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College-Round-up: Deuce taking Storm stars to Greece for tourney

By Dylan Butler

St. John’s men’s basketball assistant coach Mike Jarvis II will lead a team of collegiate players, including Red Storm sophomores Kyle Cuffe and Willie Shaw, to Italy and Greece this week where the team will participate in the third annual Olympus Cup.

This is the second consecutive year Jarvis has worked with the U.S. team, serving as an assistant on last year’s gold medal-winning squad. This marks the first time in Jarvis’ career he will be serving as head coach.

“I’m excited about it,” he said. “We had a great trip last year and we’ve got a great group of kids. The teams are pretty good and I know it’s going to be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it and to being a head coach for the first time.”

Jarvis will be joined on the sidelines by Seton Hall assistant coach Brian Nash as well as Stony Brook assistant Brian Bianey.

Joining Cuffe and Shaw will be UCLA senior center Dan Gadzuric, Villanova junior forward Rickey Wright, forward Durelle Brown, who recently graduated from Manhattan College, sophomore forward Marcus Toney-El, Auburn sophomore guard Marquis Daniells Jr., Stony Brook sophomore guard Duwad Munir and sophomore guard Marlon Parmer from New Mexico.

After a pair of exhibition games Saturday and Monday against Latina, an Italian professional team, the team will depart for Thessaloniki, Greece, the site of the Olympus Cup. The tournament, which includes the Czech Republic, Fyrom — the Macedonian national team — Greece, Russia and Senegal, begins Thursday and will run through Sunday.

SJU’s Brown helps lead Big East All-Stars to 5-0 record in Germany

Red Storm junior guard Rasheedah Brown and the Big East Women’s Basketball All-Stars have improved to 5-0 with two wins over the weekend on their six-game tour of Germany.

In the team’s 79-41 romp of the German U-18 national team, Brown had two points and one rebound. Seton Hall’s Leslie Ardon led the way with 14 points and six boards.

The Big East squad followed that win with an 88-42 victory over Ludwigsburg BBC. Brown netted eight points in that victory while Sheila Stufflet led four players to score in double-figures with 14 points.

Under the direction of Syracuse head coach Marianna Freeman, the Big East All-Stars began their German tour with an 84-64 win over Bohn BBC June 13. Brown had six points and three rebounds.

In its second game, the Big East squad defeated Bohn again, 86-72, June 13 and then downed Bensberg last Thursday, 69-45. Brown had five points in each victory.

The Big East All-Stars wrapped up their tour Monday with another game against Ludwigsburg.

SJU’s Lebowitz Competes at U.S. Junior Nationals

St. John’s University sophomore Jenn Lebowitz posted a pair of top-20 finishes this weekend at the U.S. Junior Track & Field Championships, held at the Sports Backers Stadium in Richmond, Va.

Lebowitz competed in the 3,000-meter run and the 5,000-meter run.

She qualified for the 5K after running a personal-best 18:17.16 at the St. John’s Track & Field Classic in late April. In her freshman year, Lebowitz was the Metropolitan Champion in the 3,000-meter run and the 10,000-meter run.

On Saturday, she finished in 16th place in the 5,000-meter run, posting a time of 18:53.21.

Lebowitz finished her competition Sunday, taking 11th in the 3,000-meter run in 10:56.69.

Red Storm’s Scharf named Academic All-American

St. John’s tennis player Erik Scharf was named to the Verizon Spring At-Large Academic All-America University first team, it was announced last week.

Student-athletes must have a grade-point average of 3.2 or higher to be considered for the team. The first team is comprised of 15 student-athletes who competed in tennis, track and field and lacrosse.

Scharf, who carried a 3.94 GPA in theology and earned a 4.0 for five consecutive semesters, graduated as the all-time winningest player in St. John’s tennis history with 120 wins and 22 losses. He never lost a Big East match in four years and posted a 60-6 record in four years at the No. 1 position.

Scharf led the Red Storm to a 10-7 overall record, including a spot in the Big East tournament where the team finished fifth overall. He posted a record of 31-4 and reached the NCAA Singles Tournament for a second consecutive year. He finished the year ranked 79th nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at [email protected] or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.