HOUSTON – Howard University men’s basketball head coach Kenneth Blakeney led Team Dick Barnett over Team Willis Reed, 113-99, in the second annual HBCU All-Star Game Sunday afternoon. The event took place at the prestigious Texas Southern University (TSU) H&PE Arena in Houston, live on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.
Team Barnett dominated the afternoon, shooting 17-of-35 from downtown and holding a double-digit advantage throughout the game.
Sunday’s game was a perfect opportunity to showcase skills to talent evaluators at the professional level with a mission to advocate, educate, expose, mentor and invest in HBCU student-athletes and coaches across the country.
“It’s such a great opportunity,” said Blakeney, HBCU All-Stars Ben Jobe NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year. “It’s such a wonderful student experience and it’s something the players will cherish forever. I am happy to play a small part of this and Travis Williams has done an amazing job.”
Comprised of some of the best HBCU men’s basketball student-athletes in the four HBCU NCAA Division I and II conferences in the country (MEAC, SWAC, CIAA & SIAC), along with INDEPENDENT schools Tennessee State; Hampton and North Carolina A&T State, the 24 selections were split into two 12-man teams for the historic game.
Maryland Eastern Shore forward Nathaniel Pollard, Jr. was named MVP after finishing with a double-double (13 boards and 10 points).
For Team Reed, TSU’s Joirdon Karl Nicholas put on a show for the home crowd one final time, producing 29 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.
While all the talent and action on the court was exciting, the true impact of the game happened off the court as several large donations to the HBCU Scholarship Fund were made during the broadcast.
For Blakeney, he has won several coaching honors, including BOXTOROW HBCU Coach of the Year, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and Eastern College Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. The D.C. native led the Bison to their first outright league regular season title since 1986-87, going 11-3 in conference play. On March 11, he guided HU to its first tournament championship since 1992 and a berth to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 31 years.
Ending their season with a 22-13 record, the Bison won both the conference tournament and the regular season championship, marking their fifth and fourth times winning them, respectively.
Source: Howard Athletics
