-8 wing showed why Red Storm coach Steve Lavin and his staff are so happy to have him.
With fellow St. John’s-bound forward and Real Scout teammate Maurice Harkless sidelined with an ankle sprain, the Akron, Ohio product scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds, leading Real Scout to an impressive 74-48 over NIA Prep in the iS8 quarterfinals.
“This is a good tournament to get you ready for the Big East,” he said. “The atmosphere and competition here is great.”
Sampson was motivated by his lackluster performance on Saturday when he managed just 10 points and was posterized a few times. When he walked into the tiny gym yesterday, he was not so gently reminded of his performance.
“Don’t let that happen again,” the tournament emcee, Hassan Jennings, joked.
Sampson was the one throwing down slams on Sunday, outplaying NIA Prep’s frontcourt duo of Ryan Rhoomes (TCU) and Shaquille Thomas (Cincinnati). Of his five made field goals, four were dunks. He scored 14 of his 18 points in the opening half as Real Scout built a 13-point cushion.
“I posted on Twitter I never have two bad games in a row,” he said. “That’s something I go by. I just came out and played tough from the get-go.”
He had help from Harvard-bound wing Max Hooper, who scored 13 points and drained four 3-pointers, three in the third quarter. Iowa State-bound point guard Tavon Sledge had 12 points and 11 assists and Terry Brutus followed with 15 points and a few high-flying throwdowns of his own.
“He played liks his ranking — actually, I think he played better than his ranking,” Real Scout coach Nate Blue said of Sampson, who is the 11th-ranked small forward in the Class of 2011 by Scout.com. “He’s understanding to be a lot more aggressive and as long as he’s aggressive, he’ll continue to be successful. Not only in life as well as helping us win this championship because we’re two wins away.”
Real Scout will meet the Playaz Club Seniors and Rutgers-bound guard Myles Mack, 75-73 winners over the New York Panthers, in next Saturday’s first semifinal at 11 a.m. The Sean Bell All-Stars, which beat New Heights-Kimani, 95-82, and New Heights-Artie face off in the other semifinal.
If Sean Bell and Real Scout both prevail, it would set up an all-St. John’s final with Harkless and Sampson going up against Sean Bell’s Sir’Dominic Pointer, who had 23 points in Sunday’s win, out of Quality Education Academy in North Carolina.
“That would be fun,” Sampson said.