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Son of Pervis Ellison not nervous about making a name for himself

Malik Ellison had 28 points to lead Life Center Academy to a win over Orangeville Prep Sunday at the Spalding Hoophall Classic.

Malik Ellison had 28 points to lead Life Center Academy to a win over Orangeville Prep Sunday at the Spalding Hoophall Classic.

A lot of former NBA players take a step back when their own son is a player, not wanting to seem to interfere with their son’s high school coach.

Pervis Ellison took a different route. He’s been his son Malik’s coach all through youth basketball and brought along many of Malik’s teammates to form the nucleus of Ellison’s high school team at Life Center Academy (Burlington, N.J.). On Sunday, Malik Ellison scored 28 points and had four steals to help lead the Warriors to a 60-54 defeat of Orangeville Prep (Orangeville, Ontario) on at the Spalding Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass.

“These guys have played with me since the fourth grade,” Pervis Ellison. “It’s been very gratifying to watch. We had 10 guys on that youth team and all ten of them will have Division I scholarships. That’s pretty unusual, so those guys work hard and it has paid off.”

For the son of a former 10-season NBA player, Malik, a 6-6 senior guard, is a little bit of an under-the-radar recruit, listed as the No. 156 player in the country in 247Sports.com’s composite rankings. It didn’t help him that he spent the beginning of the season on the sideline with a broken leg.

“The first couple of games back I had to shake the rust off,” he said. “As soon as the season kept going, I kept getting better and better. So I feel like I am 100% now.”

Some of the schools he’s considering include Minnesota, Temple, Maryland, Georgetown, Indiana,and  Creighton, though Georgetown and Indiana haven’t offered him yet.

Most notably absent from that list is Louisville,the school his father led to an NCAA title as a freshman.

“They’re a really good school,” he said. “But I don’t really want to follow in my dad’s footsteps. I want to be my own person.”

That doesn’t mean he minds having his father as a coach.

“He’s been everywhere I want to go to,” Malik said. “He cares a lot about me and other players. The down effect is he’s harder on me, but that’s just love.”

Huntington-St. Joseph Prep gets signature win

The Irish (18-2) began the season with 16 consecutive wins, but opened January with back-to-back losses to Quality Education (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Callaway (Jackson, Miss.).

Sunday, led by Curtis Jones’ 27 points (including seven three-pointers), No. 12 Huntington-St. Joseph Prep knocked off No. 20 Our Savior New American (Centereach, N.Y.) 75-57.

“He can shoot the hell out of the ball and they just kept leaving him open,” Irish  coach Arkell Bruce said. “When you leave guys who who can shoot the ball, they just do their job and shoot the ball.”

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