Toronto Basketball Scene Receives NPA New Year Challenge Jan 3-6, Schedule Announced

Are you ready for round two?

Battle in the Capital—session #1 of the National Prep Association has come and went—now we shift our attention to session #2 Jan 3-6 in Toronto, hosted by the Crestwood Lions.

The Vice Principal and Director of Athletics at Crestwood Prep, Lisa Newton is delighted to host the New Year Challenge and help be a part in showcasing Canadian basketball talent.

“Crestwood is excited to be hosting the NPA New Year Challenge this January 3-6, 2018.  We are thrilled to have so many elite Canadian basketball players coming to Crestwood to show their talents and participate in some great basketball.  We hope many people will come join us at Crestwood to watch and celebrate these excellent high school athletes,” said Newton.

From B.C to Ottawa to Halifax, NPA members will be battling inside the Crestwood Prep’s Lion den, competing for wins, and opportunity at receiving scholarship offers, as post-secondary programs (NCAA, USports, JUCO) have already confirmed their attendance, including:

NCAA, USports, JUCO in Attendance

  • Purdue
  • Illinois
  • VCU
  • Toledo
  • Central Michigan
  • University of Toronto
  • Hutchinson (JUCO champions)
  • Omaha
  • Canisius

*More programs confirming throughout December. Stay tuned on Twitter at @NPACanada for updates*

Who will rise and emerge as National Championship contenders and who will fall back into the pack? Welcome to the New Year Challenge! Teams have made adjustments in their rosters, have built chemistry and are up to full health.

The NPA’s first session, the Battle in the Capital, showed who the National Championship contenders are and who still has work to put in to challenge the top dogs.

The Notre Dame Hounds, Canada TopFlight and Central Tech all went undefeated during the session in Ottawa, defeating strong teams in the process. CTA and Central Tech both have an intriguing battle against London Basketball Academy waiting for them in the New Year Challenge. A slip up from either team could put the other in top position in the Eastern Conference. However, the huge match-up between these two teams that everyone will be watching goes down on Jan. 6.

CTA’s Luol Akot and Central Tech’s Raheim Sullivan both improved their stock in the Battle in the Capital and now have the opportunity to match up head-to-head.

At the NPA, we love how players are stepping up to challenges in terms of match ups—a prime example was Akot matching up against AJ Lawson in Ottawa, and elevating his game as a result (pouring in 35 points).

Akot and Sullivan are also stepping up as vocal leaders on the court. North Pole Hoops got a closer look when both players got Mic’D Up in the first session.


Then there are teams that could show they have improved over the past month and be in the conversation for a National Championship run.

The host team, Crestwood Prep, has three favourable match-ups that they can take advantage of while LBA will have to fight against three top five teams in the league. If LBA could “steal” one of those and put up fights in the other two games, they could be mentioned with the upper echelon in the NPA.

GTA Prep will also be looking to make that push into a National Championship contender. They are right on the fringe and strong performances in the New Year Challenge could get this team making moves at the right time. They are THAT squad that possess all the pieces of a high level team, in terms of start power, guard play, depth and size. Now they will have to put it all together.


The teams in building mode will have another opportunity to help  players grow against top competition and not give them any easy games. St. Laurent Express could end up being one of the most improved teams at the New Year Challenge as they will have their top two scorers back in the lineup.

Ben Datro and Gideon Dwumfour are expected to return in time and could help SL Express make noise in the New Year Challenge.

Schedule

Wednesday, January 3rd 2018

9:30am: CRESTWOOD vs B.E.A.S.T.

11:15am: GTA PREP vs B.C. CHRISTIAN

1:00pm: CENTRAL TECH vs ST LAURENT

2:45pm: B.E.A.S.T. vs RNS

4:30pm: CRESTWOOD vs L.B.A.

6:15pm: T.B.A. vs HALIFAX PREP

Thursday, January 4th 2018

9:00am: CRESTWOOD vs ST LAURENT

10:45am: GTA PREP vs B.E.A.S.T.

12:30pm: ST LAURENT vs B.C. CHRISTIAN

2:15pm: CRESTWOOD vs HALIFAX PREP

4:00pm: CENTRAL TECH vs RNS

5:45pm: C.T.A. vs S.J.K.

7:30pm: T.B.A. vs L.B.A.

Friday, January 5th 2018

10:30am: ST LAURENT vs RNS

12:15pm: B.E.A.S.T. vs HALIFAX PREP

2:00pm: GTA PREP vs S.J.K.

3:45pm: L.B.A. vs C.T.A.

6:00pm: BC CHRISTIAN vs CENTRAL TECH

Saturday, January 6th 2018

10:30am: B.C. CHRISTIAN vs HALIFAX PREP

12:15pm: S.J.K. vs RNS

2:00pm: CENTRAL TECH vs C.T.A.

3:45pm: L.B.A. vs GTA PREP

All games will once again be live broadcasted at northpolehoops.com with commentary from the voices of the NPA including Jason Thom, Elias Sbiet, Tariq Sbiet and Nik Zefi.

Ottawa showed amazing support during the Battle in the Capital and now it’s Toronto and the entire GTA’s turn to come see what the NPA is all about.

12 teams, 22 games in four full days of high level basketball during the Holiday season.


Stay up to date with all scores and updates from the New Year Challenge by following @NPACanada and @NorthPoleHoops on Twitter!

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