Merging cultures on the court

COEUR d’ALENE — When it came down to planning a trip to the United States, Marist College, a private prep academy in Canberra, Australia, found itself looking out west for a little bit of a change of pace.

Enter Genesis Prep of Post Falls.

“We’d had a few tours in the United States before and had some guys that had mentioned Genesis Prep,” Marist College coach Richard Aitchison said. “We went through some channels and had someone mention about going to the west coast. We played last night in Kittitas (Wash.) and this game kind of lined up, so we came through.”

“I think it’s a good thing,” Genesis Prep coach Marsell Colbert said. “It gets back down to building relationships. It’s nice to play someone from another culture. What’s cooler is that those players are going to stay in our players’ homes, have dinner and breakfast with them. I just think it’s a good thing and really good for the players. You get to experience life from a different perspective and culture. It’s cool to have the opportunity to play them.”

Marist continues its tour tonight at Rogers High in Spokane.

“We’ve got some of the boys doing home stay with the other boys (from Genesis Prep) tonight, so we’ll try to get out and experience what we can of the town tonight,” Aitchison said. “We’ll move out to another town tomorrow and have a game.”

As for Friday’s game, guard Jonny Hillman had 18 points, eight steals and five rebounds for the Jaguars in a 63-27 win over Marist at North Idaho College’s Rolly Williams Court.

“I think it’s really special to get the chance to see how other cultures work,” Hillman said. “To get to play against other kids, it’s a really cool opportunity and I know that we as a team appreciated it. Getting a chance to see something different, and how they play in Australia, was really cool.”

Some adjustments were needed for Marist when it came to the style of game, according to Aitchison.

“It’s a lot bigger (here) than what we’ve had,” Aitchison said of NIC’s Christianson Gym. “We’re used to running a 24-second shot clock and the 3-point line is a bit further back home. We’re trying to get our boys’ minds around that. They play at a quicker pace here. The boys we played tonight were a lot quicker and bigger than we were, and they played really well. It was a good experience overall.”

Genesis Prep led 44-6 at halftime.

“I saw a difference in our team and our approach,” said Colbert, whose team, the two-time defending state champions in 1A Division II, Idaho’s smallest classification, went 0-4 against much bigger schools at The Holiday Classic at Torrey Pines High in San Diego last weekend. “And that’s why we go to San Diego. We’re going to see things that we’re not going to see here during the regular season. There was some really good talent in San Diego, and tonight’s performance really showed the growth from Dec. 25 up until this point. We played against some really good teams down there.”

Kon Ajang had 17 points, four rebounds and two assists for Genesis Prep (3-6), which faces Bonners Ferry tonight at 7 at Post Falls Middle School.

Marist will continue playing games along the west coast before heading back to Australia on Jan. 14.

“We’re out of school the entire month of January,” Aitchison said. “We’ll head back to Portland and get to see some teams there.”

Forward Angus Gill scored nine points for Marist College.

Marist College 4 2 4 17 — 27

Genesis Prep 23 21 12 7 — 63

MARIST COLLEGE — Gill 9, Busing 2, Dunn 0, Saunders 5, Semenas 0, Carrick 4, Kendrick 6, Devow 0, Alder 1, Clark 0.

GENESIS PREP — Ajang 17, Peterson 0, Elonen 0, Mwinuka 2, Schultz 9, Neely 11, Hillman 18, Gonzales 4, Bohannan 2.