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SchoolSports.com

6/28/05

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width="98%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Canton McKinley (Ohio) Captures AND 1 HBC title

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</TD><TD noWrap width=3></TD><TD vAlign=top>By Jon Mahoney
Date: Jun 27, 2005

Canton McKinley (Ohio) emerged victorious at the AND 1 High School Basketball Championship in Philly with a 78-68 victory over Artesia (Lakewood, Calif.) in Sunday's title game.
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The fourth annual AND 1 High School Basketball Championship (HBC) featured tremendous play from some of the nation’s top high school basketball programs. And after three days of intense competition during the finals this past weekend at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Canton McKinley (Ohio) trumped the competition en route to capturing the 2005 team championship.

The AND 1 HBC is viewed as the March Madness of high school hoops because if you lose once, you can’t win the title. McKinley was one of 10 regional winners at the finals, but it proved to be the best of the bunch with a 78-68 victory over Artesia (Lakewood, Calif.) in the championship game.

McKinley lost in last year’s semifinals to eventual tournament champion Dunwoody (Ga.), which lost to Rainier Beach (Wash.) in this year’s tourney. Unfortunately, Dunwoody was forced to play without star forward An’Juan Wilderness, who was at the NBA Camp.

Raymar Morgan, who was named tournament MVP, had a game-high 26 points and had 10 rebounds, three assists and three blocks in the win over Artesia. He added 17 points and nine boards in the Midwest I regional final win over Taft, which gave McKinley its third straight regional HBC title.

“His play all weekend long was exemplary,” said McKinley head coach David Hoover. “He’s just a great player who can do a lot of different things.”

Winning the HBC title capped off an amazing season for McKinley, which also won the 2005 Division I Ohio state title.

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