FIRST TEAM
Regan first sophomore in top five since 1994
Yale Cup standout trio excelled inside and out
A pair of senior guards who could take over games but allowed team play to take them to the top. A senior do-it-all forward who led Grover Cleveland to an exceptional season, and a junior do-it-all guard who led McKinley to the Class A-1 title. And the first sophomore to make first team All- Western New York in 14 years.
This year’s top quintet was one which clearly elevated itself above the pack: East senior Jamal Webb, Grover Cleveland senior Anthony Greene, McKinley junior Mansa Habeeb, Nichols sophomore Will Regan and Niagara Falls senior Rahshon Tabb.
Tabb, the Player of the Year, makes it seven straight years that Niagara Falls has had a player on the first team.
The team was chosen by The Buffalo News with an assist from area high school coaches, officials and pollsters.
Will Regan, Nichols
The talented big man (6-foot-8) is the first sophomore named to the first team since two very famous names did it in 1994. Traditional’s Jason Rowe and LaSalle’s Tim Winn would go on to become three-time first-teamers, and the duo shared the Player of the Year award in their junior and senior years.
Regan is the first Nichols first-teamer since Jim Pieri made the squad in 1995.
Regan was literally in the middle of a standout season by the Vikings, which started with 17 wins and ended in the Manhattan Cup final.
“He’s obviously a gifted, talented, great player,” said Nichols coach Greg Plumb. “In practice, every single drill he’d be working his tail off. All his teammates saw how good he was and said, ‘I’m going to follow him.’ ”
Regan averaged 18.7 points, 14.3 rebounds, 4.0 blocks and 1.9 assists. If he didn’t score inside, he’d often get fouled and did some major damage from the line: he hit 143 of 197 (73 percent).
Anthony Greene, Grover Cleveland
Talk about a coach’s dream. Six-foot-4, so you’d expect him to be big on the boards. But then there’s the dribble-drives and the fantastic
finishing ability. And the three-point range. And the court vision.
The Yale Cup champion Presidents were multi- talented and eight players deep, but their leader was Greene. A third-teamer last year, he averaged 14.0 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists while shooting 52.1 percent from the field.
Greene is Grover’s fifth player to earn first-team honors, following Chris Roosevelt (1979), Rodney Jones (1982), Keith Robinson (1985 and ’86), Jose “Ace” Narvaez in 2004. Greene’s 1,159 points are fourth best all-time at the school, behind Eric Rawls, Robinson and Narvaez.
Central Florida Community College and Georgia Perimeter Community College are among the junior colleges very interested.
Mansa Habeeb, McKinley
Habeeb, a third-team honoree last year, is the nephew of former Turner-Carroll standout Quadir and the first Mack to make the first team since Hodari Mallory in 1999. Ray Hall and Anthony Blackman were the only other McKinley first teamers.
The sleek, 6-2 junior has a great handle and the ability to do just about anything on the court.
He put on a show in the Class A final against Grover, scoring 31 of his team’s 56 points in just about every way conceivable, including fadeaway three-pointers and off-balance driving bank-shots. That big-game performance finished off a season in which he led the Macks to a second straight A-1 title. He averaged 16.5 points and 4.5 steals. If he keeps improving, Division I should be within reach.
Jamal Webb, East
Much like Tabb, Webb is an outstanding individual talent who knew games would be won by playing team ball.
The 6-2 senior has been known as a deadly NBA-range three-point shooter — with his unorthodox casual release — since his freshman year. But as a senior, he led East to the overall Class A championship with an all-around game that featured smooth drive-and-dishes, quick-handed defense and a knack for getting the ball to drop despite being off-balance, or in traffic, or both.
Webb averaged 20.1 points, 6.5 assists, 7.8 rebounds (second on the team) and 3.8 steals. He scored 1,328 career points.
Webb will likely attend prep school, with Winchendon of Massachusetts interested.
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