Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

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Findlay Prep

Possible Oak Hill showdown for Findlay Prep in Bethesda

A first glance at the National High School Invitational bracket that was released Friday morning appeared to offer an exciting championship game.

Findlay College Prep vs. Oak Hill Academy.

The 3-year-old program vs. the one founded in 1878.

The new school vs. the old school that counts Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley, Jerry Stackhouse, Rajon Rondo, Jeff McInnis, Ron Mercer and Ty Lawson among its deep list of talented alumni.

Not so fast, said Findlay coach Mike Peck.

“Everyone is trying to hype (a final against) Oak Hill,” Peck said. “Yeah, it could happen, 'could' being the operative word. We’re not going to go in there and say, ‘We’ll get to the final.’

“These are good teams in there. It’ll be a dogfight.”

Peck is 62-1 in two seasons running the Pilots. Oak Hill coach Steve Smith is 756-44 in 24 seasons as the Warriors' coach, with seven mythical national championships, and was named the Naismith national coach of the year this week.

Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill (38-0) is the top seed in the inaugural ESPN RISE invitational, which will be played in the Hanley Center at Georgetown Preparatory in Bethesda, Md., and Findlay (30-0) is second.

Findlay jumped to No. 1 in this week's USA Today national Super 25 poll, after Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei lost a state regional playoff game last Saturday. Oak Hill is No. 2 in the rankings.

The Pilots are scheduled to open the tournament April 3 against seventh-seeded Beckley (W.V.) Mountain State Academy (23-6) at 3 p.m. It will be televised on ESPNU.

That winner will play the victor of the Montrose Christian (20-2)-Friends’ Central (28-2) game in a semifinal, to be aired on ESPN2, on April 4 at 10 a.m.

The title game, possibly pitting Oak Hill against Findlay, will be shown on ESPN on April 5 at noon.

Oak Hill could play Newark (N.J.) St. Benedict’s (23-2) in the second round. Forward Tristan Thompson, a 6-foot-9 lefty, departed from St. Benedict’s this season and wound up at Findlay.

Thompson was drawn to the Pilots because of his longtime friendship with Findlay guard and fellow Toronto native Cory Joseph.

The Pilots returned to the gym at the Henderson International School, which which they are affiliated, this week to prepare for Bethesda.

Peck had planned to run his eight players in tight 90-minute sessions. Thursday, they ran for half that time.

“We had a really intense, high-energy practice, so we cut it off at 45 minutes,” he said. “They came and brought it. They got it. There was no need to go long and drag it out and wear guys out.”

Thompson, who scored 17 points in Findlay’s regular-season finale, continues to mesh with the Pilots.

“He’s doing well,” Peck said. “He catches on real quick. He gets it. He has a feel for it. He’s done it enough and he’s doing fine. He’s great.”

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