Carr drives Hardnett to tourney title

CONSHOHOCKEN >> Tony Carr’s year just keep getting better. The junior won the Philadelphia Catholic League, District 12 Class AAAA and PIAA Class AAAA state championships with Roman Catholic. He put the exclamation point on his decorated season with a 27-point tournament MVP performance in the Albert C. Donofrio Classic championship game to lift Team Hardnett over the Raw Sports All Stars, 86-83, Tuesday night at the Fellowship House of Conshohocken.

“Winning never gets old,” Carr said. “You want to do everything you can to win.”

The guard scored 18 of his game-high 27 points in the second half and went punch-for-punch with Raw Sports’ Jahaad Proctor (Harrisburg) down the stretch. The two scored back-and-forth, giving their respective teams alternating leads with unconscious shots from the outside and drives to the lane.

“It was cool,” Carr said of the back-and-forth between a Philly player and a Harrisburg player. “You can’t let anybody walk into your house and sit on your couch, watch your TV. In the timeouts we just kept talking about pride. We wanted to keep playing hard and we knew if we did that we would come out on top.”

Carr scored five straight points to turn a 77-77 tie into a two-possession lead for Hardnett. Raw Sports’ Milik Gantz made a three-pointer and Hardnett’s Levan Alston responded with a triple of his own to get the lead back to five with less than two minutes left.

Hardnett forced a turnover and Nazeer Bostick had a wide open lane to the basket, but his two-hand jam attempt went off the back of the rim and flew out of bounds.

Raw Sports’Dejour Williams hit a three – one of six threes he made in the game – to cut the lead to two.

Carr went 1-for-2 from the free throw line and Raw Sports’ three-point look at the buzzer bounced off the backboard.

Hardnett had to battle back from an 11-point halftime deficit. They were able to do so due to Carr’s 18-point effort in the second half and Ahmad Gilbert, who scored 21 of his 26 points in the final 20 minutes.

The Constitution senior hit four threes in the second half and forced a number of turnovers with his aggressive defense.

“He played great,” Carr said of Gilbert. “He’s one of the main reasons we won. He stepped it up on the defensive end and got crucial steals and made crucial threes. He’s a great player.”

Hardnett battled back for the first 9:30 of the second half and finally took the lead, 58-57, with 10:30 to play when Khalief Tinley hit a three-pointer.

After that, neither team led by more than three points until Carr scored five straight to make it 82-77.

“It was a hard-fought battle,” Carr said. “There wasn’t that many calls, but it just feels good to come out on top.”

Bostick joined Carr and Gilbert in double figures with 13 points for Hardnett.

Proctor led Raw Sports in scoring with 25 points and Gantz and Williams added 23 and 22, respectively.

Team Hardnett 86, Raw Sports All-Stars 83

Team Hardnett (86): Alston 1 0-0 3, Bostick 5 3-5 13, Carr 11 1-3 27, Newman 1 0-2 2, Taylor 4 1-2 9, Tinley 2 1-2 6, Gilbert 10 1-2 26. Total 34 7-16 86.

Raw Sports All-Stars (83): Gantz 10 0-2 23, Johnson 1 1-3 3, Proctor 9 3-4 25, Walker 2 0-0 4, Williams 8 0-0 22, DeJesus 2 2-2 6. Total 32 6-11 83.

Team Hardnett 28 58 – 86Raw Sports All-Stars 39 47 – 83

Three-point goals: TH: Alston, Carr 4, Tinley, Gilbert 5. RS: Gantz 3, Proctor 4, Williams 6.