Summit and Pave junior high basketball teams got to feel like professionals during a memorable evening.
On Tuesday, February 5, the Summit Academy middle school basketball team and the Pave Academy middle school team scrimmaged at the Barclays Center, the home of the Brooklyn Nets.
This was during an afternoon and evening where many different schools, primarily high schools, played against each other at Barclays.
Before the two Red Hook schools played each other, Democracy Prep played Institute for Collaborative Education. There were many fans watching this game but even more watched the two Red Hook middle schools and then the Summit boys varsity team play.
Summit and Pave played against each other on the visually pleasing practice court at Barclays and according to Pave basketball coach Charles Escalante the boys and the girls will get to play at Barclays later in February again but this time on the main court.
Escalante said that he unfortunately found out the morning of the scrimmage at Barclays that there was a ticket fiasco where 50 parents from Pave were supposed to get tickets but that didn’t end up coming to fruition.
However, there will be another chance to see the Pave kids play at Barclays. Also, the middle school and high school games were not lacking for spectators.
The middle school game started at 7:30 after the previous game ended and the Pave middle school principal Geoff Fenelus was on hand to watch his students. Karen Broughton, who is the chief of staff for Assistant Speaker Felix Ortix, was at the game watching her son who is on the Pave team.
As a result of time constraints, Pave and Summit middle school only played for eight minutes but they enjoyed the experience.
The Pave Panthers got out to a 11-3 lead after four minutes had gone by and they ended up winning the 8-minute scrimmage 11-4. After the game, a Pave student remarked how he was excited that he was in the same place as Nets star D’Angelo Russell.
Once Summit Athletic Director and girls high school coach Dytanya Mixson realized that they would be able to play the high school game on Tuesday, he lobbied for the middle school to open up for the high school game.
“Being that Pave is another school in the neighborhood we thought it would be perfect,” Mixson said before the middle school game happened. “It will be good for the kids to play on a big court like that.”
